Turning Down A Free Vacation

My Mom texted me the other day asking if I had already bought my tickets to work from her house for 2 weeks this summer. I replied that it’s only 6 months away so of course I have 🙂 . She said that she’d like to treat me to a long spa weekend in Phoenix during my time there. Continue reading “Turning Down A Free Vacation”

Frugal Mini Travel: Camping

We recently added a new hobby to our permanent repertoire. The stereotype of a Seattleite is a crunchy, liberal, outdoors person…and I must admit that’s pretty much accurate 🙂 . In Manhattan weekend activities included going to bars, going to bottomless mimosa brunch and complaining about your week. It was a bit of culture shock when we moved to Seattle because weekends are completely different. Continue reading “Frugal Mini Travel: Camping”

I Don’t Regret Spending $7,000 On A Plane Ticket

Now hold on! Hear me out. My Mom came to Seattle for my birthday and we started talking about money – as usual 🙂 . My favorite. My partner commented that while his values and spending have never really changed – mine have. And he cited as as example me spending $7,000 for a $21,000 roundtrip First Class ticket on the luxury airline Emirates to the Maldives while in my second year in NYC. While we were talking I realized something shocking: I don’t regret buying that plane ticket. Despite it being 35% of my current budget I don’t regret what I did. Let’s go back in time and investigate why. Continue reading “I Don’t Regret Spending $7,000 On A Plane Ticket”

How I Saved $1,912 With Travel Hacking In 2017

This year I flew to:

  • Disneyland LA
  • Phoenix
  • Maine
  • Thailand
  • Atlanta
  • Upstate New York
  • Atlanta for Christmas
  • (Planned) Singapore in February 2018
  • (Planned) Ecuador in May 2018
Most of these trips have been domestic and I was able to find cheap flights so travel hacking was not necessary or beneficial. I also took understandably less trips since I was employed the whole year 🙂 (the horror!) Still, I was able to decrease my costs in the following ways:

Continue reading “How I Saved $1,912 With Travel Hacking In 2017”

More Reasons I Want To Retire

One of my favorite bloggers at ThinkSaveRetire.com retired in December. His wife just retired and they’re setting ‘sail’ in their Airstream to tour the country full time. He tweeted that he’s already starting to hate weekends because there are all these people at their campground when it was lovely and empty throughout the week. That got me thinking: that’s a whole other reason to retire. I’ve only ever gone places when everyone else is there. Spring break, Christmas break, Weekends. What would it be like to be able to live my entire life off-peak? To hike famous mountains with no one around on a Monday morning? That sounds absolutely amazing to me. Continue reading “More Reasons I Want To Retire”

How I Saved $27,007.38 With Travel Hacking In 2016

I’ve increased my travel hacking ability this year. With this year’s labor I will enjoy $27,007.38 worth of travel for free and been able to have insane and luxurious travel experiences that I did not at all associate with frugality. With these bookings I’ll be visiting: Continue reading “How I Saved $27,007.38 With Travel Hacking In 2016”

Transition Complete: NYC to Seattle

It’s been a while. A little over two months since I’ve last written. It’s been a wild ride. I am now sitting in an office completing my fifth week of work with the best client and team I’ve ever had. We are almost fully moved into our apartment. All that is left is putting paintings on the wall.
Continue reading “Transition Complete: NYC to Seattle”

Apparently I’m A Business Owner

When I learned that Delta had increased their bonus on their SkyMiles credit cards to 50,000 points after spending $2,000 in 3 months from 30,000 points I was initially disappointed since I had applied for and received a personal Delta credit card in December and according to their rules would not be approved if I applied again. Continue reading “Apparently I’m A Business Owner”