We haven't left home yet, but decided that our frugal holiday started today anyway.
F had two soccer games (tied one, won one) and afterward we went down to Albuquerque for dinner. Vietnamese! Yum! We decided to eat out because we won't be eating out much on our holiday next week. The food isn't very good where we're going, so we have hotel rooms with microwaves and fridges and we'll be bringing our own food.
Tomorrow we'll go back to Albuquerque to see Beauty and the Beast in IMAX 3d. And eat out again. This is part of our holiday, too.
We leave officially on Wednesday, and now I'm thinking we're very smart because that's when the weather up here turns cold. It'll be in the mid 70s down south, so we'll follow the good weather.
Hotel rooms are all FREE. My mom had points and gave them to us for two nights, and we had a free night at a Marriott hotel for the third night. Both hotels have free wifi and pools and breakfast in the morning.
Petsitting - all done by friends for FREE taking turns. We'll bring them each back something small (freeze-dried ice cream from the space museum? some alien thing from Roswell?).
We'll need to pay for fuel, admission to White Sands (but we have our sleds ready!), admission to Carlsbad Caverns and probably a parking fee at the Petroglyphs. I think the solar observatory is free.
I'm pretty happy to have a vacation... It's been a long weird winter. And we're $12,910 from paying off the mortgage. I can see the finish line, and I don't want to lose momentum, so frugal is key right now.
Are you going anywhere for Spring Break?
Frugal Holiday Starts... Now!
March 19th, 2017 at 02:24 am
March 19th, 2017 at 02:29 am 1489890574
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March 19th, 2017 at 05:00 am 1489899637
March 19th, 2017 at 12:52 pm 1489927929
March 19th, 2017 at 01:19 pm 1489929545
What will you do to mark the Mortgage Free event? I wish we had done something symbolic to note the occasion as neither DH nor I remember the date. I merely used the mortgage portion of the monthly sum to increase an existing automatic MF allocation. It never felt different!
Our current municipality wants property tax collected as fast as possible so instituted an automatic, monthly, payment program that gives homeowners a small annual discount to participant. We've always paid home insurance annually along with annual vehicle insurance for the discount that arrangement offers.
Really like the idea of a cruise to celebrate spring break. We've just returned jet lagged and exhausted. I'm barely through with a laundry and vacuuming. Need to go to grocery, meanwhile meals are direct from deep freeze and box of oranges the neighbour brought along with a giant box of mail
March 19th, 2017 at 01:49 pm 1489931386
March 20th, 2017 at 03:57 am 1489982243
PNM Mom - Jealous of the mediterranean cruise - what ports? You can pack me in a suitcase!
Alice4Now - where are you going in the Southwest? There are so many great places. I forget because we live here... it's strange how stuff close to home sometimes doesn't seem "different" enough or something.
As for the mortgage-free event - yes! Definitely going to do SOMETHING. I need to start thinking about it. Some of the money is spoken for (tuition and IRAs) but the rest - not sure. I am not counting the taxes and insurance; I will continue to save for those. We both agreed our lifestyle doesn't need any adjusting. We are happy living frugally! But I never did the 50th bday party - so maybe a combined 50/Mortgage Free party? I'll still be 50 when it's paid off!
March 25th, 2017 at 02:33 am 1490409238