Archive for the ‘Spending’ Category

Sensible Pointers for Planning Affordable Getaways

July 27th, 2008 Vijaianand

This year seems to be an expensive vacationing year for me inspite of price increases all over the board. First Mexico cruise, second Chicago Road Trip and now 5 day trip to LA&LV. I guess, I am one of those country men who is really helping the economy by spending as our President wished.



What can I say? Sometimes things just happen in auto pilot mode and we don’t have any control over it. Fortunately, my short term savings funds is really came in handy to bail me out. I am not here to talk about Short Term savings plans at this time.



I also don’t want to bore with you all with detail trip report like usual. I decided to give a shorter version by listing some important tips and tricks for getaway planning.



A month ago, we went to multi-city vacation from Houston to LA – LV – Grand Canyon. This one was a planned to entertain my in-laws who came long way from India for couple of months. I booked the tickets way in advance(3 months ago) before the oil prices started sky-rocketing pushing the air ticket price way high. Thats were advance planning always helps out.

Here is my list of pointers which will surely makes some money sense for your vacation plans.


1. Multi-City Vacation Planning


Many of you know that planning a mulati-city getaway is a tricky one. There is a great deal of complexity on booking air tickets and car rentals. I still tried (only orbitz.com has this functionality)starting the vacation from (LA) one place and leaving another (LV). It not only costed little more and didn’t really work out. So I dropped that plan and started out to do the usual way of starting and ending at same place and rented the car to travel to places.


I need to pick the right starting point comparing the mileages and days spent in each place. I started at LA (2days), gone to LV(2 days) and travelled to Grand canyon from there for a day to LV and then back to LA to board the flight. I picked LA starting point because I got a better air ticket deal compared to Las vegas. You need to figure out which is a best way to do it in your case.


** – Plan your multi-city vacation by taking the air ticket deals and mileage into account. Be flexible to change your plans.


2. Use Credit Card Points As I mentioned, I booked the tickets way in advance before the airlines started charging for baggages and increase fuel surcharges. I got cool deal of $284 round trip. I also combined my free ticket which I bought using my credit card score points savings my ticket charges ($300). Thats always a good thing.

Many of my friends travel a lot for their projects. I always envyed them for racking up their sky miles which gives out free air tickets all the time. But I was able to do with my DCU visa card only after 5-6 years accumulating points to get to 40,000 to buy a free roundtrip ticket.

My price, $823.50 for 4 people including a free infant on lap and free ticket using credit card points.


**- Do check your credit card points if you are not a frequent flyer. Use them and save money during tough times. Don’t just use points to buy unwanted/small things and try to store up for big items.


3. Look out for Hotel deals


Once you booked your air tickets, next big item in the list is to book lodging. Try to check out for package deals or cheap week days prices. Most of time, if you book 3 days together you will be able to save good money. Also I use to save money by staying away from the hot spots. Now with high gas price you really need to compare how much you are saving by staying away and how much gas expense.


Also you will find good cheaper Studio Rooms during the weekends and may be during week days. You might not get free continental breakfast but you can eat better breakfast from the money you save on deals.

The best website, I would recommend is Hotels.com It is far better than other sites with lot more deals, cheaper compared to Orbitz, hotwire or Priceline. It also has got lot more options to compare and check reviews before you make your decision.


My price $110 for 2 days for 4 people in LA, $135 for 3 days for 4 people in LV – average $250/5 days for 4 people.


** Do check different website for deals, compare the rates&reviews before making the decision. Don’t just book if you see cheaper hotels, they might not be really good.





I will continue the rest of my tips and tricks in my next blog, until then have a great week!!

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Road trip Vs Flying – Which is the best option ? – Final Part

June 17th, 2008 Vijaianand

Howdy folks?! It’s your money matters man, Vijai back after 2 weeks of break trying to get into the groove of blogging. Today is July 1st, my special month as and Six months just vanished from this year calendar and so far its been a worse year in all extents for lot of folks.



Stock market hitting new lows every day, oil price sky rocketing expecting to see $5 per gallon real soon in Houston, all essential day-to-day items like egg, milk, bread just keep on going up on price. Airline tickets are now untouchable with charges on check-in bags even for the first one making the vacation really unafforadable. It seems life is getting really tough to manage with the same paycheck which used to get a year ago to summarize it all.



But what to do life must go on and we just have to go ahead with our plans. I happened to plan my vacations at the wrong year. You can’t just walk away on planned trips in which you already spent chunk of money on tickets. Its been an expensive year nevertheless a memorable one.



As I mentioned in my last blog post, we went to Los Angeles and Las vegas a week ago and had a great time. It was so hot around 107 F but we still get to do whatever we planned to do. But I one thing I am really amazed. Man, I don’t know how the people live in those cities paying $4.75 per gallon gas already. Anyway, I will talk more about the money aspect of the trip to share my experience.



Let me get on the pending part of my Road Trip Vs Flying series.




II. Action


All the plans never really matter if you don’t take any actoin. So i got to work. I checked my car’s tire pressure the day before the trip. I also filled up the gas on the day of the trip and reset my trip meter to track mileage for every tank filling. I also have another trip meter which I reset to track the total mileage travelled in whole trip. We were all set to embark on a exciting road trip packed with everything possible to have a great time.



We took few stop overs to fill our stomach and gas. My wife saved some by packing some lunches from home. After 15 hours of drive, we finally reached St.Louis at my long time friend’s house. We had great dinner at his place. He is so grateful to cook some nice indian dinner which is what we just needed.



Next day, we went on a day trip to check out at St. Louis. We first went to Gateway Arch and took the tram trip to go to the top for $10/ person. That wasn’t bad price for a very fantastic view. I was so amazed how they build a tram to on a arch. Thats really some engineering. Then we went Busch Brewry which had a free tour. It was already late afternoon and evening we visited the Hindu temple with my friend. We had a great authentic Thai food at Thai Kitchen – Maryland Heights, St. Louis. It was real good food. I highly recommend checking it out if you happen to be at that place.



We stayed that night at his place and started the next day. I was happy it all worked with my friends schedule. It’s nice to see him after a long time and also his new house and I even end up saved lodging and food for a day. We started the next day morning and reach Chicago Suburb on Thrusday afternoon. I saw my cousin and his wife first time. I also met my aunt and uncle who came from India. We just took it easy after and spent rest of the day and next day evening we went to another famous Hindu Temple in Chicago. It is my tradition and sort of wish to atleast go to as many temple in US wherever I go.



On Saturday, we went to Chicago downtown with my sister who came from CT with her family. I am also seeing her first time after she came to US. We took the metro train from a nearby station and purchased $5 day pass which is worked out cheaper and also have access to metro bus in Downtown. We got there after an hour train journey and started embaring on some featured items listed by my cousin. Millennium park topped on my list.

We checked out Magic Bean, new stadium nearby and some interesting artifacts. We had an expensive but no so good italian lunch at The Village in Downtown. It was the first ever Italian restaurant which I would rate only 1 out of 5 and not satisfied after spending $12 per head. We then head out other way to see Fountain and Lake Michigan. To top it all off, we went to John Hancock tower which was recommend compare to Sears Tower to get a good view. It was $15/person for general admission. It was a Spectacular view of Chicago both city and lake on the other side. That ended the day.




Sunday was busy day with formal Baby Shower for my cousin’s wife. We all great fun on the occasion. As planned I left Sunday evening after the Babyshower at around 4:30pm, drove for 6 hours and night stop at the Super 8 motel on the way which I already booked for $65 a night in hotels.com. We started back again on the road around 6:45am on Monday. As usual stopped for gas and noted the mileages and filled our stomach eating a nice chinese buffet lunch for just $6.99 on the way. We safely reached Houston around 9pm.



III. Perfect (Fun) Vacation



We really enjoyed our roadtrip. Especially my wife had a fun vacation. We spent good time together on the road, talking and sharing about our family, careers, and many things. We also got see my friend, my family together after a long time.



Final Expense List

Gas- $375

Lodging – $175 (saved a day staying in my friends place)

Food – $ 125

Other expenses – $50

Total – $725


If I choose to go by Air, ticket itself would have been $400 * 2 + Car Rental 5 days – weekly rental $150 + Food $125 + other expenses $50 = apx $1125



I saved some good amount of money and at same time had good time driving with my family. I also get to visit my friend and see St.Louis which is a bonus. Overall, Road trip never fail to entertain you if you plan it out well.



To conclude, its always good to go on a roadtrip if you have

(1) Good amount of time to kill,

(2) less time to book the flight ticket and

(3) well maintained car with an average 25-30 miles per gallon.



It will work out much cheaper and sure to have a fun vacation. I definetly recommend my blog readers to reconsider your plans for fun roadtrip after reading this post.

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Road trip or Flying – What is the best option? – Part 2

June 10th, 2008 Vijaianand

Last week I started a blog post sharing my latest road trip experience in a way to show to avoid getting riped off during this hot high gas price season and still have a good time going on a road trip. Let me get right into the topic as you all been waiting for a week. I talked about doing a Research before you making the decision. Obviously, next step is Decision making.



2. Decison Making



I questioned myself with 3 important questions that eventually helped me to make a decision.



1. Is Roadtrip going to work out cheaper than Flying with hotel expense on the way?


Yes. It is going to work out atleast 30-40% cheaper even after taking the High gas price into account. Last minute deals also came out higher than road trips. Also road trips are for many reasons like packing, taking big gifts and even packing sleeper bags incase we need it. For everything road trip
seems to be the way to go.



2. Do I have enough time to drive to – fro and also have time for sightseeing? Is it going to be relaxing vacation?

Yes, if I properly plan. I know Chicago is 20 hours one way(1200 miles via Baton Rouge to avoid slow traffic via Dallas which maps suggest)from houston. Its almost a day to drive down one way which is really tiring. Since I have a week on my hand, I am afford to spend a 2 days for travel. Also If I do proper planning and take breaks on time, I surely can avoid tiredness and have a good time inspite of long hour driving.



3. Can I take advantage of this road trip to spend a day or two on the way for sightseeing and see few more places?


That would add as a bonus for taking road trip. But it’s going to add up on expense. Its worth it as we spend hours and money to travel that far. I also remembered about my friend who is in St. Louis who is been inviting to come down. It is actually on the way to Chicago. If I check with him, I should be able to drop by and take a break in his place saving both lodge and food expense on one way and at same time check out St. Louis.



After answering these questions, I was more than convinced road trip is turning out to be better option especially seeming to work out well on longer trips. It’s not going to be cheap like a years ago but its affordable, cheaper than flying for last minute. So I stopped wasting time on finding flight deals.


3. Planning



I started out planning for the trip. If my memory serves better, everytime I plan on big things I use a technique called “Visualization”. Actually I been using this technique all along for years without even knowing its technical name happen to know recently.


It is simple and an easy routine. Let me sketch it out real quick. You just start to visualize the whole trip step by step starting from the day you leave and every other day. Do one day at a time and jot down the points or things you need or wanted to get it done. If you just follow and do what I said, you surely won’t miss a thing. Visualization is a key aspect I always recommended to people to use it on any occasions during planning.


I visuvalized and noted like essential things needed (car, hotels, maps, directions, places planning to go and so on.



For road trip, obviously I need a reliable car to travel long distance. Since I have my 3 year old Honda Accord with just 38000 miles which is in good condition and capable of minimum 30 miles per gallon. So I just striked it in my list.


Next, I started finding hotels for the main destination(Chicago). When I was searching for hotels, I was looking for a reasonable(2-3 star), affordable($50 max/day), convinent(with needed amenties), and closest(to save on gas) to my cousins place.

I tried on hotels.com, priceline.com to find some hotel deals. Hotels.com seems to be atleast $3-$5 cheaper and also have better hotels options on the list. I found hotels from best (5 star) to better (4-3 star) and good (2-1 star) ratings. I am ok with 2 star as I am not going to stay all day. It’s just for sleep and getting ready in the moring. I found a great deal with 20% discount on a Travelodge Motel for just $45/day but its only for one person. Its a tricky deal. They give you 20% off but add on price for additional person. I called the hotel directly and confirmed the usual occupancy of 2 person/room. So I gone ahead and booked for one person and plan to pay if needed when I get there.


I also booked for hotels to stay to take break while we come back for $60/day in Super 8 motel at hotels.com. That completes all the lodging needs. I did research on places to go in St. Louis and took print outs. I am also planned on few places to go in Chicago and decided to check with my cousin when I get there. I checked with my friend who just went on a Kentucky road trip and found alternate route to avoid traffice. I took all the maps and directions print outs.


By taking care of hotel bookings and sight seeing, Planning process is done. I still have to few more tips to share with you all and this post already too long. You have to wait for the next post. Before I even finish this post, I am leaving for another trip. I am going to Las vegas for 5 day vacation with my family. This time, I am flying as I planned this trip well in advance. Will share all about it later and I should be back next week to post the last of this series.

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