Evolving Personal Finance » travel
Winter 2012 Travel Plans
Last night Kyle and I booked our Christmas flights! Against my wishes, we have fallen into an every-other-year visitation pattern with our parents regarding Christmas, and this is a California year. I’ve been checking prices for about six weeks and the prices were far higher than I expected. I always strive to buy cross-country flights for around $400 but they were around $550-600. Finally last night we were able to score flights for under $400 by … Read entire article »
Filed under: targeted savings, travel
Choosing Our Own Destination
I couldn’t have imagined this two years ago but it seems to have arrived: Kyle and I have zero pending wedding invitations! And not even any engaged friends to whose weddings we are confident we will be invited. We love attending weddings and especially love attending weddings to which we need to travel because that almost always means we get to see far-flung friends. We RSVP yes whenever we possibly can and regret all the weddings … Read entire article »
Filed under: travel
Job-Seeking Expenses
Kyle and I attended a seminar last week where a panel of postdocs/new faculty members gave advice on finding a postdoc position. When they were talking about interviewing, one of them mentioned that the potential advisors he interviewed with tended to pay for either the flight or hotel expenses but not both. The others on the panel concurred that only about half of their travel expenses were paid on average. That was shocking to me! When … Read entire article »
Fall Wedding in Canada Financials
Last weekend Kyle and I went to the wedding of one of our graduate school friends in her hometown of Hamilton, ON, Canada. This trip was not nearly as frugal as our trip to Chicago earlier in the summer because we flew, which in itself is more expensive than road-tripping plus we weren’t able to bring our food with us. In fact, we made some poor food choices because of hunger and convenience and such. Here’s … Read entire article »
Toeing into the E in EPF
I thought I’d take this Friday post to update you all on the random money goings-on around the EPF household. We are gearing up for our first financial transition, moving from the apartment Kyle’s lived in for 5 years (and I for 2 years) to a townhouse that’s both cheaper and closer to school and church. In addition we’ve had some other small bumps in the road and changes and are looking forward to some … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, targeted savings, transitions, travel
Family Beach Vacation
Kyle and I spent last week vacationing in the Outer Banks with my parents and siblings. My family used to rent a beach house for a week every summer, many times in the Outer Banks, but we haven’t been on this type of vacation together in over 10 years, so it was rather a blast from the past. My parents had no expectations of financial contributions from us for this vacation, which was wonderful – this … Read entire article »
Filed under: travel
Why We’re Not Getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Even Though It’s a Great Deal
I’ve heard such great things about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card over the last few months – especially the signup bonus! Plenty of bloggers who track this sort of thing have highly recommended it. Top Ten Reviews Daily Markets Nerdwallet Finance Product Reviews The signup bonus for the Chase Freedom card definitely influenced us to get it, but we also knew that we would continue using it for its highlighted rewards categories and it has actually become our primary card. … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards, travel
Super-Frugal Chicago Trip
Kyle and I succeeded in taking a very frugal trip to Chicago two weeks ago! We didn’t have a hard ceiling on spending exactly, though we did estimate our costs a couple months in advance to help us decide if we could commit to the trip. As flights were about $300 per person leading up to the RSVP date, we decided that we would drive there, trading time for money. I took the first stab at … Read entire article »
Filed under: travel
Have You Ever Canceled a Flight?
Last week one of my relatives told me that he was considering canceling a flight within 12 hours before take-off – a flight that had been purchased only a week or two before. I know that this relative has bought and canceled flights several times in the past as his whims change – and these flights are not purchased with credit card rewards but with real money. I was very surprised he was considering doing … Read entire article »
Filed under: travel
Strategies for Paying for Vacations
Kyle and I committed to attend the black tie wedding in Chicago that I’ve mentioned a few times. In addition to attending the wedding itself, we are going to make it a long weekend to see some of our good friends who live there as well as sight-see as we have never been to Chicago before. We are excited to make some amazing memories! Financially, though, the trip is going to be a stretch. We haven’t … Read entire article »
Filed under: found money, luxuries, travel
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