Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "travel"
December 2014 Money Puddle and Spending Report
December is always a crazy month between gifts, travel, and socializing, and this year was no exception. We spent two full weeks in California with Kyle’s parents in December, which obviously threw off our food and transportation spending quite a bit. Right before the end of our visit, we both got sick – me with a stomach bug and Kyle with a head cold. My stomach bug caused us to do some ‘emergency’ spending that … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Easy Travel Redemption with the Barclaycard World Arrival MasterCard
Last week we redeemed the sign-up bonus on my Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® – Earn 2x on All Purchases for $425 toward a flight we had recently bought to California. The whole time I’ve been learning about and using this card I kept asking myself “Is it really that easy? Where’s the catch?” This post is my report from the other side of the redemption process and let me tell you, it really is easy and … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards
December 2013 Month in Review: Money
Given that this was December, we actually had a pretty normal spending month. We bought all of our Christmas presents, but the cost was reimbursed out of our Travel and Personal Gifts account, as was our spending on gas to get to my parents’ house for the holidays. Our discretionary spending was remarkably close to 100% across all five categories. We had an unusual number of miscellaneous purchases this month, but they were all fairly … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
June 2013 Month in Review: Money
We did an excellent job sticking to our budget this month! We came in under budget in every single category! Plus we had a big-spending month from our targeted savings, so months like these really validate why we have those accounts in place. We paid for much of our July 4 trip to Madison, WI as well as a quick drive up to northern Virginia. The Everyday Budget Top-line items INCOME: Our paychecks from our university plus $172.40 from … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
May 2013 Month in Review: Money
We had a pretty good month! Nothing too out of the ordinary. We overspent our grocery budget but it was made up for by underspending in a few other categories. Our trip to Boston wasn’t very expensive at all and we got a bunch of great experiences out of it so it was high in value. We had more side income than we usually do. Our cash is getting really, really high, people! I wish we … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 26May2013
Phew! We’ve had a busy week! And we’ve hardly had time to recover! Last Sunday and Monday we were in Boston for a wedding. Right when we got into RDU on Monday we drove to a Memorial Day cookout – we were thankful for the hot ready meal! We were back at work Tuesday through Thursday, including attending a 4-hour seminar on negotiation and problem solving, focused on hiring negotiations. On Wednesday night we had small group as usual. On Thursday we went to a young professionals event at our church, where we got a free meal and SQUARE DANCED for about an hour! It was so much fun! Then on Friday we heard the North Carolina Symphony play movie music at a free outdoor concert. On Saturday morning we drove to northern Virginia … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
Long-Distance Marriage: Travel and Advice
This is the fourth installment of our series on financially navigating a long-distance marriage. Please read and comment on the first, second, and third installments as well! Our final post in this series on the impact of long-distance marriage on finances covers visits and advice. It made sense combine these two categories since much of the advice was on travel itself! Many of the couples emphasized the importance of regular visits, even at the expense of other … Read entire article »
Attend Weddings But Don’t Go into Debt
Wedding season is upon us! I love marriage and I love attending weddings to spend time with and support our friends and family. That’s why I initially felt sympathy for Christopher Sledzik, the face that CNN put on its recent article on the rising cost of wedding attendance and the pressure friends and family feel to attend. Like Sledzik, we are also 27 and in the last three years have devoted all our vacation time … Read entire article »
Filed under: choices, credit cards, debt, marriage, savings, targeted savings, travel
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 1Apr2013
Kyle and I have been in CA since Wednesday and are flying home tonight. It’s been a quick trip, but we’ve been able to spend a lot of time with Kyle’s parents and aunt and uncle and saw some other family and friends briefly as well. Last Sunday we had our busy Easter morning and brunch and then watched our team get demolished in the Elite Eight (I’m still not over that injury – holy cow). I spent all of Monday and Tuesday preparing for a presentation I gave to our collaborator’s lab meeting on Tuesday afternoon. The meeting went well and I had a good conversation with my advisor in which we agreed that I will write a grant (for the experience) and take some other career-prep steps. During this trip … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
March 2013 Month in Review: Money
While last month was characterized by super-stress, this one has been characterized by super-fun! My prelim was on March 4 and I’ve been having a great time since then getting back to work. Kyle and I also both had additional presentations to give to various audiences this month, so our work has been more slide-making and reflecting on previous work than generating new data. We hosted a lot of social stuff this month, which was costly … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
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