In the last post we shared that we became Debt Free November 2017 and had travel plans for 2018. We had a wedding in Florida in January 2018, trip to see friends in Florida in May 2018, anniversary trip to Barcelona in July 2018 and a Family Reunion in August 2018. Looking at all those trips we knew we needed to save up cash to go. Once you get out of debt, the discipline you cultivated during the process does not go away. We knew we NEVER wanted to go back into debt again and we had sinking funds for the trips and budgets for how much we wanted to allocate for spending.
January 2018 – Miami, FL (Budget $1000)
We knew for the wedding it would be a short weekend trip because we both had to go back to work. We decided we wanted to stay at a nice hotel because we hadn’t taken a true vacation from the time we started the debt free journey until we paid off our last debt. We set aside $1000 for the trip. Because we knew we’d have the cash right away we didn’t have to create a sinking fund. Sinking funds are line items you create to set money aside each month for a vacation, car, utilities, etc. You create the budget for the trip and divide the total into the number of months you want to save for. Once you have the funds saved you purchase what you need for the trip – plane tickets, book hotel rooms (most you don’t have to pay until the stay is over), rental car (pay when trip is over) then go on your trip. For the trips to Orlando, Barcelona and Jamaica we did create sinking funds.
Example: Trip to Hawaii – $4000, Date: January 2020
February 2019 – $364
March 2019 – $364
April 2019 – $364
May 2019 – $364
June 2019 – $364
And you keep setting aside money each month until you have the $4000 less the plane tickets you should buy before you go. Building habits like these helps you 1. understand delayed gratification, 2. build discipline, 3. enjoy the trip even more because you’ll have everything paid for and the cash to enjoy. Budgeting doesn’t take away freedom, it gives you the freedom to enjoy stress free.
We bought tickets through Frontier Airlines right before our last debt payment. All the rest of the money we set aside at the end of December. We stayed at the Winter Haven, Autograph Collection right across from the beach in Miami. We rented a car from Avis using points I’d earned while working. While staying at the hotel we were invited to a timeshare presentation (I wouldn’t recommend getting a timeshare) that would pay us $150 to attend. Who doesn’t want free money?
Before we bought anything we set our budget for the trip – no more than $1000 for the entire trip.
Plane Tickets: $379.80
Hotel: $364.80
Rental Car: $29.40
Gas: $40
Food: $200
Total: $1014
Time Share Visit: +$150
Thanks to the immediate payment for attending the Timeshare presentation we actually spent only $50 of our own money on food and the $150 we used for food for the rest of the trip. This was our first trip debt free and it felt so good coming home and knowing that there was no bill to pay, nothing to worry about coming on a credit card. We got home and went back to life as normal. It was a new experience for us and it felt good.
May 2018 – Orlando, FL (Budget $1700)
We planned a visit to our friends in Orlando because we hadn’t seen them since February of 2016 and their son is our godson. We love them dearly and wanted to see how our godson was growing and catch up with them in person. One of the blessings of attending Andrews was that we made friends who moved all over the country that we would be able to visit and get some travel in. We knew this particular trip would cost more than we wanted to spend because it was over the Memorial Day holiday and in Orlando – Disney World Central. However, in budgeting for this trip we wanted to set aside more money than we thought we’d need just in case. We stayed at the Hampton Inn because, FREE breakfast (money saver) and it was literally a 5 min drive to our friends apartment (gas saver). Our friends cooked dinner for us twice while we were there (who doesn’t love good home cooked food!) and we ended up not spending as much money on food as we thought we would. Rental car was cheaper than normal thanks to again points earned through work. We stayed under budget thanks to planning. This trip was a delight because we shared with our friends that we were pregnant! There will be a few posts about our pregnancy journey later.
Plane Tickets: $748.80
Hotel: $391.71
Rental Car: $70.39
Gas: $100
Food: $250
Total: $1560.90
Both of these trips were such fun and it was good to catch up with family and friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. It’s important to remember both during your debt free journey if you choose to travel or after you pay off all your debt that budgeting is still key. It is very easy to slip back into debt if your mindset is now that we don’t owe anyone anything we can do whatever we want. That’s not the case. Getting out of debt isn’t a pass to now spend all your hard earned money. Getting out of debt is a chance now to save, invest and spend wisely. These two trips we that took were the cheaper ones and domestic. In the next post we’ll share how we planned for the two international trips that we took to Barcelona and Jamaica.
Do you have any trips coming up that you need to save for? Have you used sinking funds before or need to start using them? Have you traveled without having to pay any bills when you get back home?
