I’ve mentioned before that we are debt free. We decided early in our marriage that we would STAY debt free (not including a mortgage. Some day we will have a mortgage, if the timing is right.) The decisions we made that helped us be debt free from the beginning were hard decisions. We lived with my parents for two years, we saved the money it required to build our home. Then we actually BUILT our home.
When G was first diagnosed with colitis and given his strict grain free diet, we were stuck between a VERY big rock and VERY hard place. He works out of a truck. Sometimes he doesn’t even see a restaurant… but let’s face it. Even if he did, a restaurant meal a day (especially of the gluten free variety) is gonna get pretty expensive pretty quick.
How often do we spend money on frivolous things without even considering that they are frivolous? Writing 10 Things I Quit Buying (to Save Money) really made me think hard about that. It didn’t take me long to come up with ten things I STILL spend money on that are “wants” and not “needs”.
I never, ever, thought of Hawaii as a budget destination. Especially with the current weak Canadian dollar. But we chose Hawaii last year as our budget vacation spot, and for the same reason we chose it again this year! Hawaii did NOT disappoint. We spent under $3000 Canadian dollars total each time we went, for 10 days. That’s less $1500 per person!
Travel Hacking is becoming such a popular phrase. Especially in the budget travel world. I get it – I mean, who doesn’t want to travel for FREE? And possibly travel in style for free?
On the off chance that it’s a new to you phrase, Travel Hacking is the (refined) art of using credit card rewards and membership point programs to travel for FREE. It is legal. It works. It can be complicated.