Unlike, most of mankind I don’t really care for traveling. It doesn’t get me excited. But I would like to have a fun, inexpensive, low maintenance 2-3 day getaway with my two daughters.
Show Me the Money
Jamie has generously offered to cash in all the change he’s been hoarding over the last several years to use as vacation money for the four of us.
Take a look:
It’s kind of hard to tell in the picture but this is a huge jar! So I’m only guessing, but I think there’s at least $500 in there.
Please Don’t Tell Me to Use Rewards Credit Cards
Over 99.999999% of the personal finance blogs I follow have at least one post a week telling you why you should sign up for a rewards credit card for vacation. #nothanks
Since I’m told so much that I need a rewards credit card I’d figure I’d tell you why it’s never going to happen.
I don’t care about travel. I could care less about traveling to far off and exotic places. Really, I don’t care. Maybe it’s just because I like where I live but I’d rather be at home. You can call me boring but I’m just being true to myself.
I’m not signing up for twenty cards. So do you wonder how all these bloggers are getting free vacations every 2-3 months? It’s definitely not from one card. What you probably don’t know is that they sign up for 10-20 cards, maybe even more.
Can you imagine trying to track 10-20 credit cards? You’d have to figure whether you’ve met the spending requirement for each, pay off the monthly balances each time (because if don’t pay them off and are charged interest you just cancelled out all the card rewards), and cancel the card before the annual fee hits. That’s a lot of freakin work.
Credit Cards Make You Spend More. Sure credit cards don’t make everybody spend more, just the majority of the population. And it’s not by a small number either (12-18%.) Don’t believe me? Check out this study.
So if you’re subconsciously spending more money because you’re using a credit card you could have just saved the difference and paid for your vacation with cash. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about keeping up with a dozen cards.
My Expenses Aren’t Enough. My budget (not including taxes) doesn’t drift off far past the $1600/month. I’d have a super hard time meeting the minimum spending requirements on one card let alone 10.
So if you have a low expense lifestyle you’re really not going to bank on credit card points.
Sorry I just had to get all that in there.
I don’t what you to think that it’s not possible to use credit card rewards to fund vacations, because obviously it is.
I just don’t want you to jump in and sign up for ten credit cards at once and then get screwed. It’s very risky and attention to detail is absolutely crucial. You need to manage those credit cards like it’s a business.
Most people don’t have the discipline to do that. I know I don’t.
Funding Vacation with Cash
Since I don’t want to deter my savings the whole plan is to just cash in all the change we can find between the two of us.
I’m pretty confident that it’s going to be in the $500-$600 range. (But then I’m completely guessing so I could be way off.)
So the things I’ve thought of so far include
-camping (or renting a cabin for a couple of nights)
-two days at Kings Island
What would you do for vacation with $600?