24 Hour Trip to NY for $150

Heading to New York to see friends this weekend for literally, only 24 hours. And I’ve set a budget for myself of $150. How could I do that much damage in that little amount of time, right? My hotel was through a free night award, so I’m good there – and planning to pack plenty of breakfast-y snacks for my plane ride in. So the only things I am really talking about are:

2 cab rides into/out of the city, plus a metrocard refill: $50
Saturday drinks with Gals: $15
Saturday drinks with another friend: $20
Dinner/Drinks on our planned excursion out to the new Citi field (tickets comped by my friend): $65

I’ll report back later… probably, on where I went wrong!

The OutWest Road Trip!

As mentioned in my previous post, the Guy and I are going to be setting out on a crazy OutWest roadtrip, starting in two months. Origin: Minneapolis, Final Destination: Palo Alto. Duration: One week in the car.

Frugal Tactics: staying with friends and using hotel points, eating at roadside diners as highlighted in our much beloved manual, RoadFood, using Cheap Gas Finders online, or various Costco locations along the way, and planning our own entertainment in advance (each leg of the trip will have a theme – accompanied by music, readings, etc.), and buying an America the Beautiful Pass in advance to save on the national park entry costs.

Estimated Total Cost:
Gas: $350
Lodging: $0
Food: $420
Parks/Parking: $80 + $30
Entertainment: $30
TOTAL: $455/person for a week-long memory. Priceless? More to come…

Not-So-Frugal Big Apple Giveaway

So for Hanukkah this past year, the Guy and I each gave each other a trip – I gave him a weekend in New York and he gave me a weekend in San Francisco. I’m planning on using miles for the NY flight and my Amex Starwood points for the hotel, so all of the big expenses should be almost-free. Now, I’ll just need to plan a perfect weekend for the two of us – that’s more about us, than spending money on every little thing! But I started brainstorming and it turns out things added up a LOT faster than I'd thought. I still want it to be special, but I don't think I can spend this much on three days!! Here’s what I’ve got so far… any suggestions from the NewYorkers among you:

Friday Night:
- Head down to the West village to check out Charmingwall Gallery free
- Go to the New Museum $24 each
- Dinner at Aurora $150 estimated, footing the Guy
- Attending a friend’s 30th party to close down the night!

Saturday:
- Take a free ferry ride over to Staten island and back
- Browing, Strolling and Shopping in Soho!
- Head to Brooklyn to meet our friends’ new baby daughter
- Ditch the baby and head to a local beer garden in Williamsburg
- Head to see a Broadway Show $175 for the two of us
- Dinner at Peasant $150

Sunday:
- Brunch at Sarabeth’s on the West Side $50
- Rent a boat at the Boathouse Central Park $15
- Walk back through Central park
- Afternoon Treat at The Dessert Truck $20

Damage: $594! Whoa... not what I was thinking, nor what I was budgeting! How does that HAPPEN.

Recap on my Argentina Vacation

Amazing, amazing, amazing. And might I say, it ended up being a very well-designed and reasonable trip. Nothing is reasonable when you’re doing the vacation lifestyle for 10 whole days. But we had a great exchange rate for the majority of our trip (3.3 pesos to the dollar) and we made some modest choices to balance out our splurges!

The Itinerary:

Buenos Aires: Stayed in the trendy Palermo Soho neighborhood in a tiny boutique hotel and did tons of sight-seeing (Recoleta Cemetery with all of the Evita memorabilia, Puerto Madero and San Telmo antique markets, shopping in Palermo). Great food and fun nightlife, but this was in essence, sort of like being in New York, in South America. It was just a really cool big city with all of the cool big city perks and oddities you’d expect. All of the European influences are right on, and I could understand all of the BA nicknames
Highlight: a Boca Juniors futbol match – sitting on the first row, absolutely free. Courtesy of a hook-up from a friend’s company.

Mendoza: Stayed in the Park Hyatt for one night – WOW – this was our little splurge. For the remainder of the time, stayed in a little stone lodge in the middle of the countryside, cheap and absolutely charming. Visited wineries all day for two days, and then hiking and rappelling near the base of the Andes. This was our absolute favorite part of the trip. Mendoza’s little plazas and quaint streets and restaurants seemed somehow more authentically Argentinian. We got a real sense of the place and the people as we visited the wineries, talking to their owners or our taxi drivers. The famous “pride” of Argentinians didn’t seem like bravado as much as it did in BA, just a contented “of course” kind of sensibility about their lifestyle. Hiking was rather strenuous (glad we added some weight training into our workout routine beforehand) but full of incredible views. Our guides with the Argentina Rafting Company were excellent, and I enjoyed hearing about their travels and lifestyle about as much as anything.
Highlight: a dinner we had in an old winery in the suburbs of Mendoza – a restaurant called “1884” – this was the best meal of our lives, and the character of this place, so romantic and as old world as you get, will be a memory for a long, long time.

Iguazu: Right on the border between Brazil and Argentina are the most breathtaking falls and the only subtropical rainforest I’ve ever frequented. The wildlife and the falls were absolutely beautiful but the port of Iguazu itself was pretty much a deserted tourist town so we only stayed one night and booked it back to Buenos Aires before we left.
Highlight: Seeing a wild toucan fly up to us on the path headed to the falls.

Taxis and food (despite being cheap) added up and were what most of our money went to on the trip… I bought very few souvenirs (mostly wine), but all in all was still over budget by $237. Oops. Still, for the value we got out of the trip, I was VERY happy!

Tomorrow is the Day....

I leave for a fabulous 10-day vacation in Argentina tomorrow. So you won’t see any posts here for 10-12 days or so. When I return, here’s what’s on tap:

+A recap on my trip expenses
+My Plan to Improve my Credit Score
+I Will Teach You to Be Rich’s “Save $1000 in 30 days Challenge
+How’s my Holiday Gift Planning Going?
+A Recessionista Thanksgiving
+New Blogs/Good Reads
+Evaluating your Portfolio in 3 Steps

Life Updates - Argentina & Grad School Apps

We had a brain trust session last night - with myself, the Guy and the other couple we're going to Argentina with this Fall. And I think we have the perfect plan... it seems like we're on the same page with expenses too, which is nice. The only problem - most of the hotels we're trying to find are already booked. Guess it's a popular trip for November.... we'll keep trying! Here's the itinerary for lodging and entertainment:

Buenos Aires - renting an apartment, $200/night, split between 4 people
A ferry to Uruguay - $40
Boca Juniors soccer game - $100
Flight to Mendoza $200
Staying at a winery $150/night, split between 2 people
Trek into the Andes on a guided tour $250
Overnight bus to Iguazu Falls $120 (also saves a night at a hotel)
Hotel in Iguazu Falls - FREE, on Starwood points!

So there's some splurges and some skrimping. And that of course doesn't count all of the food and fine wine I'll be tasting throughout the week. Now all I have to do before I go is finish all of my business school essays and applications. ONE MONTH LEFT. Scary stuff!

Not Proud...

My parents just used their airline miles to get me a ticket to come home for Thanksgiving... and Christmas. I'm not exactly proud of that, but given how high flight prices have rocketed up, this is saving me $1,000! I'm secretly PSYCHED. (Sidebar: my mother works for one of the airlines and my parents can fly standby for free all the time, so they would rarely ever use the miles for themselves. I still don't feel proud doing the parental mooch at 24).

Travel Plans & Goals...

Headed to the Cape with the Guy for the 4th – we’re staying with his parents for the week, so hopefully it will be a relatively economical trip, but you never know. Things always seem to pop up. Also I added a travel fund to my list of goals (does it mean something that I just keep knocking that wedding fund down the list…?) I’ve decided that I’d like to take a nice long trip with the Guy before we (eventually, at long-last) pick up and move out of the Midwest. We’ll both be in transition at that point – him into a new job somewhere and me getting ready to go back to school. And I’m not sure if the right time is this Fall or next Spring (probably depends on how prices are looking), but I think $2500 should be enough for a lengthy budget trip. Maybe not, but it’s a start. I’m thinking South America – maybe a hiking adventure of some kind along the Inca Trail or perhaps checking out some of those great Malbec’s in wine country. We shall see. My goal is to save $50 a month in an automatic deduction and then whatever else I can afford at the end of the budget cycle.

I Heart NY & Mapquest for Public Transportation

So, returned late last night from a really fun weekend in New York! Out visiting friends, checking out grad school and exploring a future home(?) It was just so good to be back on the East coast. I got to see so many old friends, had more people to meet up with and plans made than I had time for in four days, was surrounded by fashion and literature and Starbucks and intellectual goings-on. Just too good. A bit exhausting though. The Guy made a comment that the more he comes back, the less he likes New York as a visitor. You’re always trying to cram everything in when you’re a visitor, so it ends up being so tiring and too much. Even after four stretched days though, I could understand how it made him so happy to live there. And I could see myself there too.

And even though it is an insanely expensive city, and you do end up taking cabs more than you think you will, I kept my transportation spending down thanks to this fabulous website: Hopstop.com. The site is essentially Mapquest for public transportation, letting you map out the best route across the city, which train or bus to take, which way to turn on the street, how long it’s going to take to walk a few blocks, etc. I planned out my trip to the T, with everywhere I wanted to go while I was solo and didn’t have a native New Yorker with me. I jotted everything down in my Moleskine, which I *think* was subtle enough to keep me from looking like a tourist! They only have a few major cities rolled out, but really helpful for those that do.

Off to Chicago

So, as stated in the former rant, headed to Chicago this weekend. And in line with my April goals, I will NOT spend money on retail “STUFF” in Chicago. The Guy bought my ticket out there and the hotel since I’m his date for this wedding, which is nice. I will probably end up spending some money on the experience of being there, and buy the Guy dinner and transportation and drinks and what not, and I’m fine with that. But no shopping! Promise! I’m not back til Sunday so probably won’t be posting. See you back in the grind.

Get Me Out of Here

It snowed again last night and this morning, which is just so depressing considering the date. I spent four hours last night searching various budget travel sites to see if I could take an easy, cheap vacation. Even further depression ensued.

I’ve already vetted Budget Travel, Trip Advisor and all of the flight/package sites like Orbitz and Expedia. I’ve just about given up on the possibility of taking a quick 3-4 day trip under $900, but let me know if you’ve got a great site I can look into before I crawl back into hibernation until June…

San Francisco Paradise + Back to Reality...

Had a lovely time in SF last weekend, and the verdict is… I can really see myself living there. So that goes on the list of possible cities and possible grad schools. As for my trip budget, I didn’t do so well.
Unexpected boon: The Guy’s friends with cars shuttled me around everywhere, so I didn’t have to worry about taking cabs. Super convenient, and really nice of them.
Unexpected bane: M left me all alone on Saturday when she had to work. From 10 o’clock to 4 o’clock I was left alone to wander the city on my vacation. So I shopped. $300 worth of shopping. Each individual item I bought was a good value, so I felt okay about it as I went along, but at the end of the day I felt a little sick. That was supposed to be my whole budget for the trip. I never would have spent that much if I had been enjoying time with friends. I’m going to return about $80 worth today or tomorrow. Ex-Shopping, I would have been $25 underbudget for the trip. Including shopping, I’m $275 over budget.

But life goes on, and I'm back to reality. I updated my personal goals and trackers for February. Somehow I managed to mess up my Networth report from last month, so it no longer records my huge dip downwards in January. But trust me, I’m not in denial, and just glad to be moving on. I’m really excited that I’m completely on track to be able to accomplish one of my goals (#1 Never carry a credit card balance) in 3 short months. Now that I’m almost done, I think I might add another travel fund goal onto the end. I want to get 100% whole on my emergency fun and then start putting a greater dent into my B-school savings fund. Then I can focus on ramping up the other two.

I also updated my February mini-goals (small expenditures). Making progress on bringing my lunch to work, but slipping a bit on my coffee budget. Still not bad, but I have a gourmet coffee maker at home that I should be putting to work!