How To: Take a Trip with Frugal

Welcome back readers! Hopefully you enjoyed my birthday as much as I did. Sorry for those of you in Dallas for the freak thunderstorm… my birthday is infamous for natural disasters. Hurricanes, tornadoes, out-of-season snow storms, you name it, its happened. Consider yourself lucky that all we had were a few power outages.

DISCLAIMER: I am by no means an expert on any topic I choose to write about from here on out, but maybe the things that I've gone through or are going through currently relate to you and can help you in some way. At the very least, you can laugh at/with me, remembering that one time that maybe you too felt like a complete moron, as I go through the many Mishaps of an Almost Adult.

One of the (only) perks of being 25 is that now I can rent a car!! WOO! So what’s happening this week?? Mishaps is hitting the road!

Okay, so I’m not really renting a car. Lets face it, my new relationship with Frugal has me on a budget for traveling as well. I know. He's demanding.

Having a “real job” puts a kink in travel plans. There’s this mostly wonderful and partly awful thing called Paid Time Off that really messes with my head. I apparently have to plan a year ahead of time for when I intend on taking time off. My style has always been more “just wing it,” spur of the moment, than that. Instead, I’m sitting here with my work calendar pouring over how many hours I’ll have accrued of PTO by when. Carry the two, divide by four?

So let me plan for Christmas in June. No big deal. I’m also a snot when it comes to Christmas because I’m sorry, the mountains, fresh powder for skiing, Brodie accidentally burying himself in the snow, and my home are calling my name so badly I just can’t sit in my little cube.

In between now and then, I decided the best way to use my PTO is to take random three day weekends here and there, using one day at a time to get maximum amount of vacations. I went home to Colorado with one, to a family reunion with another, took a third last week for a three-day birthday, scheduled one for a wedding weekend in Florida, and then my one splurge for the year.

You (man I struggled to not say y’all there.) met Colby last week. I met her when I went to school freshman year in Boston and we’ve stayed in contact for 6 years now. Tomorrow, I’m headed to see her.

Boston; where phonetics and pronunciation have nothing to do with each other. The home of Cheers and Fenway Park, the real Patriots, Plymouth Rock, Harvard and more college students than you can possibly imagine. Signs in neighborhoods read “Thickly Settled” instead of warning to watch for children. Speed bumps are Speed Humps (ha), and round-abouts are rotaries. How I ever drove in Boston, I don’t know. The word “wicked” is used as a superlative for everything. Wicked smart. Wicked awful. Wicked funny.

I feel like I need to start dropping my Rs and put them in words that have no Rs just to get me back in the Northeast state of mind. Why yes, I’m going to Havahd Yahd, to get a slice of pizzer. Maybe I’ll take a trip to Peabuhdy (Peabody) or Wuhster (Worcester… that one always blew my mind). Its not really that bad… usually.

So here are my budget travel tips for the week:

1. If you're intending on flying, don't do it by the seat of your pants. Look at tickets at least 3 weeks in advance for better price rates. If your travel dates are flexible, look around to see if its cheaper to leave the night before/morning after/whatever.
2. Hotel rooms are expensive. Either get a hotel room with a few friends to divvy up the cost or do what I do; stay with friends. 
3. Always travel with at least a little cash. You never know what situations you may run into and having nothing but plastic doesn't always work.
4. Sign up for email alerts with airlines. I know American Airlines sends me emails all the time about great travel deals and ways to earn more miles. Fill out a survey for 2,000 additional miles? I can handle that.
5. Look into credit cards with rewards programs. Check out Award Wallet (the link is on the left under Lifesavers for Almost Adults) and use it to track all of your frequent flyer miles and credit card rewards points all in one spot. How handy!
6. Gas prices aren't quite as bad. How about a road trip? MapQuest even offers a way to estimate the cost of the amount of gas you'd need to get from point A to point B.
7. Don't waste money on going out for breakfast/lunch/dinner every day. Bring some simple snacks you can eat for at least one of your meals to cut down on spending while you're gone. Frugal will love you for it.

Ok. I really need to go pack for Boston. I'm wicked excited.