How a 4 Night Trip to Branson MO cost $322.00 vs $850.00/ Get Paid $66.00 an Hour

My husband and I recently returned from Branson MO for a 4 night trip. We had great fun! This trip cost roughly $322.00 for four nights. This included all hotels, food, gas and entertainment. 

The first night, we stayed in Iowa City Iowa as we were driving down. When I saw that Kalona Iowa was nearby, we decided to do a little driving and shopping there as Kalona is the largest Amish settlement west of the Mississippi. This was an awesome bonus! 

We ate at Burger King on the value menu for supper which came to $6.84. I used some gift certificates I got last winter on a buy $20.00/get $5.00 free. For the sake of this article, I just included the whole $6.84 in the figures. 

I didn't do as good a job on this trip taking photos of meals and the like, so I will just be giving numbers of what we spent on what. The first night, we stayed in a hotel I found on Priceline for $40.00/night. With taxes and everything, it came to $49.99. This hotel had a great breakfast, so we didn't have to pay for a meal the next morning. I must say that this hotel was not the nicest hotel, and some might say that that is what you get when you bargain shop. I don't agree with that though as you might get a place you are not too happy with and pay full price too!! Anyway, I would not want to stay there again. Most hotels I have gotten on Priceline have been good, but once in a while you can get one that isn't too great. Anyway, we got on our way. 

We drove until late and paid $25.80 for our dinner meal but had enough leftovers that we were able to use it for another meal later on since our hotel in Branson had a refrigerator. We stayed at the Radisson, which was a very nice hotel. We were signed up for a timeshare presentation and the timeshare people put us up in this hotel. The 3 nights at the Radisson for us were a total of $169.00 and then after doing the timeshare presentation, we were given $75.00 in gift cards for Bass Pro Shops, which my husband will use for hunting gear etc so the hotel was basically $94.00 for three nights vs the $267.00 it would have otherwise been. 

I did a search on free things to do in Branson. We went to Table Rock Dam which was a very interesting free thing to do. 

 We also took the free trolley downtown. This was a fun ride and it was also more convenient than driving. (The driving in Branson can be chaotic!!)

We spent time walking downtown and seeing the sights.

The trees were in bloom and it was beautiful!

Before we left, I did some searches on specials. I found this Groupon special for a concert. It was normally $34.50 per person and I got it for $17.00 each. We had a great time!

We went to Wal-Mart and bought some breakfast items and a couple lunch items. We ate breakfast in every morning and ate lunch in one day. One day for lunch, we had a picnic down by the lake.

We did have to sit through a timeshare presentation. We said no, but we did learn more about timeshares and are seriously considering buying one. If we do buy one, however, it will be on the used market. This is something we are researching. In the meantime, next winter we will be taking the free 4 day cruise that came with this package for our 30th wedding anniversary. We will need to pay the taxes etc for the cruise but the rest is supposed to be free. :)

We traveled about 1500 miles for this trip. I figured our gas cost about $63.00 because my Prius gets about 45 MPG this time of year (50 or more in the summer) vs $126.00 for a car that got about 22.5 MPG. 

On our way home, we were privileged to stay with some friends and do a little sightseeing with them. I haven't included that into these figures and we didn't stay in a hotel on the way home so I cut that out of both the lower and higher cost figures so the dollar figures are just for the Branson part of the trip. 

So, we saved about $528.00 dollars on this trip with some forethought and a willingness to sit through a timeshare presentation. The presentation took about 3 hours (they said 2). I spent about an hour in pre-preparation looking for free things to do and coupons etc. plus a little time to go to Wal-Mart. (But eating in actually took less time so I will say 1/2 hour for the Wal-Mart trip.) So, 6 hours for two for the timeshare, 1 hour for two for Wal-mart and 1 hour for me preparing is 8 hours total spent for a total of about $66.00 /hour we were paid for what we saved on this trip!

Happy Savings!!

How a 3 Night Stay in a 2 Bedroom Duplex and Winter Fun Cost $259.00 vs $1225.00

My husband and I just got back from a great 4 day/3 night winter vacation! We had a blast! Check out the great accommodations! 

 The total cost for this trip was $259.00. Normally, this trip could have cost us about $1225.00. First of all, I am signed up on www.groupon.com. This is a great site that gives great deals on things. All you have to do is sign up and get email notifications. The resort we stayed at was offering a $705.00 vacation stay for only $149.00 plus a $50.00 coupon dinner voucher. This time, there was a catch. We had to sit through a 90 minute timeshare presentation. There was an income requirement and a few other minor requirements. You may feel that you wouldn't want to do that, but we look at it as being paid $556.00 for 90 minutes of our time, which is a great rate of exchange! We did learn a lot about timeshares but we didn't buy. We learned enough in that timeshare presentation to now research timeshares and see if we can't find a great buy on a used one though. They wanted about $13,000.00 for a timeshare but after we left the presentation, we saw there are timeshares for sale on ebay for $1.00 so if we were truly interested, we could buy one on the used market. There is no obligation to buy. Anyone can sit through a presentation and say no if they want. The company is giving the great deal because they are taking the risk you will want to buy. Timeshares bought new are usually not a good deal. Buying timeshares on the used market might be for the right person. Sitting through a presentation is like taking a class if you are interested and, if not, you got a great vacation for 90 minutes of your time. If you are someone who can't say no, this is probably not something you want to do.

We had an awesome meal with the $50.00 voucher for dinner. My husband had Canadian Walleye and I had Shrimp Scampi and we split with each other so we could each try both. Total cost for this meal to us was $12.97 with taxes and tip. For our other meals, except one, we had a full kitchen so we brought food and ate in. We spent about $25.00 on food whereas if we ate out we may have spent about $125.00 or even more for the trip (I figured it at $125.00 for the larger trip cost). We did eat at one local place on the way home. We could have gotten $1.00 burgers at McDonalds but decided we could both have a nicer meal and support a local restaurant at the same time, so we decided to do that. That cost $20.77 with tip.

We trailered our snowmobile up and had fun riding it! This cost us more in gas than driving our car. We spent about $46.50 in gasoline altogether. If we had rented a snowmobile, it would have cost us $249.99 for 2 days.

 We had buy one get one free Dairy Queen Blizzards because I had a coupon. This cost us about $4.00 instead of $8.00.

We went cross country skiing/snowshoeing. We went on free trails rather than the ones you had to pay for saving us $24.00. We also brought our own equipment so we paid nothing for those (except initially). Rental would have been $40.00.

We love massages too! A massage for both of us for 30 minutes would have cost us $100.00 but for us it was free because I simply brought a bottle of oil and we gave one to each other! Very relaxing after using the Jacuzzi tub in the duplex!

So, we had a great time and with a little forethought it cost very little. The prep work on this didn't take too much because all I had to do was buy the groupon and get the dairy queen coupon off my email (I am signed up to their website and they give deals regularly.) I don't think I spent anymore time prepping for this trip than I would have otherwise. The only real work put into it was bringing the food and preparing it. The only way it could have been better is if the friends and family we invited could have made it!

So, sitting through a timeshare presentation can be a great way to get a great vacation for 90 minutes of your time. Just be prepared and if you are someone who can't say no, this vacation could cost you a lot so think it through before you sign up.

Happy Savings!



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How a Four Day/Three Night Trip Cost Less Than $300.00 Including Gas and Meals!

My husband and I just had a four day/three night trip for less than $300.00 total, including the cost of the gas to get there! This is something I do on a regular basis and anyone can do it with a little planning.

First, I prepare a travel folder. This does take some time. I usually spend about 4 hours on preparing a travel folder every trip we go on. This was was a little easier because we decided to not do a whole lot but to just take it easy.

First, I did a search on http://www.trivago.com/ for a hotel. I decided to look for one that had an indoor swimming pool, hot tub and breakfast all for a great price. I didn't choose the city first but looked at a few cities and did some price checking. I found one hotel that the price looked right but it didn't look nice at all. So, I kept looking until I found a real nice Econolodge on Trivago. Here is the breakdown of the prices Wed night $47.99/Thurs night $47.99/Fri night $55.99/Taxes $23.56 for a total of $175.53 on the hotel. This hotel also had a mini-refrigerator and microwave in the room which I count as a great bonus so all meals don't have to be eaten out.

For lunch the first day, we ate before we left the house. Then later on, had an ice cream snack on the road. This time of year I have a birthday so I use birthday coupons from restaurants to save money. You have to sign up for these deals. I usually use a separate email account for these so I don't get so much spam. One of these was a buy one get one free blizzard from Dairy Queen.

I also had a gift card that my daughter gave me and so these blizzards cost me $0.00. If I get gift cards, I tend to save them for vacations.

I had a restaurant.com coupon for supper that night at a nice supper club. I have mixed reviews for restaurant.com. The only reason I bought coupons from them is that I got an awesome deal a few years ago where I could get $25.00 coupons for $2.00 each and they never expire and they can also be exchanged so I bought $40.00 worth! We have had many very nice meals with these at places that were not just nice as far as food, but atmosphere and experience. However, this one was a dud. We went to the supper club and when we walked in, there was a sign that said they were no longer taking restaurant.com coupons but the place looked nice and was quite busy and reasonably priced so we decided to stay. No one greeted us or seated us, so eventually we seated ourselves. Two couples came in after we did and they were brought drinks. No one, however, came up to our table. After sitting there for about 10 or 15 minutes, we decided to leave. No one even noticed! At this point, it was getting late and my system was not wanting food as much so we got something off the dollar menu at Burger King. This cost $6.67. This was quite disappointing but we knew we had a couple more days to eat well.

Every day, the breakfast at the hotel was decent. And every day it was free!

For lunch the second day, we decided to eat at Golden Corral. Lunch at Golden Corral is a fair amount less than dinner so we went for lunch for this reason. We love Golden Corral and there is not one where we live so if we find one where we vacation we always go. Golden Corral has a club sign up and you can get a Buy one Get one free for your birthday, but I didn't know this until after my birthday. I did get a free beverage coupon for signing up. We walked to the restaurant but I forgot the coupon so I didn't even get to use it! But, we almost always get water at restaurants and so we just did the usual. We usually squeeze lemon into our water. When we were there, my husband noticed that they have little to-go boxes that you can fill on your way out (after meal purchase) for $1.99 each. We got two of them to put into the refrigerator for lunch the next day so the total for this meal plus to go boxes was $22.22. We were still full at supper since we ate about 2:00 so we popped some popcorn around supper time and went for a hot tub and swim.

These to go boxes fit an amazing amount of food in them so for lunch the next day we had a plate full of food and we still had some left to take home. Here is our lunch in the hotel room heated by the microwave.

We went to an amazing historical place and that cost $5.00 each for a total of $10.00.

For supper that night, we went to Red Lobster. My sister had given us a $25.00 gift certificate (thanks, Sis!) and I had a $4.00 off two entrees coupon. Red Lobster has this really great 4 course meal with Soup/Salad/Entree/Dessert plus all you can eat biscuits for $16.99. My husband and I both ordered this so with the gift certificate and coupon it cost us $6.48 plus tips!

(Sorry, I took a bite before I took the photo!)

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

The hotel had a pool table and exercise room so after breakfast the fourth morning, we played a game of pool and used the weight room. We also used the hot tub and swam before packing to leave.

On the way home, we stopped at Old Country Buffet as I had a Buy One Get One Free Coupon for the buffet for my birthday. Lunch is always less and so the buffet cost $8.96 total.

Gas for the trip was about $62.00. This would have been less had I driven my Prius (which gets about 50 MPG) but my husband wanted to take his truck because there was a tractor implement he wanted to buy where we were vacationing and his truck gets 19 MPG.

So, all told, this trip cost less than $300.00, was a great time, with great food and very relaxing. Plus, we have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow!

Happy Savings!

How I flew to Santa Cruz, California for $0.00

Some of you know I just got back from Santa Cruz. Of course you didn't really think I paid for that, did you? No, of course you didn't! :)

We have an airline miles card. Some of them are better than others, but we like to have one with no annual fee. Right now, we have a Capital One Venture card. I use this for my online business to make purchases and we also use it for some other purchases as well. For this, we get airline miles. We pay this card off every month to make sure that we never have any interest or fees to pay. We make sure just get perks.

Here is a list of airline miles cards you can get:

http://www.creditcards.com/airline-miles.php

Here is another site that may also be of help:

https://wallethub.com/best-airline-credit-card/

I frankly find it very difficult to compare one card to another. I'm sure there is a way to do this but things vary so much from card to card I find it very hard to compare. Maybe some of you have some good pointers on that.

So, after we rack up miles for quite a while, we use this to take trips with. So far, my husband and I have gone to Savannah, Georgia together for free and my son and I went to Washington DC for a total of $70.00 one year. 

This year, my husband and I would like to go someplace warm together this winter. Since I used some miles already, it's hard to say how close to free we can get, but we will try and see what we can do. I think the main thing to remember is to always, always pay off the card every month, or there is a good chance you can go backwards and end up paying more than you might save on a trip. 

Happy travels.