Small Adventures Along the Way

As I believe I've mentioned before, one of the biggest, most intimidating aspects of this upcoming Around the World trip is saving enough money.  It's difficult for many reasons, such as trying to figure out...what is enough?  What are we spending money on now that we could be saving?  What can we do to earn additional money so that we don't have to give up everything we love or obviously, things we need?

Some of the things we are doing is cutting back on eating out and going out.  We don't tend to eat out or go out drinking that much, but we are finding ways to cut back even more.  For example, on New Year's Eve, instead of going out to a nice dinner like we originally wanted, we switched gears and thought about what we wanted from that excursion.  The answer...a delicious meal! 

So, went to the grocery store and purchased small steaks, veggies and lettuce.  We spent more time than we normally do to make dishes that felt special to us.  The amazing smells filled the house, the table was set and lighted with candles.  We had an absolutely delicious meal, and it probably cost about $15 and included leftovers!  Plus we spent time quality time together preparing it and eating it without being interrupted by a waiter or a rowdy table next to us.  We are planning to do the same thing for Valentine's Day, our anniversary, and other holidays where we might typically go out and drop a lot of money on a special dinner.

One of the things that we just can't seem to give up, however, is our getaways.  Travel is in our blood and clearly, in our minds and hearts constantly, so even as we plan this larger adventure, it's impossible not to plan smaller ones along the way.  However, we are taking trips that cost less than we might otherwise, and being a bit more conscientious of the things we do/buy/eat/drink while away.

For example, this past weekend we took a couple extra days off of work and travelled to Denver to fulfill one of my husbands life-long dreams:  skiing out west!  How did we make it lower cost? 

• A huge part of the reason we went was to visit one of my best friends, so we saved heaps on a hotel by staying with her and her husband.
• We had vouchers on Air Tran from a trip that went awry a year ago, so we basically ended up paying for only one of our plane tickets instead of two.
• Our friends scouted out skiing deals and we were able to ski and rent equipment in the Rockies for cheaper than we could on the hills in Western New York!
• We only went out for dinner one evening and treated our generous hosts.
• We did indulge in local flavor at some breweries and in our friends' favorite lunch spot one day, but we also took advantage of free entertainment such as hiking, chatting, etc.
• We took PBJ sandwiches for dinner on the plane and when that didn't satisfy us, we split a small meal at the airport instead of getting our own.
• We also did without a relaxing beer, (much to my husband's dismay) with the promise of trips to some local Colorado breweries in the days ahead.
• We bypassed a sit down restaurant on our four hour layover for a cheaper sub shop.
• My friend and I skipped a second day of skiing to window shop and wander around downtown Denver, and along the way I rediscovered the fun (and money saving!) of scouting out deals at discount stores like TJ Maxx.

Overall, we had a fabulous trip, and we were able to make some cuts (big and small) that allowed our bank account to stay padded and continue to grow without bypassing a great travel opportunity.

Arapahoe Basin

We are going on another getaway in March, down to the turquoise waters of the Bahamas.  This time we will save money thanks to generous Christmas gifts that cover one way of our flights, staying with family, and eating and drinking less than usual.  We will, however, treat ourselves to another one of our favorite things - a day of scuba diving in the crystal-clear waters.  It will be a new dive location for us, and will be the main monetary expense of our trip since most of our days will be spent with low or no-cost activities like reading by the pool, morning runs, walks on the beach, splashing in the ocean, and playing "photojournalist" with our beloved camera.

I sometimes feel guilty that we are spending money to do these things when we are saving for such a big upcoming expense.  However, we don't want to lose sight of the journey we live each and every day simply because we are preparing for our long-term adventure.  That would be like saving every last drop of money for retirement without enjoying some of the best years of your life.  I don't know anyone who has that much discipline and focus and frankly, I don't think it's a strength.  You never know what you'd miss along the way, and would you really be living your life?  To put all of our focus on the trip ahead might allow us to save a bit more money, but it wouldn't be worth it to us if we lost our sanity and hibernated in our house all year.  If we can make it work, why not?  We're both willing to work a little harder to make additional money so we can take advantage of small adventures along the way. 

A To Do List...

Yesterday hubby and I hung a large map of the world on the wall in our guest room.  It looks awesome, is a nice reminder of our dream, and is obviously very useful in plotting out where we want to go!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So that brings me to an update of our planning.

A few of our basic To Do's right now include:

• More research on destinations, where to go, when to go, how to get there.
• Looking into RTW flights - there are many options and companies that do this, so it's a big task!
• Also looking into Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian Railway
• After these things are more narrowed down...visas, immunizations, etc
• Looking into various volunteer/work abroad opportunities.  We don't want long-term commitments, but would love to help where we can or make a little money along the way/save on room and board costs, etc.
• Figuring out what our monthly cost will be if we keep our house, cars (one lease, one own).
• This is a big one for us.  With only planning to be gone about six months it seems crazy to go through the hassle of selling our house.   Plus it's very comforting to know what we will come back to.  It's also a bit intimidating knowing that if we go this route, we will still have to pay all our costs while we're gone, with no income being generated, and with having to pay for our adventures.
• Our ideal situation would be that we could rent our house out (to a friend or acquaintance) while we are gone.  We would charge enough to cover our expenses and then we would just have to hope nothing crazy happened to our house while we're gone.  I'm just not sure who we could rent to - most of our friends own houses or don't live in the area.  Plus six months is a short time for someone to be there and then have to move again.  However, it would be fully furnished, so it could be a nice option for someone who's just kind of "in between."
• Further, we don't know what the future holds.  Maybe on our trip we'll find out that we want to move somewhere else or find a way that we can continue to travel more.  Then if we need to sell our house we have to worry about it then and we could've already had it taken care of and not been continuously paying on it.  I also don't like the idea that if something goes wrong while we are away, that we'll have to be thinking about it and it could affect our trip because it might prevent us from fully getting away. 

So, these are our immediate tasks, concerns, and thoughts right now.  Among all of the things going on in our everyday life!  We are headed to Colorado this weekend to visit one of my best friends and her husband.  It will be nice to get away, ski in some REAL mountains, and enjoy their company.  I just can't help but feel a little guilty for spending money when we have this larger goal we are working towards.  But we're travelers by nature...to not go away at all until our big trip would be torturous!