This past month has been a parade of high costs, what with a funeral, a professional exam (with a hotel stay the night before), and now a last minute vacation
The amount of money flowing out of the house has been…. amazing to me. Luckily, each time we pulled out the check book or plunked down the credit card, Mr. PiN and I were able to say: we have the money, this is what it’s for.
However, by seeing how expensive it is to do things at the last minute, it becomes clear that our habit of (usually) planning ahead has saved us a good chunk of money over the years.
I see this most with our current vacation.
I had cleared my calendar months ago, and planned a low key, possibly solo trip, in case Mr. PiN had to stay in town for his dad. Now that Mr. PiN is no longer bound to our home town by filial duty, he was very excited (after the initial mourning period) to consider a trip out of the country.
Less than 3 weeks before our trip, I bought two round trip tickets to Europe, which cost about 40-50% more than if I had purchased them 3 months ago.
Similarly, the hotel probably costs 25% more than what we might have paid, if I had been able to look for (cheaper) hotels with a good head start. I hope it is as nice as it looks on the website.
There will be no discounted, advanced purchase tickets for us this trip, whatever we decide to do, though I hear there are a number of cheap or free things to see.
However, I will try not to regret our excess spending, but instead focus on what it gets us: time away from our busy lives, and happy memories to follow up all the craziness we have been dealing with recently.
Next trip, though, next trip I need to start planning earlier.
Do you have any last-minute splurges you remember fondly?
(For obvious reasons, I will likely not be replying to any comments right away.)