Home Sweet Home

Remember how I said I was suffering from high speed internet withdrawal? Well, it was because I was out of town. It’s so hard sometimes because I want to share with everyone what is going on (and in this case how much money we were spending), but I have to stop myself. It’s probably not the best thing to declare publicly that our home is vacant so I hope you understand why I haven’t said anything until now.

We went on a journey to visit our parents. It’s a good ten or eleven hour drive for us. Needless to say, I am exhausted after the drive back and from being busy visiting with everyone. But it was very nice because I only see family about once a year, sometimes more if someone comes to visit us.

This time, we did things a little bit differently. Since we are on a “no spending to get stuff” kick, we bypassed buying trinkets and ended up spending some money for experiences. By that, I mean things like going on a boat ride and going up to the top of a very high tower where I experienced an almost paralyzing fear (more about that later).

I still haven’t tallied all of the travel damage yet, but I don’t think it will be too bad. We did spend one night in a hotel and of course there is the money for gas and food while traveling. We also took the opportunity to buy my husband some new shoes because we were in a big city for part of our trip. The stores around me don’t like to carry his size and the shoes he was wearing had a dime-sized hole right in the bottom of the sole. I’ve never seen someone do that before with a pair of shoes.

As a plus, I did get a huge garbage bag of hand-me-down clothes for my son from my sister-in-law. They will fit my son in a year or so. That was very kind of her to give those to us because it will save us a bit of money.

To be able to visit with my family, well, the trip was worth every penny we spent. I’m looking forward to being debt-free so perhaps we can visit more often than once a year. That’s something else I can hold onto to help keep us motivated.

Posted by Tricia on August 22, 2007 at 11:29 PM in Saving Money | 11 Comments »
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Matt responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 7:46 am
Seeing friends and family is sometimes worth the extra expense. I don’t get to see my family often because they live at the other end of the city I can only imagine if they lived 11 hours away.

It was very nice of your sister-in-law to pass the clothes along.
Jim ~ mydebtblog.com responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 10:57 am
This post sounds like you feel guilty for taking a family vacation and to see your family? Getting out of debt is one thing but sometimes taking a break is nice, as long as that break can fit within the budget. It sounds like you were able to handle everything though, which is good. My family only lives 2 hours away while my wifeâ€™s is 5 hours away. We have done the long car rides many times.
Tricia responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I don’t feel guilty because I took the trip. I do feel a bit guilty because I didn’t blog about it as it was happening. I prefer my blog to be very close to real-time (like a diary), but for safety reasons I didn’t do it. I also didn’t respond to a lot of comments or emails while I was away since my access was limited.

As for seeing my family, I don’t feel guilty about that one bit. I miss them a lot.
Sherri responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Did your family notice that you’ve lost almost 30 lbs? Sorry to “cross-blogs” but it didn’t seem relevant to put it in the other one when you hadn’t mentioned the trip in that one. Regardless, I’m sure it was a lot more enjoyable to do the boat rides, etc while feeling lighter and healthier!
Tricia responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Sherri – unfortunately, no, they didn’t notice. The last time I saw them was about a year ago and I was very close to the weight I am now at. They didn’t see me when I was at my heaviest and of course I didn’t share pictures.

Dorry worry about the “crossing of the blogs” LOL
Trixie Belden responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I’ve done what your husband did with his shoes (the dime sized hole). I’m glad you got them replaced because it sucks to wear shoes like that.

I think your trip was money well spent. I too went to visit family this summer and it was the best money I have spent in a long time.
Qcash responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 8:29 pm
The tall tower? 10-11 hours? Boat cruise?

Does your family live in Seattle or Toronto?

Love your blog,

Q
Dieting & Traveling Do Not Mix » Blogging Away Fat responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
[...] recently returned home from a visit with family members some 10 or 11 hours away. I flunked this test of my new healthier [...]
Kim responded:
Posted: August 23rd, 2007 at 10:52 pm
I am a big believer that spending on experiences instead of things is the right way to go. My family just did a 4 day trip to Bangor/Bar Harbor Maine for under $200. You can check out our trip report on my blog if your interested.
Chief Family Officer responded:
Posted: August 24th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Welcome home! I think it was a great idea to buy experiences and not stuff – it’s pretty fantastic that you were able to stick to that!
My Fear-Filled Visit to a Tower » Blogging Away Debt responded:
Posted: August 26th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
[...] I wrote about being back home, I mentioned that I had an an almost paralyzing fear when we visited a very high [...]