Where a Tighter Budget Turns Into Two Vacations

For the past two years, for one week during the summer I rented a small place at the Jersey shore where my mother lives so we could enjoy the beach and get away. Even though the Jersey shore is only an hour away and there’s minimal travel expenses involved, it all starts to add up when you consider food, entertainment, etc.

So this year, I told my husband that I didn’t think we should rent the beach house.  Instead, we should tighten our budget and save some money, considering the economy and all.  But no, he insisted that we go on a vacation.  He insisted that he would take care of everything so I would have nothing to worry about.  

And that is how we ended up going on two vacations this summer while on a tight budget. 

We rented a huge 5 bedroom house in North Carolina for a week (eight hour drive away) and we just got back from Orcas Island near Seattle (plane ride, rental car for a week, ferry to the island and one night in a hotel). 

You do the math.

If women are from Venus and men are from Mars, then the Martian language doesn’t have the word budget in its vocabulary.  Yet alone the words like recession, poverty or destitude.

From a financial perspective, I should have kept my mouth shut and just did the week down the shore.  But in every other respect, I am glad I left it up to him and we ended up going on two vacations.  One on either end of the continent, no less. 

Because honestly, watching whales in the middle of the ocean? Well, that just kicks the living shit out of watching fiddler crabs at the Jesery shore!  Plus, we got to spend some quality time with his sisters during both vacations.  And time together with family is priceless.

So yeah, you can thank my husband that we are currently heading out of a recession. If it were up to me, our cash flow would have halted for a while. Instead, we boosted the economy all summer long.  (To be fair, he didn’t have to twist my arm all that much. And he certainly didn’t force me to buy pottery, clothes and souveniers at every place we stopped at for more than two minutes).

He continues to boost the economy even now.  Within 24 hours of being back home, he booked next year’s vacation before I could utter the words “even tighter budget”.  At this rate, we’ll be going on three vacations next summer.

You’re welcome, America.

Here are some pics from vacation #2.  Here we are on his sister’s boat:

One of the many whales we saw (mind you, the whale was jumping out of the water when I pushed the button. Damn digital cameras):

One of the many spectacular views (Aren’t they cute? And the Islands in the background are pretty spectacular too):

 P.S.  Don’t be too jealous.  I’ll be spending all my free time clipping coupons for the next 52 weeks.

Comments

[Mama P]

...is thinking, "of course" :) that's what i'd do, too!! and we ARE doing: california earlier in the season, and off to new england next week. what else would we do?