Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

FAQ Friday

Should I take my child(ren) out of school for a family vacation?

Oh, the age old question… When is it OK to take your kids out of school for a vacation? Since I am without children in school (or children at all for that matter) I interviewed a few teachers/ professors, and the general consensus to my very specific example of my birthday cruise next year was YES! Travel can be a very educating and life changing for children of all ages. So when you travel, make sure that the kids are learning something from it.

Occasions that are typically not frowned upon:

• International Travel – Kids can learn a lot by experiencing a different culture.
• Family Reunion – Family bonds are important to everyone.
• Cruises – The kids centers are so packed full of educational activities, they will never have a dull moment.

Some trips are better left for taking during vacation though:

• Disneyland / Disney World – Sorry Mickey, I can not justify the learning aspect.
• Any theme parks in general – Flying on a broomstick with Harry Potter probably is not going to fly with a teacher, although I would argue that SeaWorld is very educational.
• Staying at a beach house or resort – Great for the views but not the education.

Tips for Taking Your Child Out of School
□ Meet With Teachers

• Get any homework that the kids can do during the vacation. There will always be some down like waiting in the airport and sitting on the plane.
• Also ask for any extra assignments that could fill in any gaps that they will miss.

 

□ Plan Ahead

• Be sure to meet with the teachers at least three weeks ahead of time and be sure to remind them a few days before the trip too.
• Buy your kids a cheap or disposable camera so they can take their own pictures of their favorite spots.
• Use the upcoming vacation as a reward (bribery) for your kids to do well in school leading up to the trip.
• Buy (or rent from the library) kid friendly books about the destination so your children will be excited about the trip and learn about the new culture or history ahead of time.

□ Keep the Trip Short

• Any vacation that is a week or less is typically acceptable. Don’t push it though, longer than that could put your kids too far behind.

□ Make It an Educational Vacation

• Create a journal for each child so they can keep detailed notes. Maybe even have them write a short essay about the trip when they get home.
• Research and plan to visit fun museums or historic sites to visit during your trip. Or better yet, have the children research educational things to do in your destination.
• If you are taking a cruise, there are tons of educational and fun activities that will keep the kids busy in the youth center.
• On Princess Cruises they have activities like art projects, sports tournaments, California Science Center workshops, Jr.CHEF@Sea, and Klutz® projects. If you want to check out everything they offer, visit their website at: http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/activities/youth_teen/index.html
• Plus, meeting kids from different states or countries is a great way for the kids to make pen pal friends.  

If you want additional information, I also ran found this article that had some more details.

 http://www.familyvacationcritic.com/taking-your-kids-out-of-school-to-travel/art/

Surfin' the net Saturday

Wondering what it is like on a cruise ship?  There are activities to keep everyone from young to old as entertained as they want to be.  No matter if you want to kick back and relax by the pool or cram in as many activities as possible, a cruise ship has you covered.

Check out this great 5 minue video to experience all of the great stuff that Princess Cruises has to offer.  

Princess Cruises Video: Princess Cruises

FAQ Friday

How can I get in shape on the cheap before my cruise?

So you want to be in shape and look good by your cruise next year? Well, you and me both! But how can I join a fancy health club, pay for a trainer or join some expensive weight management system and still save up money for my trip?

Since I wasn’t just going to just throw on a pair of shoes and start running, I turned to the internet for advice and I came across this article on Yahoo.com about affordable ways to loose weight.

Although there were a lot of great ideas - money is my big motivator so I really like Healthy Wage. By getting my butt in gear I could win money. That is $100 free dollars for me to spend on the cruise. Or if I put in a little bit, I can win a lot. Now, I just need to do it!

Mentally, if I create baby steps that won’t greatly impact my time or money it is easier to talk myself into doing them. So here are my first three steps (which are free by the way), and I’m going to try to add a new baby step each week to focus on.

1. Step one is kicking the lunch time soda. I’ve been spending $1.34 four times a week to have a diet soda at lunch. Just by making an iced green tea (which is free at work) I’ll save over $250 and hopefully loose a few pounds.
2. Step two is the stairs. No more elevators at work. Going up and down three flights of stairs a few times a day is one small step for me and one giant leap for my waist line (hopefully).
3. Step three is using my pool. There is no reason that I can not squeeze myself into my suit and swim laps for a half hour everyday (well at least until the water is to cold). I love swimming, it is great for relaxing, relieving stress and getting fit. I just have to tell myself when I’m staring at the couch, my sweatpants and the TV that I love swimming… I love swimming... I love swimming… Hmmm, I think it is working.

The key is to find what drives you. What will it take to motivate you to loose weight? For me, it’s a cute skirt that I wore for my 25th birthday and I want to wear it for my 35th birthday. So, shamefully, I have it hanging in the front of my closet for me to see everyday. Maybe I should hang it on the fridge! What else is important to you? The tree top things for me are money, simplicity and fun. If it is too expensive, hard or boring, I won’t do it.

So who is up for the challenge of getting healthy and saving – or making – money? I’m starting on September 20th, to give me a whole year before we leave for Vancouver.

Myth Buster Monday

Myth: I can’t save enough money for a cruise

-- This myth was mentioned by someone looking to go on my birthday cruise next year. –

OK, well this is why I’m giving you a whole year notice. Last week, I gave you a breakdown of how much the cruise should cost. I even through in a few extra things that you don’t necessarily need to do. And as I like to say, all good things come with planning (and lots of it). To give you extra spending money lets say you want to save $1400 for 2 people.

Here is a list of my top twelve tips to help you save. Notice that there are twelve ideas, one for each month until the cruise.

Start saving your pennies
Literally, the average person has about 75 cents in pocket change a day. If you saved your pocket change every day for a year you would have about $275 before the cruise.

Garage Sale
In a well organized garage sale you can expect to earn $100 to $300 per day. You can increase your profit by washing or dusting the items before hand. Furniture typically sells quickly which will also boost your overall sales profits. There is still time for a garage sale in the fall and one or two in the spring or summer. Partner up with a few neighbors for even bigger success. If you average $200 X 3 days, you should have about $600.

Christmas
This is a great time to ask for things that you may want to take on a cruise. There are going to be people that buy you gifts anyway, so knock off a few of your cruise necessities. Need new heels to go dancing in? A new swim suit for the pool? Even unconventional gifts like paying for you passport if you need one or a Princess gift card can be great money savers. If you have booked your cruise already, people can also buy you items like spa credit, casino credit, a soda card or even fresh flowers delivered to your cabin. I’ll value this one at $100 total because I don’t like to ask for too much.

Off season shopping
For anything you might need look off season for it. Buy a new swim suit in the fall or a nice dress after prom season. I don’t imagine that you would need to stock up on much but this could save you about $50 on the low end.

Savings Account
Save your vacation money in a savings account. This way it is out of sight and you will earn a little interest on it, maybe $30 worth.

Use a credit card with rewards
This tip is only good if you pay it off every month. If you are paying interest that defeats the purpose. I pay my bills with a credit card every month and then pay it off. I usually have $300 - $400 reward points per year. It should be enough to pay for both airline tickets.

Coupons and rebates
For any online shopping I do I check http://www.ebates.com first to see if there are any rebates for items I am buying. I never look at it until I’m buying anything because I don’t want to temp myself to buy things I don’t need. The quarterly checks usually add up to about $100 each year.

I also check http://www.retailmenot.com for coupon codes on my online shopping. For real in store shopping I do try to use regular old Sunday paper coupons but I am by no means a extreme couponer. These coupons save me about $200 per year.

Leftovers for lunch
I was spending $5-7 a day eating out at lunch. Just by changing to bring leftovers 4 times a week and still going out on Fridays I could save over $1000. Although the thought of leftovers was not that appealing to me, I just had to remind myself that I liked it the first time I ate it and that makes it better. But considering I will not bring my lunch all 4 days and those leftovers still cost money I’ll say this is a savings of $500 per year.

Entertainment Book
Invest in an entertainment book in the spring. They are only about $10 or less by that time and you still have plenty of time to save money. We usually save $150 a year by using the coupon book. While you are at it you can also buy the Vancouver book to save on activities and dinning while on vacation. An estimated vacation savings of $60.

Turn a Hobby into a Paying Gig
What are you hobbies? What are the things you like to do with your free time? Rather it is making crafts or selling a product, you should be able to make at least another $400 - $500 per year.

So there you go, 12 months to go and 12 tips to help you save more than enough money to pay for your vacation.

FAQ Friday

Question: Will there be a formal night on my cruise?

Answer: Typically YES. But these are always optional. If you don’t want to drag along your formal wear you can eat somewhere besides the main dinning room on formal nights.

If you are asking about Kelly’s Birthday Cruise, NO! Leave your formal wear at home. There will be no formal nights. However, if you really want to dress up you can. Typical dinner wear would be slacks or khaki pants and a nice polo or button down shirt for the guys and a skirt/ slacks with a nice top or a casual dress for the gals.

Here is a chart from Princess Cruises on the number of formal nights on a cruise.

Have a question for next Friday? Email me at khesstravels@gmail.com

Myth Buster Monday

Myth: A cruise is too expensive!

OK, so you think that the most common response to not going on a cruise is going to fly by me hu? Well, I’m here to bust that myth.

Everyone needs time to unwind and have fun, even if it is just for 4 days. The brain and body need time off of the daily grind. If you are being frugal you maybe thinking of a long weekend in say a northern CA favorite, Monterey. You may even be thinking of cheaper and planning what we call the “staycation.”
--- Cruise vs. Land Trip vs. Staycation ---

Now it is time to do an experiment and help alleviate the stress of how to spend your hard earned vacation dollars. As a small disclaimer this experiment is very general, obviously if you are two adults you are not going to Fairytale Town or paying for kid’s day camps. But you would be doing something, and most likely something that costs money so you get the picture? I’ve also not included taxes, fees or alcohol (because only you know how much you will drink in any given location) and assume that you can hitch a ride to the airport, because you won’t be returning to it.

I have actually researched and looked up real activities that would be relevant for the area and semi-comparable with each other on the fun-o-meter. What do you think? What will be the cheapest 4 day vacation/ staycation?

This myth is BUSTED!! As you can see the cruise is actually the cheapest option by a few cents. Plus you have the experience of visiting another country, relaxing on a cruise ship and being pampered by the wonderful staff.

Questions or comments?  Do you have a travel myth for me to bust?
Email me at khesstravels@gmail.com