Atmosphere – B+

Atmosphere is rated by things like how involved the crowd is or fun things to do around the stadium.

We arrived to the ballpark about 45 minutes early to walk around the park and see what sort of options they had. We noticed a lot of kids in baseball uniforms running around and a lot of families. Our seats were on the 5th row of the 1st baseline just past the infield. The majority of people around us were fully engaged in the game and seemed to know what was going on and when. There were some that seemed more interested in drinking and didn’t appear to know what was going on in the game unless there was a big moment. During the 3rd inning, they had their mascot available for pictures and an autograph with kids. We took Rhett out and he LOVED it. That was probably his favorite part of the entire evening.

Food – A

Tara and I went to the game expecting to spend a lot of money on food. We know that prices in ballparks often tend to be inflated and the portions not very large. We were pleasantly surprised when we bought a nacho plate for $11 that filled us both up. This nacho plate was also ridiculously good, so we were very satisfied. We also got a funnel cake that was average, keeping this grade from being an A+.

Stadium – A

Coors Field is a beautiful stadium that was very clean. The stadium had trees and water fountains in center field which added a really nice touch. One of my favorite parts about the stadium was their HUGE screen that displayed all the stats in detail (I love baseball stats). Our seats were typical stadium seats, but had enough leg room for us to have Rhett on our laps and still not feel cramped.

Parking – B

We went to the closest lot we could because we didn’t want to walk very far with Tara being 6 months pregnant. It was $23 bucks to park there, including a shuttle that would take you right up to the gates. It was convenient for us, but the price was steep.

Value – A+

For our 5th row tickets we paid only $80. They were great seats and probably the closest I’ve sat to the field at an MLB game. The food was also really good and at a decent price. We spent $30 for soda, food and dessert. In total we paid $133 for all three of us to eat, park and watch a really entertaining game.

Overall – A

This was our experience at Coors Field. We had a really good time and enjoyed all of it! If you want a good place to buy cheap tickets to sport events or concerts, try this link. Have you ever been to this ballpark? How would you rate our Coors Field review?

The Surprise

I did my best to keep the destination under wraps all the way until the day of the actual trip. There were a few times when I wasn’t thinking and I almost let the destination slip off my tongue. Luckily, I was able to hold it in and upon arrival at the airport, I gave her one hint: I pulled a single bean out of my pocket and handed it to her. Since my wife had a few hunches of where we could be going, she was able to guess it pretty quickly: CHICAGO!

The Windy City

They don’t call it “The Windy City” for no reason. We left what would be 70 degree temperatures at home and traded them for a 40 degree day with 26 mph winds. Luckily, that was just on Friday and on Saturday it warmed up a little bit. But needless to say, it was windy and COLD! Despite the weather though, we had an absolute blast exploring the city.

We arrived Friday at about noon and headed to our hotel at the Hyatt Regency. Because our trip was going to be pretty short, I wanted to find a hotel that was pretty central, and I have to say, this one was perfect! And on top of that, we had the most amazing view from our hotel room, I mean check this out!

Pretty impressive right? It made leaving our hotel room a little bit tougher, but we managed.

The Food Scene

From our hotel room, we could spot a Giordano’s just across the street. I must admit, the pizza scene at Chicago was one of the things I was most excited for, and it was a pleasant surprise to see one of the most popular pizza places in the city just steps away from our hotel. Being hungry after our flight, we made our way straight there to get in on the deep dish action!

The deep dish did not disappoint at all. We ordered a fresh spinach deep dish, which was absolutely incredible. I loved their marinara sauce. It had a salty flavor to it that made it pop and taste incredible. It was very cheesy as well, which I’m usually not the biggest fan of, but in this case, it tasted amazing. If you ever go to Chicago, don’t miss out on a deep dish from Giordano’s or Lou Malnati’s (I would recommend the former, and my wife would recommend the latter. Both are incredible options though). And if you aren’t in the mood for pizza, try out the Signature Berry Bliss French Toast at Wildberry Cafe (which was also conveniently located just steps from our hotel).

What to Do for Quick Weekend Trip

Besides eating delicious food, we of course wanted to see as much of Chicago as we could as we could! Because we essentially only had a day and a half there, I tried to find activities that would maximize our time in the city. Once again, the location of the hotel was a game changer. It was about a 5 minute walk from Cloud Gate, which is also known as “The Bean” since it resembles a gigantic, reflective bean with amazing views of the city.

Besides being close to the bean, our hotel was also very close to a Architecture River Cruise (in fact, it was literally across the street/river). This is one activity I think is a must if you want to see Chicago and don’t have a lot of time. The tour itself took about 1.5 hours and it was super interesting and took you right through the heart of the city. A tour guide explains the various styles of the architecture you see throughout the city and gives some historical facts as well. It was really neat to be able to see so much of the city while relaxing on top of a boat.

Another thing we did that gave us great views of the city was visiting the 360 Chicago observation deck. Be warned, though, because the lines to get in can be quite long. If you buy the Chicago City Pass, you get to cut the line but take a look to see if the benefits of the pass outweigh the costs. We personally did not buy it, but then again, I didn’t research it much either.

The views from the observation deck are incredible! When you are in a big city, it’s a must-do to get a higher vantage point to oversee the city. Minus the long line, we really enjoyed the views. The walk to get to 360 Chicago was also pretty fun! It takes you into the heart of the city and there is a lot of shopping and cool churches in the area.

Experiences to Remember

Overall, this trip was a blast! Although it would’ve been awesome to have more time, we felt like we were still able to see and do so much in such a short time. It confirmed to us that gifting experiences can be so meaningful. We love to travel, and doing stuff like this creates memories that we will never forget. So when you are debating what to get loved ones in the future, consider gifting experiences! It doesn’t have to be a trip like this, but find something nearby that allows you to spend time with each other and do things you may not do otherwise! This will create awesome memories for the future and won’t be forgotten or lost with time as most gifts do.

Check out our video we made of our trip to Chicago! We love to make videos and plan on making many more in the future of our travels and activities around home! If you like the video, feel free to subscribe to our channel!

Traveling is the best, don’t you think? It’s a time to forget the stress of everyday life and experience something different. For us, it also gives us a chance to explore the world and have new experiences. But you know what else makes travel more enjoyable? When it isn’t putting a huge dent in your wallet. Recently, we got back from an amazing, week-long trip to Washington D.C. where we were able to do everything that I just described:  we explored, we experienced new things, we escaped regular routines, and we didn’t have to break the bank! Here is how we spent a week in Washington DC on under $300.

Saving Money While Traveling

To provide a little bit of context to our vacation, I recently graduated from college (finally!) and spent the entire summer working and studying for the CPA exams. Due to the taxing nature of studying (no pun intended), I wasn’t able to work as much so our income streams weren’t quite where we wanted and needed them to be, but I also knew that I would soon be starting to work full-time and my freedom to travel and do things would be restricted to a greater degree. So, I wanted to have one last getaway before that happened. However, because our income wasn’t in a spot to be able to spend a lot on travel, we had to find a way to travel on a budget— especially considering we had already done a big Italy trip earlier this summer. So here is how we cut costs and traveled on a budget for this trip!

Generous Family Members

First and foremost, I just have to say that we have awesome family members. Because of their hospitality, we were able to have a free place to stay, transportation, and food to eat during the duration of our stay. One draw to Washington DC for us was the fact that we had family that live about an hour outside of the city. They let us know that they were more than willing to house us and give us food whenever we were around.

We went into the trip thinking we needed to rent a car and buy groceries, but because of their hospitality, we didn’t have to do any of that! That helped us save A TON of money on this trip. They were nice enough to drop us off at the nearest metro station and even let us borrow their car one day when we wanted to drive down to Mount Vernon! They also had enough food for us to make sandwiches and pack snacks for the day so we didn’t have to eat out for every meal. Those two things alone saved us a few hundred dollars. Beyond that, most of the things we did were pretty reasonable in terms of price!

Southwest Companion Pass

For those who haven’t heard of the Southwest Companion Pass or don’t have one, it’s time to learn about it and get yourself one! It is probably one of the best travel hacks out there. We will post an article soon about how we got it, but to sum it up, our family of three was able to fly round-trip to Washington DC only having to pay the taxes and fees (which was about $22)! I’m a big believer that you make or break a trip’s budget on the flight, so being able to only spend $22 for a round-trip vacation across the country was pretty incredible and made our trip much more doable. Our flights were direct as well, so that was a double bonus!

The one downside to flying with Southwest is that there are no assigned seats and you are boarded based on different priority rankings. Luckily, because we were traveling with a baby, we were able to board after the A-list members so finding a row to ourselves wasn’t an issue at all.

Favorite Sites and Experiences

Now that you know how were were able to save money, let’s talk about what we did and what we loved about our trip! I have to say that we lucked out with the weather. We arrived in DC at the tail end of Hurricane Florence and although DC wasn’t hit directly by the storm, we expected to have at least a few rainy days. Luckily, there was only one day with rain and it was still very manageable. For the rest of the week, we enjoyed very mild weather that was probably about as perfect as you can get. That made things much more enjoyable, particularly since we were traveling with our daughter.

Museums

We aren’t necessarily big museum-goers but we there were a few museums we were excited to go see. Here are some of the museums we visited and our thoughts on each one!

Holocaust Museum

Based on some conversations I had with people, this wasn’t their first choice of museum due to the somber nature of it, but having previously lived in Germany and visiting actual concentration camps, we were pretty set on visiting it. It was a very sobering experience, particularly when they have you walk through a room where you are surrounded by the shoes of thousands of victims. This was probably the most powerful exhibit in the museum. The Holocaust Museum as a whole served as a good reminder that humans are capable of incomprehensible cruelty and that if we aren’t careful, history can repeat itself. It is definitely a museum people should experience at least once in their lifetime.

American History Museum

If you want a museum with lots of variety and odds and ends of American History, this is definitely the place to go! We rushed through it because there were only a few things that really drew our attention. The biggest draw for us was seeing the original Star Spangled Banner that was hung at Fort McHenry. Having visited the fort just a few days earlier, it was really neat to see the actual flag that inspired our national anthem. I was surprised how massive it was! Some other cool things that my wife and I enjoyed were the exhibits showing all of the First Ladies’ Inaugural Dresses and the hat that Abraham Lincoln wore on the night of his assassination.

National Archives

Seeing some of the founding documents of the USA was pretty incredible. Most of the Declaration of Independence was faded to the point of being unable to read any of it, but it was still amazing to think about the significance of what was in front of us. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution are also housed here so stopping by the National Archives is a must when going to DC!

Museum of Natural History

The Hope Diamond was super overrated. Sure, it’s a very valuable and gorgeous diamond, but I thought there were a lot of other gems and exhibits that were far more interesting. Maybe my unrealistic expectation of seeing a ginormous diamond ruined it for me, but when I saw the actual diamond I was pretty disappointed. Seeing actual mummies, fossils, and other rare gems, on the other hand, was absolutely fascinating!

Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport

Based on recommendations from family members, we took a trip outside of the National Mall to the other Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. It was fantastic! You basically walk into this huge hangar where a wide variety of aircrafts from the beginning of aviation through modern space travel are housed. I loved seeing some of the first airplanes ever created. It truly is remarkable how far technology has advanced and this museum definitely highlights that.

Other amazing exhibits included an SR-71 Blackbird, which was a stealthy reconnaissance aircraft used during the Cold War. This thing was crazy fast. For reference, the average speed of a bullet is 1,700 miles per hour… This plane had a top speed of 2,200 MPH! Unreal. The most impressive exhibit, however, was the Discovery Shuttle. I have never seen a space shuttle in real life and it did not disappoint! If you are able to get outside of DC, go to the Air and Space Museum for sure!

Monuments and Other Sites

When it comes to vacationing and sightseeing, we are definitely more of a monument and historical sites type of family. Washington DC has tons of awesome monuments too! And better yet, a lot of them are fairly close together! Granted, walking to all of the monuments will definitely wear you out but it’s worth it! One of my favorite parts about the National Mall was seeing the impressive Washington Memorial just about anywhere you went. It stands alone and soars above any other building in DC. Apparently, no building in the city is allowed to be taller than the monument either!

Having recently gone to Italy, it was pretty cool to see the influence of Roman Architecture on a lot of the symbols of DC. The Capitol building’s dome is modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica and is very impressive! We were able to tour the Capitol and going inside of the dome was one of the coolest parts. The Jefferson Memorial is also modeled after the Pantheon, so there is lots of cool architecture in the city! Another cool example of architecture is the Lincoln Memorial. Although not modeled after Roman Architecture, it is modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Pretty awesome! It took us a few days of being in DC before we got around to visiting the actual monuments and I have to say, the trip did not feel complete until we saw these monuments. That was by far my favorite part of DC!

Getting outside of DC was also incredibly fun and something we would definitely recommend. Our favorite site outside of the Mall was George Washington’s Mount Vernon. It was truly amazing! It was fun touring through Washington’s old residence. He basically had his own little village. The most amazing part was the scenery though. Mt. Vernon is perched on top of hill that overlooks the Potomac, and the view is stunning. If you get a chance to get out of the city, definitely go here!

Another day trip we took was to Baltimore where we went to Fort McHenry and visited the National Aquarium. Fort McHenry had a pretty powerful presentation that gave the background story of the battle and events that took place there that inspired our national anthem. At the end of the presentation, they play the anthem and lift up the screen, revealing windows that look out to the fort and you see the American flag waving in the distance in the middle of the fort. It was pretty awesome!

The aquarium was also very big and fun! I think Adelyn really enjoyed seeing all of the color fish! We even got to touch some jellyfish and see a dolphin show! I had heard from some coworkers that this aquarium was probably the best in the country and it definitely didn’t disappoint! There were a ton of exhibits with a huge variety of fish. The dolphin show was really fun and at one point, you walk down this spiral ramp where you are surrounded by sharks. Absolutely amazing! If you have kids, this is something they would really enjoy!

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Now, we understand that not every trip can be done for $300, particularly when going across the country. We lucked out that we had family living close to DC and that they were so accommodating. But what can be done is traveling on a budget! If you want to travel, then find creative ways to save money! Whether that is through travel hacking, staying with family and friends, or just being particular about what you spend your money on, you can find ways to travel for cheap! And if you are looking for somewhere fun to go and have never been to Washington DC, we would definitely recommend going!

PERSONAL

Name: Phil and Hannah Kirkeiner

Age: 25 & 21

Your home/airport location: We’re both from Fishers, IN, but currently live in Provo, UT. So our go-to airports are IND & SLC

Career/Source of regular income: I’ve sold pest control during the last two summers to pay for school and trips, and then Hannah works part-time during the school year performing at ComedySportz and ImprovBroadway which are improv comedy clubs in Provo. Besides that we make a few grand a year by taking advantage of bank account bonuses like the ones you can find on Bankbonus.co.

GENERAL TRAVEL

Why do you like to travel?

Travelling is awesome because (1) it motivates me to take action, (2) it’s exciting, and (3) the memories last longer.

I didn’t travel much outside of the Midwest growing up. So to think of California, Europe, Asia, Central America, as real places that I could actually get up and go see whenever I wanted was completely foreign to me. But then I served a mission in Honduras and I could not BELIEVE how different it was from everything I had experienced before! And then ever since I got home I looked at other places on the map and decided I could just GO if I wanted to. And I did, and have since been to loads of places by myself and now with my wife. So basically travelling is a constant reminder that nothing is stopping me from going where I want to go both literally and figuratively. Plus, when you travel with friends the memories last forever and the bond is a lot stronger than when you just hang out at home or in class. I love it.

Where have you been? What was your favorite vacation?

We recently wrapped up a 2 month trip to Europe which was an absolute dream! We travelled through 11 countries – Iceland, then Scotland, England, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, and finally Italy. We went this last summer from early July to late August after having worked hard the previous few months before.

We lived on a very modest budget, often in private rooms through Airbnb and hostels. Occasionally in more expensive places like Iceland we camped or slept in our rental car. This trip was unique in that we did not plan the whole thing out beforehand, we only planned about a week ahead of time. When we started out we had our flights to Europe and back booked with points but nothing in between was set besides our first night in Iceland and our rental car for that week.

Each place was unique but we especially liked Iceland, Menorca (one of the Balearic islands off Spain), and everywhere in Switzerland. In Iceland we rented a cheap car from Sixt and drove around the whole island. My word, the landscape is impressive. Like a dream. Then Menorca had the clearest, bluest beaches we’ve ever seen. Tucked in the Mediterranean, there were no big waves like you’d see against the Atlantic of Pacific. The beaches there weren’t what you’re used to, either. Each beach was part of a rock-walled cove that jutted inland about a hundred yards or so. It was so cool. Then Switzerland just is gorgeous everywhere, the Alps are blanketed green with beautiful, sharp rock peaks. We stayed in Switzerland for a total of about 10 days, it was the bomb.

That was the most recent trip which was awesome, but in the past we’ve gone to California for fun since it’s close to Utah, Arizona for weddings and whatnot, Costa Rica for our honeymoon, and I went back to Honduras just before we got married. I also did a study abroad in Spain a few years ago which was fun.

What vacations do you have planned? As of now we don’t really have anything set because we got pretty burnt out after Europe, haha. But we have a lot of Southwest points to redeem so next year we want to go to a lot of these places:

• Washington, DC (Hannah’s been a million times but I’ve never been, crazy right?)
• Boston
• Washington & Oregon (we are considering living there after Hannah graduates)
• Cancun, Mexico (we have some hotel rewards we want to redeem)
• Caribbean cruise out of Fort Lauderdale (hopefully whatever job after December graduation is flexible so I have is flexible so we can do that!)

We also go back to Indiana a few times per year to see family!

What’s your dream vacation?

My dream vacation is to island hop in the Pacific on a small plane, where I can scuba dive all over the place and stay in fancy hotels with loads of steak. Hannah’s dream vacation is to hike to base camp at Mount Everest.

TIPS

What advice would you give to people wanting to travel more?

We firmly believe that pretty much anyone can afford travel, regardless of your circumstances . The only difference between those who travel and those who don’t is their priorities. Just make it happen.

How do you afford your travel?

We work hard in the summers with sales to afford life’s necessities, and then get flights for free through credit card signup bonuses. We also use bank bonuses to fund experiences like boat rides and whatnot while were travelling.

What are some ways you’ve learned to save money while traveling?

Hannah actually wrote a little blog post about this on her blog.

Do you prefer to travel domestically or internationally?

Lately it’s seemed like we prefer international travel but there’s a ton to do here in the US. Next year we plan to spend a lot more time exploring our own country before going off to anywhere super crazy.

SPECIFICS

Do you have a favorite airline?

Southwest is our best friend for traveling in and around the U.S. We’ve collected enough points to earn the coveted “companion pass” which cuts the cost of every traveling in HALF because gets my wife on any flight I’m taking for free. We also love the flexibility that comes with booking with points because it allows us to book a flight months in advance on a whim when we get a trip idea, then if we get closer to the date and realize the trip isn’t gonna work out, we can cancel without any repercussions or fees.

Hotel or AirBnB?

AirBnB 100%. We like to travel as thrifty as possible so we love AirBnBs for their kitchens. The first thing we do when we get to our destination is find a grocery store and stock up on simple, easy, and cheap meals we can pack for the day and cook for dinner.

Rental car or public transportation?

We always end up getting a rental car for at least some of our trip. Public transportation is AWESOME, but sometimes it doesn’t cut it when you wanna go off and take a day trip to something out of the way of the city. Plus, when we get rental cars, we know we always have the option of sleeping in the back seat when money gets tight haha. And sometimes if you run the numbers, getting a rental car is cheaper than paying for two people’s public transport anyway (ESPECIALLY if you intend to use a lot of Ubers or Lyfts)

What’s your least favorite part about traveling?

It’s always so hard to openly complain about aspects of traveling because “how can you complain when you’re living the dream?!” That being said… traveling cheap is pretty uncomfortable sometimes. Carrying stuff with you, not ever feeling *really* satisfied after a meal, sleeping in hot rooms with no AC, worrying about your stuff being safe — it gets annoying after awhile. That said, it obviously doesn’t outweigh the rest of the experience!

What do you do in between traveling while waiting for your next trip?

Well we’re both students sooo a lot of homework haha. It always takes a week or so to get the travel itch back after a big adventure, but as soon as we’ve finally fallen back into some semblance of a stable routine we find ourselves planning our next trip. // Travel… haha we live in, arguably, the most beautiful state in the country so when we’re not jetting off to other states or countries, we’re exploring our own state.

MISCELLANEOUS

Tell us about your new website, www.bankbonus.co

It’s a pretty simple concept – banks want new customers so they incentive people with cash to open a checking account with them. Bankbonus.co helps people take advantage and make lots of free money.

What Bankbonus.co does is compile every checking account promotion in the country and allow you to search and filter through the promotions to find the easiest bonuses. Since opening a checking account doesn’t affect your credit like credit cards and other loans, you can open just about as many as you please. On average even college students can make around $3,000 per year by taking advantage.

I’d say the *total* amount of effort required to fulfill the requirements for each bonus is about one hour, so you come out making around $100 to $200 per hour depending on what’s available. I’ve been taking advantage of these bonuses for a few years so my friends and I thought we’d make it a little easier for people. Pretty nifty, check it out!

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I met Phil in college and learned about his new website there. It is such an awesome idea! Check it out and start earning some free money!

Hopefully this travel interview inspired you to travel more! If you or anyone you know are interested in being interviewed, leave us a comment or send us a message!

First, have low expectations- it can only get better from there! I say that half jokingly, but I really think that expectations can make or break you in any aspect of life! Being able to roll with the punches is a great quality to have, so don’t plan on your little one sleeping through your drive and instead anticipate a few car seat meltdowns! Then, if they do melt down, you’ll be prepared, and it’s a major bonus if they don’t!

Second, have plenty of entertainment! This wasn’t as necessary when our baby was smaller, he didn’t really care for toys, movie, or any of the other typical road trip pastimes. Once he got a little older though it was nice to be able to have things to help keep him happy and from feeling like he was just trapped in the backseat. He loves music (especially The Greatest Showman soundtrack haha!) and that helps him stay happy, and even lulls him to sleep when we’re lucky! We have interactive toys, stuffed animals and teething toys that he enjoys playing with and they really come in handy on long drives. Since he’s gotten older we’ve been able to play movies (or at least little snippets of movies) and he thinks that’s so fun! I usually sit in the front seat on trips, but occasionally will sit in the back with him to play little games or hold his hand if he’s really upset.

Third, make stops! Casey and I used to always power through trips, stopping only to get gas, use the bathroom and grab food at a drive-thru. Babies need to be changed and eat more frequently than adults, so we have had to change things to accommodate this. If he is asleep, we power through and try to get as far as we can before stopping again, but we also plan for stops every so often to make sure he’s fed, clean and happy. We now typically eat our meals inside the fast food joint instead of in the car, which gives our baby time to stretch, play and enjoy not being cooped up! As he gets older, we plan to make stops at parks , play places and other spots where he can run around and get his wiggles out!

Lastly, be patient and understand that they don’t understand! Some babies love their car seat and will have no problem being in there for 6+ hours, but it seems most don’t find it to be their favorite thing. When they are whining or crying for your attention, they aren’t trying to drive you up a wall as you drive along, but if you start them young and make family traditions out of road tripping, it’s something they will come to enjoy and love!

Remember, it’s all about the journey. You’ll be to your destination or getting home soon enough, and sometimes it’s just everything you can do to simply make it there! But road trips are about more than just getting to your destination, you are creating life-long family memories along the way!

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UPDATE (6-28-18):

Part 2: Wandering through the Vatican is now done! Check it out!

UPDATE (6-29-18):

Part 3: Weekend in Florence!

UPDATE (7-2-18):

Part 4: Hiking in the Cinque Terre

Enjoy

Final Budget-to-actual

Our original budget for the trip was $2,591.60 and we ended up landing at $2,652.46. I will note, however, that this amount is our best approximation of what we actually spent and is not 100% accurate. One thing that made it difficult is that quite often, we would get to a restaurant and one of us would pay for the group with cash, then for the next meal the other couple paid for us on the card to make up for it. This pattern continued the whole trip, so it was pretty difficult to track what the exact dollar amount was for food between all the cash and the cards. So keep that in mind as I continue.

Looking at results above, one of the biggest reasons we came in at about $61 over budget was due to a tourist tax we had kind of heard about before the trip, but did not take into account completely while budgeting. That was a rookie mistake on our part, but for future travelers to Rome, keep in mind that AirBnB’s will charge you a tourist tax that the city imposes on travelers for accommodations.  That was kind of a bummer, but luckily it didn’t set us back much.

Another reason was due to us being a little to optimistic about the cost of the AirBnB in Rome and the hotel in Newark. We could’ve gone cheaper if we wanted, but we would’ve sacrificed some benefits that ended up being more convenient and time-freeing than other options. Which we’re OK with, considering time and convenience are worth a lot on vacation.

Glancing at the rest of the bugdet-to-actual, a lot of the budget surpluses and deficits cancelled each other out. These items were things that generally occurred due to changes to our plans while in Italy (e.g. not paying to visit certain Duomo sites because they were fully booked and we couldn’t do it; or not needing a sim card after all because we found other ways of making it work, etc.)

Judge us how you will, but overall I’m pretty happy about where we landed. Sure, we spent more than we budgeted, but considering some of the things that came up and our overly-optimistic views of some expenses, the final result of a $61 deficit is something we can live with. But stopping there would not be a great budget review. Whenever my wife and I budget, we like to not only see what we did well on and what we could improve, but we also like to talk about what we learned that we can apply going forward. So let’s talk about the lessons we learned!

Lesson 1: Build flexibility into the budget

Anyone who has ever budgeted knows that it is pretty difficult to always be 100% accurate and on-target with a budget. This trip was no exception. It’s hard to know and plan for every little expense that comes up. You never know how much you will use public transportation while you are traveling, or how much the food will actually cost. In our case, we rarely used public transportation in Florence like expected cause the city was much more walkable than we expected. Also, most restaurants had a cover charge that we didn’t really know about ahead of time. Little things like that can throw your budget off really quick, and assuredly will.

This trip was just another testament that it is important to build in some kind of flexibility into your budget. You can do this by either over-estimating on expenses or creating a “flex account” for your budget. My wife and I try and do this for our personal budget so that way unplanned or unforeseen expenses don’t throw us off in any way.

Lesson 2: Be willing to pay for extra time and convenience

When we first planned for the trip, we were all about cutting costs and finding the cheapest available options. After some planning and especially after the trip, we realized that sometimes it’s worth it to pay more if it means freeing up time on your trip. When you only have a week or two on vacation, you want to be able to use every second you can doing the things you actually want to do. This means that you might want to pay a few extra bucks to get a train that goes from Rome to Florence without stopping instead of a cheaper option that has multiple stops. Or it might mean paying more for one AirBnB/hotel because it is closer to public transportation or the sites you want to see. Flights can be included in this conversation as well, but for us, we are trying to find a balance between traveling cheap and traveling conveniently. One day, we hope the cost won’t be an issue and we can spend more on flights. But until then, we are all about traveling on a budget!

Lesson 3: Budget first, then forget about it

This lesson applies more to vacations than it does for regular budgeting, but it is super important to budget before you leave on your trip, then once you arrive at your destination, FORGET ABOUT IT AND ENJOY YOUR TRIP! Now, I’m not saying to throw your plans out the window and go crazy with your spending, but don’t just sit there and worry about your budget. You are supposed to be on vacation after all! If you make a solid plan ahead of time, then you’ll know what things you should and shouldn’t do with your money on your trip. Flexibility, as already mentioned, is also important on the trip. For example, we had some nights when we splurged on dinner, and others when we found cheaper options. In the end, we knew it would all average out and it did, and we were pretty close to our estimate. If you have a plan, it is easier to know when to make concessions with your spending, and when to be more frugal without having to think about it too much.

Going forward, I think these 3 lessons will help us in our future budgets, particularly with our vacation splurges. We are so excited to start planning for the next trip! Hopefully, we can continue to find ways to save money while still making the most of our trips! We would love to hear from our readers about any ways you are able to strike a balance between being frugal and enjoying your trips. Comment below and share any ideas, thoughts, and experiences you have had! We are all learning together

Vacations can be a big expense, and even the “little expenses” can add up quickly! We have a few frugal tips on how you can save on trips and travel, making it a less stressful (at least financially) experience.

Have a vacation budget and stick to it. This one is the biggest tip and should be applied in every day life, but comes in handy on vacation! You can read all about How to Set A Budget and by doing so you will be better prepared for your trip, but also won’t have to do damage control afterwards with a credit card statement that went waaay over what you could afford. We also advise using cash whenever possible as this will help you better stay on budget as well! We never went out with all of our cash in our wallet, just in case. We just bring what we think we’ll need for the day and leave the rest back with our luggage.

Plan ahead. There is something to be said about spontaneous adventures, but it is good to have a tentative itinerary to help you make the most of your trip and to keep to your budget in tact. By planning ahead you can have ideas as to what you want to see, do, and most importantly for me EAT! On our recent Italy trip we tried to pick a few attractions per day that we knew for sure we wanted to see, then fit in other little things where possible. Planning ahead helped us best utilize our time and make sure we saw the things we most wanted to see!

Get water with your meals (or bring water with you). We all know that we need to be drinking a lot of water every day, so this is not only a healthy option, but also a very frugal one as water is typically free. In Italy, however, we discovered that water does not come complimentary like it does in the states, so we would drink from the water bottles we had on us. Some people may frown on this, but we never had anyone at a restaurant say anything to us about it. It saved us a good chunk of change over the course of our trip!

Make your own meals. Eating out always seems to add up quickly and can eat away at your budget! One way to help cut down on this cost is to bring/ make your own meals. This is especially easy for meals such as breakfast, which can be made and eaten at home before you set out for the day, or even taken with you on the run. Some of our go-to breakfast ideas include cereal, oatmeal, granola bars with fruit, bagels and muffins. Lunch is another easy one that you can make before you leave and then store in your bag until you are ready to eat it later on in the day. Some simple lunch ideas include sandwiches, salads and leftovers. Along with this I would also advise bringing snacks along, whether you have kids or not! This helps keep you energized and from having to stop to buy much pricier foods to tie you over until your next meal.

Know what things cost. Have you ever wanted something, or even gone to purchase it just to find that it was much pricier than you’d expected? This is always such a bummer, especially when you could have bought something comparable for a lesser price! By knowing the cost of something, no matter what it is, it helps you to not only keep track of your expenses, but also make wise purchases.

Do research before you go. I love finding deals on things and look for them on just about everything I purchase! For example, we knew we wanted to visit the Vatican City on our trip to Rome, so we looked online in advance to see what the best way to go about this was. We were able to purchase tickets that were less expensive than if we were to have bought them there and also found other peoples’ tips and tricks on how to get around. By searching online you can find discounted tickets, special deals, and even free attractions! Plus this helps you to plan ahead which saves you time and money!

Travel by train, bus or other public transit. Depending on where you are visiting this isn’t always the cheapest option, but especially in large cities this can be a very cost effective way to get around! It was much cheaper and easier for us to get a day pass for the bus or subway rather than call and wait for an Uber anytime we wanted to get somewhere. This was also a fun way to really see the cities we visited.

Don’t buy souvenirs that don’t have a purpose. I take this approach with any purchase I make, but find it very important while traveling not to spend money just for the sake of having a souvenir. There’s a quote I love that reads, “In the end, all we have left are memories. Bits and pieces of the time we’ve spent together. No matter how long the time was, it’ll never seem like enough…” This is so true, and even though I think it can be fun to have things to help you hold onto those memories, you don’t want to end up with a house full of meaningless knick knacks! We like to take photos of the places we visit and then have them printed into a book so that we’ll actually look back on them instead of having them sit on our phones or a hard drive. We also like to create a “tradition” out of our souvenirs we do purchase by collecting certain things from each place we visit. Our tradition is Christmas ornaments, which is fun to look back over the years at all the places we’ve gone. Other ideas we’ve seen are things like fridge magnets, paintings to frame on your wall back home, postcards that are then kept in a memory book, or patches or pins that can be kept on a jacket or blanket. These are all good ways to take something home from your trip without spending a lot or acquiring shelves and shelves of unnecessary “stuff”.

Vacations, although fun and exciting, can often become stressful. Don’t let money add to that stress! We would love to hear some of your experiences and ways you like to save money while on vacation in the comments below!