LivingAlmostLarge's Personal Finance Blog

So we had basically a month without our mortgage. Not including utilities and insurance and other stuff we were going to be spending $2500 on just the mortgage and property taxes. So I figured if we spent around there or less we'd come out ahead.

Our total hotel/camping spending came out to $1832.70 for 27 days and that included two mistakes and a huge overspend the night before we left. I also did not deduct my $50 gift card from choice hotels for two nights stay.

First off I'd like to say camping is a super cheap vacation. We spent 9 days camping for a total of $268.33. That includes paying $27.13 for a campsite one night we didn't use. So we should have spent $241.20 on average $30/night. We spent 18 days in hotels for $1654.81 averaging $87/night.

However with the hotels we made two mistakes one in Niagara Falls leaving early and paying $44 for a night we didn't stay. Second the night before we left we were staying by the airport. Unfortunately the Rodeway Inn I booked only had smoking rooms which were unacceptable and which I was refunded our money. But we had to scramble literally in the Rodeway Inn's parking lot for another place to stay on a Friday night before Saturday flights. I ended up staying at a ridiculous DoubleTree Hotel for $159.20. We had made a conscious decision to leave the car at our new place and wanted to stay within shuttle distance of the airport since our flights were at 8 am.

But overall we did well for the month. I was hoping to stay under $1500 but $1800 for the month was a great deal. That leaves me with I budgeted $1500 for food for the month eating out and stuff.

I am going to guess we may have gone over $1500 for experiences and food. I was trying to stay under $100/day but we'll see. Traveling and buying as you go makes food very expensive. Somewhat like trying to sell a home and move, you are eating from the pantry but also not shopping in bulk or sales. Instead trying to cobble together meals and buy stuff to compliment what you have rather than truly meal plan.

So our budget has been pretty blown these past few months. I shudder at trying to run the numbers.

Interesting question whether a person should vacation now before retirement or later after retirement. Should a person be fiscally responsible earlier in life or relax a bit and travel and spend money earlier?

We did the more prudent thing in our 20s and traveled less than if we had been spendy. With our time and income we could have easily have traveled more. But we didn't. We were financially prudent. I sort of regret it.

But doing so allowed us to do other things like stay at home, travel now, move, etc. So it was a conscious trade off. 10 years of being "frugal" and responsible for this next year of being "indulgent".

But do I regret not traveling? Yes and No. I think I once read that when you are young you have time and no money, but as you get older you have money and no time. I find that to be incredibly true.

We have the money now to travel or relax and but with kids the time is way to precious and there is less of it. Our trips now are kid oriented instead of what we would do. My big trip I wish we had done was Macchu Picchu and Galapago. But who knows.

Do you think travel when young or travel after retirement? I will say we did travel quite a bit still just not as much as we could have. We did both domestic and international travel.

We arrived on Sunday into the city and start hunting for apartment/houses. Before we arrived I had started calling/emailing property managers, listing agents on Thursday and Friday attempting to set up appointments to see places.

On Sunday we saw five places. I had contacted one property manager and asked to see 4 places she had with her company windermere and was told she was unable to show me the places and would get back to me. She also said some places did not take dogs and she didn't want to bother contacting the owners though it said in the ad "pets on case by case basis". Basic she was a lazy property manager and "too busy" to deal with issues.

So out of the four houses I was interested in from Thursday it took me a week to finally see on the next Thursday. Also it took a realtor from another company to show us the house with a lockbox. The house was $2200/month for a 3 bd/2.5 ba in the exact neighborhood we rented in. By the time that happened we had found a different house also 3/2.5ba for $2400/month.

On thursday with two applications pending we went with the more expensive home. My DH and I both liked it better. But more importantly we found the property manager a great guy honest and quick to deal with.

I'll be honest I hesitated a lot for $200/month but then decided to suck it up. Well turns out good thing I did. I read the Yelp reviews for windermere property management and they had horrible reviews about people suing to get back deposits and contracts falling. I ended up writing a negative review as well because it was a horrible experience.

Perhaps the house we rented isn't worth $200 more a month, but then again. If we lose our entire deposit when we move out because the rental company is dishonest and fraudulent then it'd be the same. Besides my gut tells me our property manager will fix things and be honest with us and return calls. I had a bad feeling about renting from a property management company that had such negative reviews.

Experiences? Or landlords? Do you ever fire big companies? Or is it the individual manager? I wish I could tell the owner of the house we considered the horrible service they were getting. That the house was sitting vacant an extra two weeks because the people they hired were incompetent and lazy.

Lots has happened and I'm still really busy. Right now we are still on "vacation" but there is a lot to accomplish. I can't believe we did it. We traveled cross country with the kids and left everything we knew behind including a job and money. The house sold smoothly and we are in a new phase of life.

But I have to say our trip was amazing and spectacular. It was a once in a lifetime experience and something I don't know we'll ever have the opportunity to do again. I hope I can get these photos uploaded. This has been a struggle so I apologize for the non sequential order of photos.

I want to say we unfortunately missed glacier national park because of a forest fire. But we did other great things. I also have to say my perfect photo came at Bighorn National Forest (for everyone in Wyoming you live in BEAUTIFUL place). But I loved the Grand Tetons probably the most.

And once we crossed into Washington as we drove through the Rockies my DH said he felt he'd come home. He missed seeing his Rockies and felt happier. I can't explain the feeling of belonging. You can't tell me the Pacific NW has bad weather because I embrace it. It just fit us. I can't explain this feeling.

Sounds nuts but quite a few relatives live in the area and have told me they love it. They miss Hawaii but at the same time it feels like home. And I know exactly what they are saying. I felt it. I stepped into a place where I belonged. And my DH just kept pointing out stuff he'd done as a child in the area. I think we're home for better or worse. This is it for us.

Badlands national park

Badlands National Park with Car

Bighorn National Forest

Bison herd Custer State Park

Bison by our car

Corn Palace Mitchell

Coeur d'Alene

Crazy Horse Memorial

Bighorn National Forest Lake we camped at. I cried when I saw this. I actually have a picture of the family standing there in awe. It was a perfect moment. I'll consider uploading maybe later.

Grand Tetons

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mount Rushmore

Mackinac Island (Cool no vehicles)

Fort Mackinac

Soo Locks

Gouda!!!

Picture Rocks Lakefront Amazing

Old Faithful

Crystal Cave

I'll summarize what our costs were when I figure it out. I will also discuss our situation for food and arriving.

Quick note my neighbors listed their house yesterday for $729k. Exact same layout, size, age, and condition. One difference is side by side parking instead of tandem. I'm curious if they can land a buyer quickly.

I wrote about how it can be hard to break an old habit. My DH and I were both raised on cheap places to stay. This trip though since we are staying in hotels for 28 days I've tried to minimize costs since we are eating out a meals pretty much. But of course we are camping for about a week broken up. Which will help bring the average down. But I am trying to stay below a $100 a day for food and $100 day for hotels. I also told my DH if we are below $100 on the hotel it makes the food for the day more palatable spending $100. Which isn't easy for a family of four three meals a day. If we were staying in one city a guaranteed hotel with a fridge and not packing up daily we could nake sandwiches. But the daily grind of driving makes it harder and not knowing where we are staying.

The first night for $62 was really a great deal for the red roof inn. Great location off the freeway and they took dogs and free wifi. The dog issue is a pain in the butt. With a dog when traveling you are worrying about them barking snd disturbing thneighbors. We arrived around 10 pm and left at 630 am. So literally a place to sleep that was safe and clean and convenient. It was very clean and exterior was nice. And very kind about the dog. I was not about to stay any where I'd have to sneak him in. Really a great deal.

But our hotel in Niagara Falls was cheap and terrible. It was supposed to be $48 all in buy we lwft after one night so it was $96 for a hotel that said wifi but didn't work. And was quite dirty. But niagara falls is a tourist destination so we probably should have spent
more. Our really bad mistake for a place to stay.

The econolodge in bay city michigan was great for $59.60. It had wifi, laundry, even a hot breakfast of waffles, bagels, etc. Very clean and easy to get on and off the freeway. My DH agreed it was a good pick. I'm not sure I guess a breakfast for a family of 4 at McDonalds would run $10?

The k royal inn in st igance michgian was not a bad deal for $71.6. The first room we had smell so they switched us without argument. There was a pool and laundry to use. And the breakfast while not hot was fine. A little pricey i felt but a tourist town during peak season to go to Mackinac island.

Then we were supposed to stay at America's Best inn but due a mixup we were switched to the Best Western in Sault Ste Marie. The best western was really great. It was the same price because of the mixup so we paid $63.41 for a very clean, upscale compared to what we had been staying ing. The breakfast was hot and nice. A bargain.

We then camped at picture rock national lakefront for $14. Can't be beat, but the flies nearly ate us alive. We barely got out of there.

We moved onto Green Bay where we stayed at the Radisson by the airport. It was $90.96, more than I wanted to pay but after reading reviews online of the motel 6 we decided to go with something we felt was safer and cleaner. It was way to high class. It was attached to the Oneida Casino and very nice. But no breakfast and it was a pain in the ass to park because of the casino. But it was really big, nice, and spacious. One major negative was the lack of guest laundry.

Then we headed to Minneapolis and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express by the Mall of America for $84.88. Again more than we wanted, but this was by far the best deal. They were super accomodating, brought us a fridge for the room, and just really clean and helpful. The laundry of course was super efficient taking credit cards to boot. The breakfast was hot and varied. And the location near the mall was great.

We then ended up at the Ramada Inn in Mitchell, SD. OMG it was terrible and worse because we paid $76.22. Part of it was how small the town was but we wanted a shorter drive instead of Sioux Falls to Badlands National Park. It did have a hot breakfast but the hotel was dirty, disgusting, and beetles everywhere in the room. Tons of bugs and just overall gross. Granted I know from reviews no hotel in Mitchell is very clean, so from reviews I had read I was expecting bad. But I can't imagine how much worse some of the cheaper places were. At least we got to see the Corn Palace and have a shorter drive to the badlands.

So far we'd spent $619 on hotels for 9 days and we were heading into the camping portion of our trip. I'll talk about what we saw and how we camped later.

It has been worth every penny. What we've seen and experienced has been unbelievable. Until you've driven cross country the vastness of the country doesn't hit you. It unbelievable the beauty and diversity of our country. I am so happy to have had this experience and I know my kids won't really remember it. I am having a fabulous time experiencing it with them.

I realized that old habits are hard to break. I find that even now traveling with our kids and getting older I'm reluctant to spend more on our hotels. I do spend more because I need a bigger room, but the the level of hotels aren't so much more expensive than when DH and I traveled solo.

The level of hotel I've come to realize is substantially lower than most of our friends. Most tell me then never spend less than $100 or $125+. They look for hotels with pools and location and name. I will admit based on our income we likely should be spending more on hotels. Our next hotel stay is $60 for America's Best Value Inn.

But at the same time where we stay makes it more palatable for us to drop extra cash on experiences. Recently because the hotels we were staying at were less than $100 we made up for it by doing a Niagara Falls boat tour, Whirlpool Aero Car Ride, and renting bikes at Mackinac Island. The bike rental was $100 for 3 hours.

But at the same time if we spent more I think I might really examine what "experiences" we want to do when we are traveling instead of just doing them.

Do you find you've changed the way you travel as you've gotten older? Or stayed the same?

I wonder if I'll ever feel comfortable just booking a hotel without considering costs? And yes I will admit to spending more but it was Manhattan and it can't be helped there. Our most recent NYC trip we spent $200/night in the financial district and it was a king size bed for all four of us.

I write this because my DH mentioned perhaaps we should consider upgrading and staying somewhere nicer. FWIW with one exception everywhere we've stayed has exceeded expectations.

I haven't had time to do photos but I'll tell you what happened. We left town around 3 pm. Exhausted we had dinner in Syracuse at Dinosaur BBQ and stayed overnight in Rochester at Red Roof Inn. It cost us $62 includes taxes for the night, took dogs, and very clean and comfortable.

We left early the next morning for Niagara Falls, ON. My DH drove on to Pearsons Toronto Airport to ship our dog. He went to DH's parents until the end of August. I believe it cost us $250 to ship as cargo on top of the $90 international health certificate.

We stayed at the Crystal Inn in Niagara Falls and it was terrible. We had booked 2 nights thinking we needed extra time because of the dog, but decided to move on the next day. Unfortunately I booked the hotel through Booking.com and was unable to change the reservation. So the $96 we spent for 2 night was $96 for 1 night in a really crappy hotel. Oh well say la vie.

I will say we had a great time in Niagara Falls and we did the Whirlpool Aero Car and Hornblower Cruise. The kids loved both and my DH had a blast though he's been dozens of times to Niagara Falls. He thoroughly enjoyed himself seeing the kids get soaked on the boat and loving the night scene at the Falls. We had actually gone back about 3 years ago, but our oldest didn't remember a thing. Kids make sometimes the same trip more pleasurable having experienced it through new eyes.

We drove the next day to Bay City, MI and just spent the night at the Econolodge at the rate of $59.60 night all taxes included. It was very clean and much bigger than we are used to. This was just a place to rest as we continued to St. Ignace, MI.

We stayed at St Ignace overnight so we could do Mackinac Island. We stayed at K Royal Motel for $71.60. It was fine. The real gem was going to Mackinac Island. The island has no transportation other than horse carriage or bikes or walking. So we rented 2 bikes and 2 bike carriers and did the 8 miles loop of the island. Our kids love biking and so do we and it was great. Took us 3 hours including stopping for lunch but the pictures and pleasure was amazing.

We also walked the Fort Mackinac and the town. Even the ferry ride over from St Ignace was great. We went under the "mighty mac" Mackinaw Bridge. FWIW it's a lot easier to go from St. Ignace than Mackinaw City. The ferry ride is only 15 minutes, except when they go under the Bridge.

The food along the way has been interesting an exceptional. I'll post photos later. But it's truly been a pleasure.

Next up was the Soo Locks in Sault Ste Marie. It was something cool for the kids and we enjoyed seeing a part of Canada my DH's never been too. We've actually done a boat tour of the Yangtze River which was very similar but on a much larger scale.

Then we're moving onto camping at Picture Rock National Lakefront. I can't wait.

Our home sold on Tuesday July 7th. We officially are debt free and don't own a home. In many ways it's very freeing. Since we've been on the road I'm not sure what fees and will look over when we have a chance. But overall life is GREAT.

I can't explain the relief and lack of anxiety I now feel having finished the sale of our home. Sounds nuts but this home sale was giving me a lot of grief and ulcers.

Besides the fact that the packing moving was very slow and a lot harder than I thought. We had 80% done a week in advance of moving. But that last 20% was so difficult. We got to the point of no return honestly. We just started throwing things in boxes and loading the trailer. We ended up with 15' linear feet, a foot less than estimated.

We did hire movers for 3 hours at $60/hr and it really helped move things along. According to the tracker our trailer is in PA waiting to go to Dayton, OH. Sounds crazy fast.

Plan is still to arrive and find a place and have our trailer stored and then delivered end of August.

FWIW, it's a little weird not being a home owner for the first time in 13 years. It's also weird knowing we owe nobody NOTHING. That we have no big debt hanging over our heads. We also have a nice big cash number in our bank accounts so life is a little more rosie. Now onto our road trip.

I think it's a weird feeling to leave a city and know that you'll never have a reason to come back. When we left southern California after nearly 10 years, I was sad. But at the same time I never felt like I was leaving permanently and it turns out I was right. We always go back to visit and since having kids we've been going annually.

But this time it's different. This time I don't feel like I have the draw to visit and I am sad. I'm sad that I won't see the great friends we've made who've become like family. I feel like a big chunk of our lives were here.

I am tearing up over everything. Friends we've known pre kids or coworkers I'm saying good bye too. To friends we made from having kids. Or even therapist we've seen for 2 years from my kiddo every week. It's been tough saying good bye.

Also trying to "cram" in the last bit of pleasure before we move. All systems are go on the sale of our home. We finalized all paperwork. Everything should go smoothly. We are set to close on July 7th. It's incredible to be so close yet still feel like we are so far from being done.

I think it'll be easier after tomorrow night and we pack up the trailer with furniture and the movers. Then it's just the road trip packing and odds and ends.

DH is throwing things in boxes and really feeling the pressure. He said the last 5% of packing is the hardest! I can't wait for this trip to start.

So an interesting thing about ABF U Pack since we are using them, they sell you that things are by the linear foot but in truth it's by 2 linear feet. The measurements for putting up the bulkhead is only 2 linear ft per set up so it's actually $300 per 2 linear ft and it's really easier to take stuff rather than worry about it.

Our costs to move are at $6k. We spent $1962 on an interior painter. We paid $1600 for the exterior painting of our house just the front and 40%. Only $1730 for our foundation repair work!!!! WooHoo!!!! Came in below total cost of the low of $5k. Came in total with engineering at $4326! Amazing. And $714 on 2 hours of moving labor help, buying moving supplies, renting steam cleaner, and storage.

Not bad so far. I think we'll be at close to our estimate 16 linear ft which should put up with a month storage at $4300 for the move. This is not including the gas for driving 2 cars cross country or hotels.

Of course for us it's a vacation but for DH it'll be non-stop hard labor. But since his time at that point is worth nothing and we're saving on shipping the dog. Instead he plans on driving to his parents in Canada and then driving back to the States it doesn't seem like much of a hassle.

This is it!!!!! I've also sold $1890 of our stuff. So I would say that we are paying to move around 1/3 of our stuff and less of it.

The insanity. I still haven't figured out if we are leaving on July 5th or 6th. Uggh. I still haven't booked our hotels. I am still hopelessly not packed yet. What have I been doing? Everything else.

Tomorrow I finalize the documents for the repair of our foundation. More about the cost in another post. This will mean that we are officially set on our side to close on the sale of the house by July 7th.

Our trailer has been delivered. I'd say around 85% of our house has been packed. Tonight I threw in the towel for food and are moving to eating take out, leftovers, and other people's food. No more cooking. We cooked Salmon Burgers for our last meal.

I was happy to turn over a bag of fish (2 salmon and 4 pieces of Mahi) to a friend, 6 smoked sausages, 1 bag Kahlua Pork, and that's about it from the freezer. I also gave away our spices, unopened condiments. All we really have left is our snacks and 4 boxes of pasta, and instant oatmeal.

It took me two hours from 7:30 this morning to get the dog's international travel certificate. We are good to go until July 9th. We have 10 days to travel within.

The dog food has been delivered to my in laws and we don't have a booked flight yet. I find myself stressing and tonight I have to backwards outline our trip since we've decided to stop in Toronto and ship him out.

I've organized all our passports, kids medical and school records, my medical records, and I have to pay bills tonight. This is insane. I've managed to pack the kids clothes for the road trip and August. But DH and I are not done. And DH hasn't packed his work clothes yet.

I feel like a hamster on a wheel that can't stop running. Any more tips or ideas? We've set aside all road trip stuff we can think of. Please let us get on our way already.

Quick aside my friend asked for this weekend a donation to her children's college fund instead of gifts. Not a problem. But this friend is Ms A. The one whose terrible with money. So I didn't want to give her cash or a check, but am in a conundrum because I do want to contribute to their college fund. Okay what should be done? If it were a friend that I thought was pretty responsible with money I don't think I'd be so leery. But with Ms A, I wonder if she'll get the money and use it with the BEST intentions.

Ms S, the very well off friend, is dropping her kiddo today to play with my two in the evening for dinner while she has a "dinner" to go to. Tomorrow her sitter is going to drop her off in the afternoon at 1ish so I can take them to the Ms A kid's birthday party together while she works out. I still don't get how she doesn't understand that she's "priviledged"? That stay at home moms don't normally get to work out and have nannys pick up their kids from camp while they don't "work" and she complains about having no time. No time to do what? She has all morning to herself while her kid is in camp from 9-1 then the nanny is getting her, then I'm taking both kids to a birthday party from 3:30-7 (4:30-6:30) but driving time is at least 30-60 minutes. So what does she do every day since her nanny does all the pickups? And she wonders why we don't hang out much anymore?

I am just tired of being in Dodge. I can't wait to leave this lifestyle and city behind. I am ready for the open road. I hope my friends have a great future all of them. At least with social media I'll be able to watch their kids grow.

We are now probably driving out of dodge on July 5th. We'll drive straight through to Niagara Falls, ON and drop the dog July 6th in Toronto. Well the plan is DH will then turn back and we'll do Niagara Falls. I've got him booked for his international health certificate this Tuesday. I had to go to an special vet whose FDA certified. I am paying $80 which is a huge deal since I got a coupon for a free 1st time patient exam and the paperwork is just $80. I have to call airlines and figure out what is the best price for the dog cargo. I also ordered dog food to the tune of $105 from Amazon.ca and it's shipping to my MIL.

Next up is contacting all the utility people, getting medications and records. Also finishing up selling stuff, right now according to my craigslist spreadsheet we've sold $1835 worth of stuff. Almost enough to cover half our expenses in selling our place. I had no idea I had so much stuff to sell. Granted about $1k was big ticket items, but still $800 in "junk" I am impressed. Although we have a few more items to sell.

Booked our movers only 2 movers for 2 hours on July 3rd for $120. I wonder if it's enough. I booked them only to load the big items thinking they can do boxes if they have time but we can manage the boxes ourselves. Plus looking at everything we are pretty well packed. From the tips to be completely packed up and the truck loaded in 2-3 hours I honestly don't think that's an unreasonable time frame with everything in boxes. Right now we are solidly at 80% I'd say and in the next week before the movers I'd say 95%. Most of the stuff unpacked are our beds, TV, Dinner Table, Couch, and some clothes. The furniture we have mattress pads and holders to put the mattresses into. The clothes I need to segregate into road trip and staying in dresser and DH packs his work clothes.

I have a complaint about realtors. Our realtor hired a guy to install Carbon Monoxide detectors because we needed them for our city inspection. It's a crazy inspection for $50 by the city. But their real estate agency hires this guy so they pass in 3 minutes. Sounded fine. But they of course didn't tell me the cost, $450! Had I known I might have had my DH order and install these things himself. Uggh what a rip off.

And we are still trying to finish our frozen food. Sadly I don't think we're as much on track as CreditCardFree, whom I tried to emulate. But on Sunday we are having people over for an eat the freezer party.

Things are insane and crazy busy. We had our DK preschool "graduation"/moving up ceremony. Very cute and quite sad. It's been 3 years at the preschool and they are awesome, wonderful, truly great teachers. I can't say enough about how appreciative we both are to them. They were flexible, accommodating, talented, incredibly patient people. We've actually known most for 5 years.

I think we are 11 days out from leaving, potentially 12 or 13. We close on the sale of our home July 7th or 14 days. We currently are on track to finish our foundation crack issues. The work is done and we are waiting on affidavit from the structural engineer and the building inspector to come out and stamp us as solid. Then siding back on the house and the project should be completed, signed, sealed, and delivered. We are set to close. If we had stuck to our original close date of June 29th I think it would have been tight.

As it stands I believe that we are probably going to close on July 7th. We could do July 1st or 2nd, but this gives us a little bit of a buffer for paperwork.

We are going with ABF U pack and the trailer will be delivered on July 1st. It is scheduled to be picked up July 6th. We have two movers coming to help us move our boxes July 3rd 9-11 am. My DH thought we could do it ourselves but honestly for $120 it's well worth it. We will have enough to do without having to strain our backs doing the big furniture.

I'd say we are at 80% done packing. We still have a quite a bit left but part of the problem is that we have to sort stuff into two road trip piles and still have food left to eat and kids toys out.

Our biggest issue is the dog. Do we ship him before we leave or take him and ship him out of Toronto? There are so many headaches not to mention scheduling his health certificate without 10 days of travel.

We are struggling with the space issue. We are unsure about how much we can carry on our road trip. We just ordered a bigger camping tent. We've had ours for over 15 years and it was a 4 person backpacking tent by coleman. Very tight with kids and dog. We've upgraded to 8 person but it'll only be for car camping. We are planning on camping at potentially St Ignace, MI, picture rock national lakefront, badlands national park (booked site), mt rushmore, yellowstone, and glacier.

It's so stressful since as of right now we haven't booked hotels other than our end destination since we aren't sure how it'll go.

I'm debating resurrecting my site on blogspot so that I may put up pictures easier.

So DH is quitting his job and we will be without employer provided insurance from September to May 2016. I don't have to tell you how nerve wracking it is.

Right now the estimated online cost for our family of 4 is $550/month for a HDHP plan of $6500 pp /$13k family deductible. Mr Money Mustache pays for his family of three $250/month? Apparently he's in a plan pre-ACA and Colorado is a lot more insurance friendly.

This coverage is without prescription, dental, or vision coverage. So what are we thinking?

Well I was thinking of looking for a part-time job that allows me buy for health insurance. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find anything quickly but it's worth trying I think. Another possibility is that without income we may qualify for subsidies. Yes I know terribly unfair but at the same time we are going to be without income, yes by choice but we will be looking both for work and living off savings. Any suggestions for companies to look at would be appreciated.

Another thing is we're doing all our major dr appointments now so we have time to get insurance and drs in place. We are also filling prescriptions 3 months in advance so we are able to have extras for when we don't have insurance.

This is going to be a huge change not having employer provided insurance. Have many people done it? What do you normally pay?

Okay Ideas people. Ideas of places to eat, visit, or stay, or anything I can't miss. Here's a list of cities I've ironed out we're doing. AAA is driving me nuts trying to get me to iron out my itinerary. I'm not that sort of person honestly. I am more a "well see when we get there kind of person." And a book a hotel couple of hours before we need it depending on when we make it.

Syracuse
Niagara OT
Saginaw, MI
St Ignace
Picture Rock National Lakefront
Green Bay WI
Minneapolis
Sioux Falls
Wall SD
MT Rushmore
Sheridan
Yellowstone
Missoula
Glacier National Park
Spokane
Yakima

This trip is planned on us being on the road for 3 weeks. OMG in way it's insane. And at the same time I am so psyched. I love hearing people's places to eat and see. PLEASE chime in anything. I'm debating going back to blogspot to make it easier for me to post pictures of stuff.

Be ready for a cool photo montage if you help me plan awesome stuff to see or do.

Okay another reiteration of the road trip. I am running into trouble with AAA trip tik. I went into get a plan and they want me to book hotels. Ugh. Considering that we aren't even sure of the date we are leaving (tentatively July 7th) my DH is hesitant to even book refundable hotels because what happens if we leave a day late? Or two days? Then we have to cancel everything and start from scratch.

I don't know what to do. I feel like we have to tighten everything up closer to the deadline. I'm thinking I'll just tell AAA the prospective hotels since we are just unsure.

So we've decided to not take the dog. Although we may take him to Toronto to ship him back to my in-laws. Or we may drive to NYC and ship him from there. Again we're unsure about this timing.

We've ruled out unfortunately sesame place and hershey park since this weekend. We went away this weekend to an amusement park and DK1 had a good time but DK2 was a little too small and scared. So we've decided we'll skip parks for this year and instead do other stuff.

So where are we headed?

Niagara Falls
Mackinc Island - yes we are doing Michigan Upper Peninsula
Painted Rock National Lakefront (UP)
Green Bay
Minneapolis
Sioux Falls
Rapid City (mount rushmore)
Yellowstone
Butte
Missoula
Spokane

So suggestions or thoughts? I feel like Barney from how I met your mother, saying "this is going to be legendary. High five!"

I know my kids won't recall much but I have blurbs of my first real vacation with my mom at age 5 going to disneyland. We got on a plane with our family and went to disneyland, SF, and LV for a 3 city trip on the cheap. Budget all the way, but having a great time. It was incredible. I still remember meeting my cousin and seeing disney. So I'm thinking my kiddo #1 will have so memories of this trip. This is our opportunity of a lifetime.

I have an antedote about my mom. She always says "i took out a loan from the credit union for like $500 or maybe $1k to go on the disney trip. It was supposed to be a trip of a lifetime." This is the woman who got divorced and cut up her CC so she wouldn't abuse them and take the easy way out. But she saved and planned this trip for us right before I started kindergarten. Just for us. She took amazing risks both personally and financially and I believe as we make this trip and leap I'm about to do the same thing. I wouldn't be where I am today without her. And without her teachings and guidance I certainly wouldn't be trying something so crazy. Make plans but sometimes you have to take the risk and grab the opportunity when it comes because it may never come again.

I know SA readers probably would have chastised her but sometimes you don't know the strength of the person. I tell this story because right now I am looking for the strength to go through with this huge change we are making.

So last week our buyers asked us to close early. They were interested in closing early and were now willing to take over the construction and repairs and allow us to close without finishing. We said no. We are set to close July 7th and honestly my DH and I were too nervous to allow our fate into someone else's hands. They wanted us to do the repair so we are. Plus it would honestly be bad karma I feel to leave my neighbors hanging. Although a friend told me that it's always better to close sooner rather than later. But in this case aren't we more at risk being on hook for the cost of the repair after we sell and don't have control?

As it is, the time line is going to be tight. We started last Wednesday. Hoping today the engineer comes out to inspect and give approval to move on. Tomorrow the city building inspector comes and gives approval to move on. Then work commences on Wednesday. That should be another week. Then the engineer and inspector come back out. Then final work and the engineer comes out again for stamp on plans and we file with the city and are good to go. This puts us I think at 2-3 weeks from now putting us close to our July 7th close.

Some stuff about our move, we are nervous about not knowing where we are going to rent. Or what it will cost. But this is to big a decision to do online. So tentatively we are arriving July 28th and then searching. We are then heading to Hawaii August 2nd and DH back to work for 2 weeks. Then he'll do a second cross country trip August 14th with our second car and pick up our dog on the way.

New wrinkle we are sending the dog to Canada and DH parents for the duration of our road trip and move. It'll be too tough to take him so we decided that we would fly him direct to them and pick him up en route. We did that when we moved cross country last time we sent our last dog to them and went to china for a month traveling then moved and picked up him after we settled.

Good thing this happens only once every 10 years. And we are still waffling on the minivan idea.

Used newer minivan and dump the sonata. Space versus cost. Long term I think we want a minivan, but right now it's pricey and we can't buy the loaded minivan we want. So what to do?

So we are between a rock and a hard place. We are deciding whether to take our dog with us on our road trip. Our choices as we see it.

First he comes with us but the is left in new city upon LAL and DH parting ways for august. He'll go into a kennel. Then my DH will get him when he gets back. This we hesitate since we are unsure how he'll react to a new kennel.

Two he stays where we lived for 4 weeks in the kennel we normally board him in. 4 weeks is longer than we usually do, we usually do 3 weeks. But it could be longer if my DH doesn't get a place that's pet friendly to live. It's a long time.

Three is put him on a plane and send him to my MIL. Ideally I'd like to do this. We did this with our last dog when we moved cross country 10 years ago. And my DH would pick him up when he drives cross country again in August. Now the only issue is convincing my MIL to do it.

Of course traveling with a pet cross country means that we'll be checking into hotels and then sightseeing. I have no idea what it'll be like. Possibly influencing our decision will be whether he can go to the national parks easily.

Any ideas appreciated.

Can you believe we are still struggling with buying a used minivan? We can't decide. I want one more and my DH is hesitant. Which by the way we've flipped flopped back and forth the past month. He's been yes then no. Then yes then no.

Right now there is a 2013 off lease Honda Odyssey for $18k with 32k miles. It's a certified preowned from a dealer. We haven't seen it but I'm curious since it's 1 owner and certified.

I think it might be a good buy. I think that we could drive it cross country and then sell it since my DH isn't sure we need a minivan. I think we do. I also think we are moving somewhere that we are likely to be going on more road trips.

But it's a lot of money outlay right now. Granted we could borrow it and we'll have a down payment from the trade in or sale of the sonata.

Thoughts?

I had lunch today with a friend whose unhappily married. She hates her husband and honestly he's not a nice person.

She's got a lifestyle most people would envy. I certainly do. I think it's a great life, fun, exciting, and pretty good. BUT since I know some (probably not all) the gory details of her marriage it's hard to envy it.

I mean she has three lovely kids. She has help with them in the morning and evenings and they go to daycare/school full and part-time while she stays at home. She lives in a gorgeous house but it looks like a pristine museum. She vacations everywhere but usually with her husband's family.

So her life to anyone looking in seems perfect. Stay at home mom with tons of hired help. No financial worries and everything you could want.

But she's sad. Her husband is mean and belittles her. She hates him and wants to leave, but feels trapped both financially and the kids. I want to tell her to leave him but I don't think she should or can.

The kids are young and she needs the help and the financial support mostly. I mean if she left him her quality of life would likely go down. Am I terrible friend for suggesting to stick it out for awhile?

I don't know what to say. I think he is very mean and abusive to her. But at the same time, if she leaves he'll have the kids without her around. So there are both pros and cons to everything.

This is not just a financial decision honestly. He works a lot so she doesn't see him that much except nights and weekends. She has help with the kids going to school and bed time. She has a nice house, car, and stuff for kids. But he can be such a jackass.

I want to be a supportive friend and I do listen. But when she wonders about leaving him I haven't said she should. Or when she says she does I say great. BUT aren't we obligated to say she should leave such an asshole? I mean I've read the demeaning texts and emails he sends her. But what will happen?

I find it depressing that so many people stay married for purely financial reasons. And at the same time it seems like society likes it that way.

Okay newly update road trip itinerary. We've been working on refining our plans. We agreed to cut out eastern canada. My DH has promised we'll come back and do a 1-2 week vacation out this way. So we are just heading west.

We are split now between going to Sesame Place, yes now we've potentially added PA. Then Hershey Park for a day then cleveland.

Now if we skip Sesame Place we are going to do Niagara Falls which we've done quite a few times but my DH loves the area. Then we'll cut through Sarnia and head to Lansing, MI. Lansing, MI is where we'll meet up in either case.

Because from there we are heading to Mackinaw Island and the upper peninsula. We plan on doing a day at Mackinaw and then a day at Picture Rocks national park. Then heading to Green Bay and then potentially Minneapolis.

Then Sioux falls and the rest of our journey will be to Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, then depending on timing either Boise, ID or Missoula, MT? Give a shout about either place.

We may also detour depending on our timing and being sick of the car to Glacier National Park. Again this is all happening on the fly and I'm trying to iron it out. We'll figure it out after this weekend and then get a trip tik from AAA.

I am so excited. Looking at the map and dreaming of where we are going is almost as thrilling as doing it. Someone once said part of the thrill of traveling is the dreaming you do while traveling.

Our timeline is tightening up for the sale. We picked a contractor and he'll start Wednesday if the weather cooperates. The project in theory should take a week. However that is just work, not including the permitting, the inspection for the city, the inspection in the middle (after supports are put up) by the engineer, and the ending inspection/stamp certificate by the engineer. So I'm guessing solidly another week. This of course is all contingent on our weather cooperating since we're having a mini monsoon right now for the next few days.

If this works out we could in theory be done by June 17th with plenty of time to close by July 7th. We in theory are hoping to leave and start driving out west July 7th. Then we are hoping to arrive at our destination July 27th/28th.

Then we'll find a place by the 1st of August. Now we realize we may not be able to move in so the plan is I'll head to Hawaii with the kid and DH has to come back to give notice and work another 2 weeks at least. At which point he'll either fly or drive back. We will be back by the end of August in time for school to start.

The insanity of our neighbors? They said since they are selling they didn't want the responsibility of the association checking account. They wanted us to turn it over to our buyers and not offer it to the other owners of unit A. I said that would be tough due to social etiquette. But more so are they sure they want to relinquish control and trust people they've never met?

My stomach is still in knots over everything. This is not an easy process getting out of this "business partnership" we bought into 10 years ago. I'm glad we did because we learned a very good lesson. Never again are we buying in a 3 unit condo, never. We will buy in a large complex with a management company but never again.

I hope everything goes smoothly.

The reality of our move I think is starting to hit all of us. Until now I feel like we've been just worrying and thinking and focusing on everything else. Now we are getting down to the wire and the focus is on us. Not the house, not school, not plans, but us.

How are getting where we are going? Are we buying a used minivan or renting one ($1500)? What route are we taking?

For my DH he's counting down the days. He can't take his job anymore and dreads all the days. For me it's the worry about when will we actually move.

But today my DK1 said she's sad about moving. That it's hit that we're not just leaving and going on vacation to come back. We are leaving the area.

I felt it last weekend weirdly as I drove home from Costco and shopping. I felt sad that we were leaving behind our routine, our friends, our neighbors. I adore our neighbors.

They came over for cake last night and had a moment of sadness as we realized it was the last weeknight birthday celebration. It's not always been easy but sharing a wall with people for 9 years changes you. You know them well. And they are moving on as well to a new house, new friends, new life.

It was bittersweet. I believe that I'll stay in touch with many of the friends i've made here. With social media it's easier than ever. But the idea that we are moving on and so far makes it sad.

But the excitement of the new challenges ahead and the journey there are helping. But for now I'll focus on getting the journey started.

After all we can't change the past but we can alter our futures.

There is no other way to put it than sometimes good people make bad financial decisions. Had a bbq at my place for memorial day and a few friends over.

Ms C is a school teacher who bought a new house recently for $430k. Her dream home and it's lovely. Needs easily $200k in renovations but they got into a great town. However before they move in they have to rip out the electrical since it's Nobbin 2 and redo the entire place before it burns down. Should cost at least $10kish. They are closing on June 9th to buy and selling their current home June 12th if everything goes to plan. They however to buy the new house had to borrow from her husband 401k for the down payment and said they'll pay it back after they sell their other place. Plus afterwards they'll have money and be able to live again. This house will be able to fit in their budget again and they couldn't afford to close sooner since they can't afford to have a mortgage payment before August.

Writing that paragraph made me cringe. By the same token Ms A is at it again. Though her mother is kicking her out at the end of June from her pretty much rent free apartment, and she hasn't found a place to live, she went with her family away for memorial day weekend. Spending as she put it a fortune on a hotel at the last minute at an extremely expensive tourist area. They needed to get away from the stress of their life. They needed to bond. Sure it all went the CC but she said it was "needed".

Again writing that previous paragraph was tough. I know what can I say? We are throwing away all our income and moving on a whim. And we're living off savings as of right now. But at the same time we aren't borrowing money we don't have and we aren't borrowing in hopes of making it.

We are spending what we save. But perhaps it's just a hair different. Who knows. But there are a lot of bad financial decisions out there. And it's certainly hard for me to button my lip and not say "don't borrow against your 401k or charge stuff on a CC".

So last friday I got the plans from my engineer about the repair to our foundation. We've spent so far on engineering $2125 as a condo. $1500 for these plans and $625 for investigation and initial estimate.

I submitted the plans to 4 different contractors and only 1 got back to me so far. He got back to me yesterday with a quote for $2500. Great deal. Plus he can start next week.

I am going to call and follow up today with the others but if they can't get their act together to get me an estimate I don't know why I should bother, except to appease my neighbors.

I think that we are getting a deal. The only thing I asked of him was to add on a bundle of repairing some stairs.

I have to admit I'm stressed out over the timing of this repair since we still have to have it permitted and inspected by the city. And we need the engineer come out and stamp it. I have until July 7th to finish everything and I feel like every day counts.

If it comes in at what the contractor estimated I think I'll be out around $2k instead of the $15k cash we offered our buyers. But at the same time I had to deal with negotiating and finding all these repair guys and dealing with my neighbors who are lovely but it's hard timing and just making everyone happy or at least compromised.

My hair I swear is turning more and more white with the stress and anxiety. I can't wait for this to be underway and done. Then maybe I can focus more on packing. Until then I feel like we haven't a real home sale and it's hard to pack up.

We aren't leaving until we sign the papers selling our house. IF it means staying and flying at the last minute that's what we are doing.

I've been asked that question a lot lately. Along with are you afraid? Absolutely I am TERRIFIED. I'd have to be insane to not be afraid and crazy not to be worried.

Fact we are moving literally cross country with a "semi" mapped out plan. Fact we are moving without a job. Fact we do not know where we are going to live. Fact we are giving up a lot of income and gambling on finding a job. Fact we will be without income September 2015. Fact we have enough saved in cash for 3 years without a job at current burn rate.

Guess - we are guessing that we can rent for less money than we are currently paying in our mortgage (high likelyhood). Guess - DH will land a job in April 2016, so we will be 8 months without an income. Guess - that I may find work. Guess we will be without health insurance but will be able to buy some. Guess that our burn rate will be close to what we spend now. Guess that we will get a large tax refund because we've been overpaying this year at our normal rate something like $10-15k potentially. Yeah we didn't know we were moving so we've just been giving them an interest free loan.

My thoughts are if I manage to even land a minimum wage part-time job like starbucks then perhaps we can minimize the drain on our savings. If we aren't working and see the money going away we may also minimize expenses. We can also focus on lowering our spending.

But the bottom line and truth is we aren't doing this because it makes sense financially. We are doing this because we want to do it. We are moving because long term this is something that will make us happier both lifestyle and career wise. This move will bring us closer to family and friends. This will allow DH to try a new field. And he's moving pretty much home and I'm just much closer.

Even if we take a paycut we are doing it before we get settled with buying our "final" home. Before we got used to the big income and needing it.

It's a hard truth to digest and most people think we are nuts. BUT sometimes life isn't about $ but rather living life. At the end of the day we still have to live our life at a level each of us can be satisfied.

I'm not sure but I think this move could derail us financially for a few years. BUT I believe that overall good financial habits will right the ship and we'll still be able to retire when we choose. And we'll still be able to afford a lifestyle we enjoy.

So we have no plan and will be hemorrhaging money but it's life. And for the record I am afraid.

Okay so I'm again stuck with teacher gifts. I always try to buy gift cards and something thoughtful. This year I'm doing Bed Bath and Beyond for one whose getting married $50 since she's registered there I figure she'll appreciate it ($25 thank you and $25 wedding congratulations).

Two of the main teachers DK1 has had for 3 years of preschool I'm doing $25 to BBB and $25 to Home Goods. Then $25 for each of the other teachers to Home Goods. Strangely enough the two main teachers just bought homes this year, and two of the other teachers are moving into new apartments. So I decided to follow the trend and give them gift cards to places that they can decorate their homes.

Final teacher has way more money than me, is moving, and can afford anything. I figure a gift card to California Pizza Kitchen since she mentioned her kids love it.

But I'm stuck on thoughtful. I did orchids two years ago and last year I did potted cactus. Now what? What is a home gift people use that's not expensive around $10 ideas?

This is the third time I am trying to do this post. I keep losing it. Retirement savings isn't about amounts, but it helps to save more. What does help is staying the course. CCF mentioned savings, we've had a few good years but staying the course helped the most. This is our retirements savings 12/31/....

2005 - $6457 - only my IRA since DH wasn't eligible until now

2006 - $34,782 - $8k IRA, $15k 401k, $2947 401k match = $2378

2007 - $67,785 - $8k IRA, $15.5k 401k, $6079 401k match = $3424

2008 - $74,245 - $10k IRA, $15.5k 401k, $6172 401k match = -$25,212 (big loss)

2009 - $117,055 - $10k IRA, $16.5k 401k, $6951 401k match = $9359

2010 - $196,368 - $10k IRA, $16.5k 401k, $7438 401k match = $45375

2011 - $232,524 - $10k IRA, $16.5k 401k, $7385 401k match = $2271

2012 - $302,841 - $10k ira, $17k 401k, $8318 401k match = $35,009

2013 - $443,762 - $11k IRA, $17.5k 401k, $8099 401 match = $104,322 (best year ever)

2014 -$514,544 - $11k IRA, $17.5k 401k, $8967 401k match = $33315

2015 - YTD $577,571

Our contributions have been $94,493 IRA and $147,500 401k = $241,993/514544 = 41.89% contributed. The matches have contributed $62356/514,544 = 12% of retirement. So our "contributions" in all have been $304,349/514,544 = 59.15% and we've "gained" about 40% of our money from returns. I think that number will start to skew soon towards returns. Also the match is the only thing that kept us positive for MANY years. Even without it though we would have kept on investing aggressively and I think having the first few years our money go down made us able to buy more.

I suspect that having the market tank when we started investing was better for us. Now if we can "retire" and pull out when the market is going up and hitting a peak we'd probably have "Ideally timed" the market.

There has been a few good years but in the beginning honestly it was pretty flat. My contributions and that was it. I would say it would have been easy to stop contributing and say what a waste. But staying the course was harder and more worth it.


And MM - If we contribute nothing for another 15 years and "retire" at 50 with an average of 6% returns we'd have $1.4M. With our current investment amounts we'll have $2.2M. I think we should be set to not save more, but we probably will.

CCF brought up a good point about how savings work. I decided I would bring up how it went for us.

2005 - $6457
-this was my IRA contributions until then since DH wasn't a citizen or had any retirement savings

2006 - $34,782
-saved $8k IRA, $15k 401k, $2947 401k match = $2378/yr

2007 -$67,785
-saved $8k IRA, $15.5k 401k, $6079 401k match = $3424/yr

2008 - $74,245
-saved $10k IRA, $15.5k 401k, $6172 401k match = -$25,212/year losses

2009 - $117,055
-saved $10k IRA, $16.5k 401k, $6951 401k match= $9359/year

2010 - $196,368
-saved $10k IRA, 16.5k 401k, $7438 401k match= $45,375/year

2011 - $232,524
-saved $10k IRA, 16.5K 401k, $7384 401k match = $2272/year

2012 - $302,841
-saved $11k IRA, 17k 401k, $8318 401k match= $33,999/year

2013 - $443,762
-saved $11k IRA, $17.5 401k, $8099 401k match = $104,322 (very good year obviously)

2014 - $514,544
-saved $11k IRA, $17.5k 401k, $8967 401k match = $33,315/yr

2015 - YTD $577,571

We obviously had one really good year, and few solid years and early on very little growth. The first few years when the market was sliding and we were holding basically steady, might have contributed a lot since we just kept on buying shares.

Right now I can see the difference as we're getting over the hump of investments and starting to earn more than we are contributing. It takes awhile but once we get on that pace I can see lots of traction.

If we continue to save at our current pace and increase nothing for retirement in 15 years @ 6% annually we should hit $2M. This does not include our taxable savings or paid off homes, which would give us an income of $60-80k/year.

I am pretty comfortable with that number and "retiring" at 50. Question is how much earlier could that number be? Depends on so many variables.

But it is possible to right the ship quickly, just keep investing and don't lose hope.