Bon Voyage: Eight Night All-Inclusive Vacation for Two For $500!

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Miami for our 7 Day Eastern Caribbean cruise.  The cruise visits Nassau, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk.  For less than $500, we are spending one night in Miami and 7 nights aboard Carnival Glory.  This is the ultimate in frugal travel:

• We are leaving the car at the house, so no parking fees.
• We will take the PSTA buses from the house to Tampa's Marion Transit Center ($10).
• From there, we ride the Megabus to downtown Miami ($36 roundtrip).
• We spend the night in Miami at a high-end hotel.  It's a mystery shop, and lunch, dinner, breakfast and alcohol are all covered).  I also am paid $50.
• If we need transportation while in Miami, we have (2) $10 credits on Uber to use.  If not, we'll use it to get home when we arrive back in Tampa.
• For two, the cruise was $619.  This includes the cruise rate of $174 each ($24.86/day/person) plus taxes and port fees.
• I have an onboard credit of $117.78.  This includes a $100 shareholder benefit and a random $17.78 credit.  I usually receive these small unexplainable credits when I cruise.  The only explanation I saw in the online forums was that if port fees drop, Carnival refunds the savings as an onboard credit.

That's an all in cost of $665, less my $50 shop fee and $117.78 in credits for a total of $497.22.  Of course, gratuities will add to the cost as will any money I lose while gambling.  

There are some other ways we will be frugal onboard, particularly with mitigating the cost of alcohol:

• Carnival allows you to bring one bottle of wine and one 12 pack of soda per guest.
• I reach Gold Status in their VIP program on this cruise, so we will be invited to a cocktail party while on board.
• The art auctions give free champagne.
• If I gamble enough, all my drinks in the casino will be free.  Last cruise we did this the first night, so all our drinks were free.  Unfortunately, I lost a good bit of money trying to get the free drinks, so I have to be more careful this time.
• We typically eat all meals onboard, even on port days.  

I am 100% convinced that for the moment, cruising is the best value one can get for the vacation dollar.  The cruise industry has added so much capacity, coupled with recent snafus that scared some people away from cruising, that costs are artificially low.  It costs less to cruise than the airfare alone would cost to visit any one of these locations.  Then you'd have the cost of your hotel, food and ground transportation on top of that.

My Frugal Miser's 2015 Goals

Once again it's time to lay out the annual roadmap.  I actually start thinking about what I want to accomplish several months before the year begins. Publishing my goals keeps me accountable:  it's a constant reminder of what is important to me.

• Health:  Lose 12 pounds

Last year I finally began losing weight.  This year I do better.

• Debt:  Reduce balance on 5.75% mortgage to $30,000.

This mortgage is for the last home I lived in before moving to Florida.  I bought the house in 2008 and took out a 15 year mortgage.  I would like to reduce the balance (currently $62,186) to $30,000 by 12/31/15 and pay it off in 2016.

• Spending:  Average monthly spending, excluding Vacation and Home Repairs, will be less than $1,250.

Keeping day-to-day expenses in check is vital to Financial Independence.  There is still much to be done at the new house, and I will be prudent with how much I spend fixing it up.  I will also be smart when planning vacations, but don't want to limit spending on Experiences by a contrived dollar amount.

• Leisure:  Take another international trip

We visited Ecuador for three weeks in September, 2014.  It is difficult to explain how such a trip affects one's life.  We were exposed to a different culture, one that lives much simpler than the always-connected lifestyle of the average American.  It was a wake-up call on what is really important.  A side benefit was that we walked everywhere and ate less, and I lost weight during those three weeks.


That's it.  I have four primary goals, and I'm going to reach or surpass each of them next year.

My Frugal Miser - November Expenses: $6,548

I spent, and spent, and spent in November.  Fortunately much of it was pre-spending to take advantage of holiday deals:  I bought $1,550 in gift cards ($100 in the Entertainment category, $900 in the Home Repair/Household category and $550 for restaurants), and I also bought $75 worth of Groupon/Living Social deals I have yet to redeem.

Accounting for the gift card/deal purchases, I spent around $5,000 in November.  I paid property taxes of $1,355.  Next year I will qualify for the homestead exemption, so this category should be cut in half in 2015.  I spent nothing on fuel thanks to mystery shopping and Shell's Fuel Rewards.  Much of the auto depreciation came from mileage accumulated while mystery shopping along with trips to Orlando for hospitality work.  I bought a new computer (for only $145!) and have sent off the old one to sell.  The old one was less than a year old, but was such a piece of crap that it kept freezing up whenever I used Quicken.

The other major expenses were home repairs.  I covered a portion of the deck to add privacy and protection from the elements and installed baseboard in the master bedroom.  I also bought curtains, blinds and several miscellaneous things to finish off the bedroom.  Last, I booked our flights and car rental for the May trip to Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway meeting.  Allegiant had a fare sale when they announced new service to Omaha, so I booked early.  I even splurged for assigned seats on an exit row(!).

November Expenses:  $6,548

$388 Auto ($0 for gas, $385 for depreciation, $3 for car wash)

$0 Bank Fees

$0 Clothing

$145 Computer

$277 Entertainment (movies, gambling, alcohol)

$869 Food

$0 Gifts Given

$2,568 Household/Housing/Home Repair
$0 Home Insurance

$245 Health and Dental Insurance

$0 Investment Expenses

$0 Medical/Dental

$29 Miscellaneous

$(6) Personal Care

$0 Subscriptions

$1,355 Taxes

$185 Utilities

$523 Vacation and Recreation

My Frugal Miser - November Income: $9,576

My income in November was excellent.  I collected rent from every property and had several mystery shopping payments from October come in along with two hospitality jobs I did in November.

Cash flow was meager, as I started paying property taxes.  Across all properties I owe more than $10,000 in property taxes this year.

November Income $9,576

$1528 Mystery Shopping
$8,113 Rental Income

$(64) Other Sources

Notes:.  

• I don't include transactions in my retirement accounts.  This includes rental income, dividends and capital gains and losses.
• I include merchandising and hospitality work in the mystery shopping category since the companies that I shop for provide this extra side work.