How in the World Did We Afford This Trip?

I think there is a part of me that believes I need to write this post to justify taking the trip of a lifetime. Another parts of me appreciates when people share the costs of their vacations. In hopes this post might help someone else (or at the least, remind me of my blessings), I am writing about how we afforded this trip.

First of all, I have to say that I firmly believe that all good things comes from God (James 1:17). This trip was one of them. We simply could not have afforded it nor gone on it without His provision.

Second, God has blessed us in many ways that allowed us to save for this time. We are married and have two incomes. We are blessed that we can mostly live on one of those. Though we really need to save the other for retirement (as one of us started very late to retirement savings), we have some funds we can redirect as needed. We had kind of forgotten about it, but we still had a chunk of money given to us by my parents for our wedding. Besides appliances we needed to replace and a motorcycle we bought for my husband to commute on (which saved us money, because he needed a car, which would have cost a lot more), we basically put all of this money towards vacation.

My mom taught me to budget and save. We learned to live very frugally while my husband was in school, and have mostly continued to live that way. I shop the grocery sales, often going to multiple stores to get the cheapest products. We mostly buy store brand items and cook from scratch, rather than buying prepared products. For the most part, we eat simply. All of this keeps grocery costs small. God provided our condo before the housing market spike. We have not been able to afford to buy a house now, which keeps our housing costs lower that the surrounding area. We keep our house warm in the summer to reduce utility costs. We still share a phone plan with limited data. We try to save whatever we don't spend. 

We skimped even more than usual this year, too. That meant eating out almost never (and we rarely do anyway), eschewing dates that cost very much money, and not going on any other vacations. Sure, we did a few things, but we really limited ourselves, even more than normal.

We bought our airplane tickets and paid for our hotel before the war in Iran. Though still a lot of money, I am certain that our costs were nothing close to what they would have been. Additionally, we worked with a travel agent who was able to help us get discounts on some of our travel and stays. We got the Delta credit card to avoid checked bag fees. All of this helped make the trip more affordable on the front side.

We saved for this trip all year. That meant eating out very little to none, eschewing dates that cost very much money, and not going on any other vacations. Sure, we did a few things, but we really limited ourselves.

On the vacation, the first hotel provided us with breakfast. We ate big and snacked for lunch, saving the cost of a noontime meal. When we ate out at dinner, we enjoyed ourselves, but by no means ordered the most expensive dishes on the menu. Occasionally, we got drinks and dessert, but not every time.

When it came to activities, my husband saved us big bucks! He figured out how to use the bus in Ireland, and that meant very few Uber or taxi rides. We walked as much as we could besides that, so we did not even use bus fares a lot of the time. Our Pohlberg Lighthouse and Glendalough treks provides days of activity with only transportation costs.

In Scotland, I ate in the room for breakfast, avoiding the hotel breakfast fee. (My husband ate downstairs on breakfast coupons his parents gifted him.) I also ate in the room for some dinners, not the best idea ever, but it worked.

We walked to Coatbridge for free. We did souvenir shopping mostly at Aldi. We splurged on airport transportation, but took Scotrail to Edinburgh. Basically, we could have spent a lot more, but we did not.

All in all, the "average" cost of a two week trip for both of us to go on this adventure. That was still quite a large cost, but God provided for it. I think it will be a while before we could possibly afford such a trip again, but we are also investigating more ways to save. Funds are never endless, and we want to stretch the ones God gives as far as possible!