by Claire
Of course my husband’s company sent him to Vegas for company business. This was the first time we decided to add a short vacation to a business trip. Please know I am not trying to throw my shoulder out patting myself on the back on this trip–but I am excited to share how this all went on the money front.
First, we are not Vegas people. No offense to those who are but it has never been a destination that we even discuss going to visit. We do enjoy spending time together though without the kiddos and if the travel gods make it happen for very little out of pocket cost, we probably are not going to pass it up. I realize that will open me up to criticism and that is okay–time with my husband is worth it.
Now–the breakdown of things…hubby’s airline ticket was, of course, paid. My airline ticket was also paid because of the travel points I’ve built up through my work travel so airline was $0. Hotel was covered for Tuesday and Wednesday. We gave Priceline “name your price” a whirl for Saturday, Sunday and Monday and managed to get The Wynn for a total price at 70% off the regular price. While we did book and pay for that hotel stay before I started this blog, I still could have walked away from the money already spent but I didn’t. While I didn’t walk away, I DID leave on that flight the morning of March 3 knowing in many ways that I should not be flying to Vegas…that I should be cancelling the entire thing and not spending a penny more. While I did not cancel like many of you absolutely positively think I should have done…I did carry your voices with me as I spent 5 days in Las Vegas! And I do not think it was an accident that I found myself in the city that is DESIGNED to get you to spend money as I kicked off this blog and my “attack on the debt.”
I’ve only been to Vegas twice before and definitely did not have spending limits when I went! This trip I had some serious self imposed spending limits. I was completely prepared to read my book in a gorgeous hotel room or by a pool while spending quality time with my husband. Honestly–those were my only expectations. Good news is I did not exceed my usual weekly budget that I would have had at home AND thanks to a slot machine at the airport, I managed to come home with only spending $70! How did I do that? Well in addition to some good fortune, I also followed some tips that you guys have already given me on this blog. I bought all the fixings for PB&J and avoided even fast food low prices while there—I easily battled through the voice inside of me wanting a lavish meal reminding myself that I cannot afford a lavish meal. I created a spreadsheet where I input every single penny spent each day of the trip so I could take a complete look at it at the end of the day and make appropriate decisions on the next day. I did Vegas on a budget.
I never ever gamble (there’s a great story to share of me at the craps table breaking every rule they have in a matter of about 60 seconds and just for your future reference…they are very serious about those rules!!) I don’t know what possessed me to put all of $2 in that airport slot machine about 15 minutes before my flight left b/c WHO wins at the slot machines at the Vegas airport?!? But I did and hit for $137.00! I promptly took my money and RAN to my plane! 🙂 Meanwhile, hubby was doing that networking thing in the casino after work stuff and while he is definitely not a gambler either he has definitely figured out the statistics behind the craps table. I told you he did numbers well and he managed to turn $20 into near $400. The good news is we’ve used that $537 toward debt reduction and savings. No, we do not have plans to pay $100,000 in debt off with gambling but as people who do NOT gamble, it was a nice little shot in the arm to make good decisions as we won the money (not ride the wave to nothing) and then manage to get home with the money and make good decisions again. I won’t apologize for taking this trip–it was a wonderful time with my husband and we learned so much as we were cautious and thoughtful through the process. It was helpful in many ways to hold on to all of the moments of this trip and embrace them because we recognize that we won’t have these trips after this year…for a very long time–until the debt is paid off.
Now…talk amongst yourselves. 😉
Born and raised in Texas. I’ve at least driven through every state in the US courtesy of a roadtrip loving Dad.
I’m single with two children and a good parenting relationship with their father.
I am a “life is just half full of funny” kinda gal. Humor is my saving grace and I am thankful for it every single day. I have a strong Catholic faith and am thankful for that foundation.
I read a lot for a living but still enjoy a good book. I love biographies but in recent years have found the need for fun fictional books–sadly, for a long time I just didn’t enjoy fiction!
I love live theatre of any kind–from local productions to Broadway.
I love to scrapbook and pride myself in my kids’ albums.
I love being a mom but also love my career. I’m blessed to have found a balance allowing me to be at everything my kids need and want me to be at–while also having a career.
Favorite Quotes: Well behaved women rarely make history.
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. -James Bryant Conant
hee hee. I imagine you’ll get some strong opinions here, so I say, eh…. You didn’t spend a lot, you had a great trip with quality time with your DH. Think of it as having been your last hurrah for a while, and commit yourself to buckling down. Your occasional treat needs to move more toward the manicure end of the financial spectrum, not the Vegas end. 🙂
Oh I don’t think many readers will even allow a manicure KLM! But I like your optimism! 😉
I get the impression you wouldn’t think of selling your vehicle and buying a used $5000 compact car that your husband can hardley fit in to hold you over till your debt is paid off. Or car-pooling with 3 other people every day so you can share the vehicle with your husband, who sold his truck to pay off debt. When you do things like that (like a lot of your readers have done)you’ll understand why “many readers will” not “allow a manicure.”
Maybe her job isn’t the sort that lends itself to carpooling. I know a guy who drives a TON for his job because he is a district manager. There is no way he could carpool. As for selling the new car and getting a used one – I’m not convinced that will save them a lot of money. Odds are the cars are no longer retail for what they paid, and they are close to being upside down on the loans (I mean, aren’t most car loans upside down given the high amortization rate on cars?). Whatever they would gt for the cars would be applied to the loans, and then they’d still be stuck paying off the remainder of the loan while having to take out a NEW loan for the used cars….
I simply don’t see that helping a whole lot. Also, they have three children to cart around, so you can’t get away with a super small car for both safety reasons and simple minimum space requirements! Further, their lives may be such that they CAN’T dedicate only one car to be the family car. They may have to have BOTH cars be large enough for the kids.
Hmmmm Susan–not sure what blog you are reading but this comment suggests that it isn’t mine. I do carpool with three other people….they’re my kids. And my husband did not sell his truck–he didn’t have a truck–to pay off debt…his car collapsed underneath him. We made a decision to get rid of the $5000 car you speak of (we had a 2001 used Honda Odyssey that we bought cash and was truly a beater) because the cost of ownership was only adding to the debt. The same goes for my husband’s car. That was a decision we made together to tackle the credit card debt which is our number one priority. With our auto loans we know we don’t have repair expenses, we have a known payment and for a defined, limited amount of time. It is what we decided to do to manage the situation. Plus…if I have a beater car how can I be sure I’ll make it to the salon for my manicure?
Your sarcasm just lost you a reader.
Time to loosen up, Susan!
That’s not a bad thing Susan. Good riddance. Negative proselytizing like yours only serves to make an already daunting obstacle difficult to overcome. Give Claire a break. One size solutions do not work for everyone’s finances.
Thanks Brian–I’m still sort of chuckling at my humor setting her off like that…honestly, I thought it was hysterical to dare to combine the beater car and the need for a manicure. It was meant to be IRONIC! I see another tag line coming here…
You’re right about unpredictable repair costs! I just traded in an old car for a new one because the old car was simply becoming unreliable and every few months I had to pay $500-2000 to fix some problem. And I don’t even drive to work!! Anyway, I was able to pay cash for my car thanks to being car payment free for 11 years – and the other day I looked at how much I was spending per year on car repairs – $2000-3000! So in terms of annual expenses I just saved $2000-3000! 🙂
We’re in this situation now and it is so frustrating. I feel like we’ve sunk enough into it that if we don’t keep driving it, we’ve thrown that money away. And it is still lower than payments on a new one would be (we have the cash, but I’d rather finance given the crazy low interest rates right now). SIGH.
Anyone know of an end of car life calculator to help with this decision?
@Emmi:
It would be nice if there were some sort of calculator or a set of rules for deciding when to trade in an old car. I struggled with that question myself for a few years. One of my problems is that I was emotionally attached to my old car, and I had a hard time justifying paying for a new car when the yearly maintenance costs of the old one were so much lower.
For me, the final decision came when three things happened:
1. The car become so old that finding parts for it was difficult. At some point I knew a very crucial part would break and my awesome mechanic wouldn’t be able to fix it, and then I’d have to contact a junk yard to come and haul my car away.
2. Various leaks popped up that caused the carpeting to be wet or damp almost all the time. Fixing those leaks would probably be very expensive as there’s a lot of labor involved in finding them all.
3. The electrical started to go bad right before my trade-in. I was driving at night on the highway when the headlights kept dimming :s Nerve wracking!!!
So, basically, it came down to I could no longer afford to keep the car going, either financially or mentally, and safety started to become a concern. Because I take public transportation to work reliability wasn’t as much of an issue for me, but if I did have to drive to work every day I probably would have traded the car in sooner.
As for financing vs. cash, my boyfriend made a very good case for financing. The car loan rate was lower than my mortgage, so going strictly by the numbers it would make more sense for me to put the cash towards the mortgage and finance the car. However, given that my company keeps having layoffs and mini re-orgs I opted to pay cash in order to avoid a mandatory monthly payment.
I hope that helps give you some food for thought in thinking about your car situation 🙂
P.S. I know it’s frugal to buy used, but I buy new because I’m always scared I’ll get a lemon. Plus, I plan on keeping this car for a very long time, so I estimate that by the time I trade-in this car its per year purchase costs will be pretty low.
Car repairs are annoying, so people are irrational about them. Buying a new or expensive car is NEVER economically justifiable with debt. No matter how much you spend per year on an old car, it’s going to be a lot less than just the annual depreciation on your newer car. Car debt never makes sense. If your old car is costing too much in repairs, sell it and get another cheap car that you can pay for in cash. Many people have older, used cars that are very reliable. Until recently, I had a 1987 used car that I owned for many, many years. It had very few repairs. You can find something similar.
As a reminder…I was likely chosen bc I am in my infancy of debt reduction! I have never followed personal finance blogs and absolutely have to start somewhere. Why not start in Vegas?! Ha!
You rock your blog/debt/life the way you want to, don’t let the readers run things. That said, there are some very money smart people here and plenty of good advice coming from them but at the end of the day you are in charge of your life.
How does your husband feel about you doing this blog? Is he at all resistant or totally on board? Does he want to get rid of the debt as much as you?
My husband is naturally much more reserved than I but before I accepted the position we discussed it at length. He does see the value…particularly for me…in getting it all out there and is totally on board re: debt reduction. Yes, he wants to get rid of the debt as much as I do and we are taking a team approach to the battle. Does he fully and totally embrace the blog at this point? I’d have to say he accepts it…but he isn’t doing cartwheels over it.
Well, if your husband ever gets really upset with your blog, he can read The Bloggess and see what her husband, Victor, goes through. There is profanity (you all have been warned) but she’s funny and poor Victor. For a sample, try http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/ (there’s a reason it has over 3,700 comments!)
That said, I think you did an AWESOME job on your trip. You kept your expenses under control while spending “alone” time with your husband. That’s worht a lot and you can’t put everything on hold until you pay off your debt.
We’re taking a college tour visit during spring break and heading down south. We’ll take some food, but I guarantee we’ll hit Waffle House at least twice since we don’t have them in our area – sniff, sniff.
I LOVE THAT BIG METAL CHICKEN POST!!! I found it in a magazine last week and could not stop laughing! That one only gave us a glimpse of what Victor endures…and then to have the world laughing at it! Oh well…let’s hope Victor has a good sense of humor! “THIS CHICKEN WILL CUT YOU.”
They’ve made it 15 years (as of last summer), so he must have some sense of humor!
I have a husband who travels a lot for work, too. Especially in the early days (when my son was a baby) we did a LOT of the ‘travelling together to spend time together’ thing.
I totally get where you are coming from – especially when you can “piggy-back” with so many of the expenses being paid by his work. I used to think, “we might not get the chance to do this kind of trip again” and so the temptation to just up-and-go with DH was always there.
It’s a great idea to keep a spreadsheet or a spending notebook on this kind of trip. It was only once I started recording every last bit of spending on my phone that I really got the motivation to say “No” to tagging along.
Good luck, I love your positive attitude and the positive way you are taking all the comments!
Thanks Fiona! I still find the timing of this business travel opportunity to be so ironic. It was really a challenge and I think I met it! He goes to Salt Lake City next week and then Charleston the following and I made no plans to tag along. This is really a one time thing that we learned a lot from given the timing. There I sat in my really, really nice hotel room eating a PB&J…that, in itself, is progress. 🙂
I’ve been following your blog since you started, and reading the comments (which would’ve scared me away if I was you!). I too have a very high amount of debt. But I have a different mindset than most of the typical readers of this blog. While I want to get out of debt, I’m not willing to hate my life by pinching every penny and taking out all luxuries. If it means one more year until I’m debt free, I’m completely ok with that.
As for the Vegas trip, way to go!! I am glad you decided to go ahead and make the trip that you had most expenses covered or prepaid for! Rather than letting that money go to waste, you used it to build some memories with your husband. However, if you had blown alot of money eating out and gambling I’d have a different outlook – so good job on sticking to a budget!! And just so you know, I’m going to tag along with my fiance for his conference in Hawaii this summer. I’ve set aside some money each month for the past year to cover my costs and it hasn’t prevented me from making significant progress on my debt reduction.
Yippee Liz on Hawaii! You are planning ahead and not adding to the debt to spend time with your fiance. I know some folks might call us reckless and selfish–oh, even immature (I heard that one re: my trips)…but there has to be balance in all that we do in this life. I firmly believe that. I got way, way out of balance on my spending and we can all see the mess it has created. But, if I go to the extreme of washing out ziploc baggies at this point…I will surely fail. I’m not going to turn this ship around in a month. Best of luck to you and Aloha!
I think it sounds like a nice trip for you too. The costs sound minimal and every now and then you should have time with him!
Way to go on the Vegas trip and the wins!! I think it’s great that you went and you stuck to your budget. Time with DH is always important and a partially paid trip (through his work travel) is something I definitely couldn’t pass up.
We are trying to pay off a high amount of debt as well. But there are some things you just need to do for your mental well-being. Our kids are teenagers, and we have decided to go on a camping trip this summer with my extended family. They go every year, and for the past few years we didn’t go because we couldn’t afford it. But this year, we realized we only have a couple more years with our kids- our oldest is already in college and will only be able to come for a couple of days. We decided that making memories and enjoying time together as a family is more important right now than the numbers. We will, however, be doing it as frugally as possible also!
Good for you! I think it would be just as bad an idea to focus soooo much on paying off debt that you stopped paying attention to your marriage! There is more to your life together than your finances! I also thinks it helped A LOT that neither of you are Vegas people. The one time I went to Vegas I didn’t spend much because I’m not into gambling… or shopping! And, as for getting a fancy meal, I found that the fancy buffets at the casinos are really, really salty, so you were probably better off with the PB&Js!
I didn’t realize that we, the readers, were “allowing” Claire to do or not do things. I get that the blogger puts herself out there, but I don’t think it is the job of the readers to beat her up over her decisions. So maybe Claire didn’t handle the situation as well as you might have handled it — it is Claire’s decision. We, the readers, are here to follow her journey, add some wisdom along the way if possible, cheer her triumphs, help keep her accountable, and maybe learn a thing or two ourselves. I’ve learned it is possible to take a trip on about what it would cost to fill up most big cars with gasoline these days! This was a five-day trip in which she spent a total of $70 and actually came back with an extra $537 to put toward her debt! Life is too short to miss out on moments spent with our loved ones — we get so caught up in the everyday stress of work, commitments, and yes, even worrying about how we’re going to pay down our debt, that we need to remember what is really important — our family. I can’t begrudge someone an opportunity to spend quality time with someone they love — especially when it was done so frugally! Good for you, Claire!
Very true! Also, just because one method worked for one of Claire’s readers doesn’t mean it will work for Claire!
Thanks! This chain of comments is well timed with a story I saw on the news this morning. Poor 85-year-old blogger Marilyn Hagerty and her review of The Olive Garden. She’s been attacked for daring to review a “lowly” chain restaurant in a newspaper. Here–take a look…http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/231591/
This world of blogging makes it much easier for people to share their opinion anonymously and maybe that is why it is challenging for some of us. I don’t write anything that I would not be willing to say to a person’s face and if you have that type of personality then to read these harsh comments is more impactful. I don’t mean to upset people with my humor…or have them perceive it as sarcasm…but really like Marilyn says in this article…”why all the fuss?!”
Looking forward to seeing your first debt reduction update when it comes time!
The subject of money tends to bring out strong opinions in most people but this is not a “one size fits all” topic. I hope that the readers of this blog will embrace that fact and offer their support (in a positive and edifying) manner to Claire. She has admitted that she is new at this and is open about the life circumstances that brought her to this point and is willing to learn from the ones that have been on this journey much longer. Let us all lend her our support and cheer with her for her strides, pick her up and dust her off when she struggles and falls, and be there for her as she finds her financial footing. She is asking to be kept accountable and that is a great thing. However, I always tell my children “there are six ways to say the same thing and get your point across”. Rather than sounding very judgmental, we can give the same advice from a “wiser” perspective.
And from a personal perspective – congratulations on the Vegas trip. I would have done the same thing. My husband travels all the time and when I have the opportunity to go with him, I grab it. Life is too short and I don’t ever want to regret a opportunity time away from home with him. Your relationship needs that. No amount of money can fix a relationship that is not nurtured. It’s a balance and you are off to a great start. Now…stepping down from my soap box. Have a great day and I look forward to seeing your success!!!
I’m glad that you and your husband realize the necessity of spending time together sans kids. It will help you be better spouses and better parents.
You’ve already shown that you’re new to this and yet you’ve already learned so much! The laundry detergent was really just the beginning. Now you’ve gone on a trip and used things you’ve learned and not overspent your budget. Great job!
You’re also handling the comments very gracefully. I never cease to wonder at the folks who are so harsh. Would they really say those words to someone face to face? Maybe so, but my guess is probably not.
What was it someone called them? Debbie Downers? Negative Nancy’s? Berating Barbaras?
Here’s to hoping that you have less of them, and more Positive Patti’s and Encouraging Emily’s. 🙂
Good for you! People forget that personal finance is exactly that PERSONAL! If you don’t like the content of the blog then keep it moving. Claire, can’t wait to see how your financial journey develops!
I think it’s cool that you went and were able to do it on a budget. And the winnings at the end? That’s a fantastic bonus! The whole reason people pay down debt is so that they can live life. You shouldn’t stop enjoying life until you are completely debt free. If you do these kind of these sparingly, they mean that much more. I’m glad you had a good time. Looking forward to reading more!
Travel (and food!) are our weakness. I love tagging along on my husband’s business trips but we’re selective about it. I managed to join him in Santa Barbara and Tampa, Florida (both AWESOME trips) but declined many more (including this year’s trip to San Jose, which I would love to do but it’s a very expensive flight for us). Finding ways to do things you enjoy inexpensively is part of the journey, and will serve you well when you’re done.
TOTALLY our weakness too Susan. I’m willing to trade off on the meals if I can still get to the destinations…I am just still a short distance away from total acceptance of no travel. I might even wash out ziploc bags just to have a travel fund!
I laughed about ziplock bags. Case in point that not every solution works for everyone – we wash out our ziplock bags but will never ever make laundry detergent! As for never piggybacking on a business trip – maybe that would work if you could be out of debt in 3 years, but if it will take 5 years, that’s a long time to go without alone time with a husband. Now off to About Me….
That IS funny!!! I may one day consider the ziplock baggie wash option…but if I start that at the same time I start making my own laundry detergent I might find myself running out into traffic in just a matter of days!!!! Thanks for the laugh!
Claire, I feel for you. Beks was very strict with herself and her spending and I guess the readers have grown accustomed to that sort of read. I feel for you because you feel the constant need to block yourself from useless picky comments. The good thing is that if people don’t like what they’re reading, they will soon move on to another blog and people who are like you, actually struggling with day to day decisions will join in to read your battles with debt and spending. This is a marathon and even marathoners stop for short breaks. I’m not saying it’s ok to blow a ton of money but if you would’ve gotten a $13 manicure (which isn’t hard to find in vegas) no one should crucify you. BIg hugs on your journey and I’ll continue to follow 🙂
I think Beks (and Tricia for that matter) were also different because their children were so young (heck, Beks still has an infant). It’s different with teens – not better, not worse, and definitely no less expensive, just different. The ways you spend and save will be different, too. For instance, not only are you carting your own kids around, there’s often a friend or two and some of those teens are tall and a compact car doesn’t work. They also eat – a lot! You need to adjust and I would not be surprised to find out that the kids were at least partially happy to have Mom and Dad go away for a few days to give them some time apart, too.
I think you’ll find that in any area where people are passionate (I’m talking to you Democrats and Republicans!!) they have a tendency to eat their own. It’s comical (and sad at the same time) how a people united against a common enemy can often destroy themselves before they even get to the battle.
That being said, I think you need to do what you think is right. I wrote a blog article titled “Gazelle’s don’t have scrapbooks” in which I dispute the “Gazelle like intensity” approach of Dave Ramsey. Even though I love Dave Ramsey and respect his wisdom, I couldn’t get on board completely with the “gazelle like intensity” and eat beans and rice / rice and beans at the cost of missing out on precious memories with our kids.
I’d rather work an extra 10 years and retire at 70 if it meant I could take a bucket list vacation with my teenage kids before they move out. Being frugal now to be debt free in 10 years doesn’t appeal to me if we’re empty nesters in 10 years. I have 18 years with each of them; I’ve got about 50 work years to pay those 18 years off.
Or, to put it another way, we put a cruise vacation on a credit card in 2001 for my family and my Mom and StepDad. Less than 2 years later I lost my mother to cancer. She was 55 and almost 10 years later I’m still tearing up typing it.
We’re probably still paying off that vacation, but would I do it over again if I had the chance?
Absolutely not.
If I could do it over again, instead of a 5 day / 4 night it would have been a 30 day around the world cruise.
And we’d do it twice just for good measure. Maybe three times.
Debt is a pain in the butt, but making memories with your loved ones at the cost of another year or two in debt is a no brainer.
Did anyone else just fall in love with Todd or is that just me?
Maybe not ‘fall in love’ with him, but I sure do love those comments. Nice perspective, Todd.
yes, a tiny bit. 🙂
Yeah, count me in. I’m in love.
I teared up reading your comment, Todd. I am very sorry for the loss of your mother. Last year I was lucky to take a vacation with my mom. It was expensive, but worth it just to spend the time with her. I do not regret spending the money one bit! It will be a vacation I will always remember.
Todd – My son just asked me why I was crying. Well, I just read your comment and I’m thinking about how magical our family trip was that got us back into a little bit of credit card debt. I’m so sorry for the loss of your mother and I am glad you had that that trip with her. I understand how precious those memories are.
Well Todd…I think Mar is right! You made a blog full of women swoon! I think as your children get to that pre-teen/teenage realm you start to realize this stuff. Thank you for the reminder and for sharing the sweet story about your cruise with your mom.
My husband and I went on trips to las vegas, phoenix, san fran, LA, and several other smaller trips closer to home while paying off our debt. We did it without adding any new debt and are now completely debt free except the mortgage and I wouldn’t change a thing. Don’t let debt stop you from living life (as long as you’re not going overboard) I see it as making “investments” into my marriage. I am sure people disagree but we did it our way. no regrets.
@Jen – Thanks. I can tell by your comment that you “get it”. Everything in balance.
@Mar – It’s just you. Trust me. It’s just you. 😉
@Alice – Thank you, appreciate it.
@Claire – Sorry to hijack your blog, although it sounds like at the rate you’re going (a raise and a promotion) they might be interviewing for a blogger sooner than expected!
I haven’t read this blog in quite some time, but your realistic approach and your sense of humor just netted you one new reader. Bu-bye, Susan. Also, 3 kids, traveling husband, a hankering for the occasional pedi…How can I NOT read?
Good luck, Claire!
Dear Claire
I was excited for you when you first started this blog but I can see you are in no way ready or serious about tackling your mountain of debt. I came to this conclusion even before reading about the Vegas trip but after that post I am convinced. I do however think you wanted to try your hand at blogging. Congratulations, you’re a blogger. Your credit card debt speaks volumes. It tells me that you probably are not telling us the truth but just highlighting the parts of your ‘plan’ that make you look good. The interest on all those cards alone is gonna eat you alive if you don’t start taking this seriously. I am hesitant to try cheering you on because I think you will fudge on the stats if they start making you look bad. Anyone can change numbers on a computer but in the long run it will not help you one tiny bit if you are not honest with yourself. I will continue to read about your progress but I doubt we will get the real story. I do wish you luck because you will definitly be needing it. Sorry to be so harsh but I’m not going to enable you by telling you what a good job you are doing when I can tell you are not ready for this difficult journey and it IS difficult. Do some math and really really really look at how much your debt is growing month by month. Please be real. I will not write any more negative comments and you are welcome to delete or ignore this one, after all it’s your debt not mine.
Thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking!
I regret that you’d make such decisive judgments about me but also fully recognize I cannot control what a reader chooses to take from my posts. I am not here to make myself look good…because frankly the very idea of using a debt reduction blog to make myself look good is silly. If I was out to only make myself look good, I can think of a million other topics to blog about besides my horrendous debt. No, this wasn’t me taking my shot at blogging because I wanted to try my hand at it–I have plenty in this life to keep my hands very busy and blogging for the sake of being able to say I am a blogger just isn’t how I would choose to spend my time. I decided to do this blog because I need help. For all the reasons I previously posted–I need help. I don’t define help as enabling me but instead just solid advice given in a spirit of wanting good for others. In other words, I blog because I know there are people with much, much more experience in getting out of debt than I have ever been around so I am open to (and have been very appreciative of) solid advice. In turn, I apply that advice to my own unique circumstances that no one else can know or understand.
As for my honesty and your doubt about it—why would you waste your time on checking in on a blog written by someone you believe to be a liar? That sounds plain crazy to me and discredits you in my eyes. The irony is that one of the more consistent comments I’ve been receiving is that my honesty and openness is evident and appreciated. I am confident in the fact that I am the blogger on this blog because I am not all that unique in my situation–I was just brave enough to “out” myself. I didn’t arrive here as a personal finance blog watcher and I did not have a detailed plan on my exit strategy. In fact, I subsribe to NO blogs and only periodically checked in on this one through the years. And when I say periodically…I mean maybe 4 or 5 times a year. THAT is when I was not being honest Sarah-when I would peek in and look at Tricia’s and Bek’s progress…and continue to look away from my own mess. I suspect there are plenty of readers who can relate to me and my story who don’t spend time questioning my integrity. Honestly–do yourself a favor–remove yourself from this blog and go follow others who know exactly what they are doing, are “serious” in your eyes about tackling their debt and above all–that you believe are totally and completely honest with you.
Sarah, I don’t think Claire is deceiving us; I think she just has a different approach to the debt reduction that doesn’t preclude her from doing some things to strengthen her marriage, parent her children, and live her life. Some people want to take the “heads down, gazelle intense, rice and beans/beans and rice” approach, while others are more “pay down while still doing some things”. Unless someone is on the brink of bankruptcy, I don’t think one is wrong and the other one right. It depends on the person.
I didn’t always agree with Beks’ approach, but I didn’t need to do so. The only time I ever wanted to yell at her the way you just did with Claire was when she didn’t stand up for herself at work and wasn’t being paid according to her position and THEN accepted more work without the commensurate, promised pay raise coming through. I wasn’t the only who felt that way.
Why don’t we wait and see what type fo progress Claire and her family make on debt reduction in the next 3 months or so before deciding whether her approach is right or wrong. If you aren’t going to believe her, I’m not sure why you would even read the blog, but that’s up to you. I personally find it interesting.
I really enjoy Claire. I could never relate to Beks, being frugal is one thing but it just always seemed like she fell into the camp of frugalistas who get more satisfaction out of judging other people than they do out of living their lives. I love Vegas and I love this blog again! It had been awhile…
Frugalistas! I love that. Everything in balance is what I am trying to work toward!
Coming out ahead after a trip to Vegas is hysterical. They are trying to lure you back. Don’t fall for it!
I am so glad you went to Vegas with your husband and enjoyed yourself.
I agree with Todd (I actually typed a reply to him but it got lost) in that happy memories mean everything. He might pay for that cruise for the rest of his life, but he has the memories of vacationing with his mother.
Life is too short! We never know when something bad is going to happen.
We have to work around our finances and make life happen, even when our finances are not perfect.
Good for you for finding such an excellent deal at the Wynn.
I think it’s great that you were at least conscious of your spending on the trip and that you avoided chances to spend a lot more than you did.
Here’s my advice, though: Going forward, learn to be mindful of the many excuses and justifications that Americans have learned to use to justify their spending and debt. “I deserve it.” “I work hard.” “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” “I needed it.” And in your case, “time with the husband is worth it” or “we need time away from the kids.” Any of those needs can be filled without spending tons on a fancy trip. Time away from the kids and time alone as a couple can be achieved by going camping for nearly free, spending one night away in a hotel that’s a short drive from home, having a romantic night or weekend in your own home while you send the kids to a family member’s house or friends’ houses. Etc, etc…
But, she DIDN’T spend a ton of money on a fancy trip. She was very, very frugal in a place where it’s not easy to be. I think she did a great job.
Honey, you and I may not agree on the milk thing, but otherwise you seem to be reading my mind!
It’s important to get out of debt, but unless you are in immediate danger of eviction, bankruptcy, etc., I think each person needs to go at their pace and combine the debt reduction with the needs of their family to make this work.