Budget Travel!

I apologize for being MIA lately. I haven't had much to update about in the personal finance arena. I only get paid once a month, so payday is Tuesday. I did pretty well with sticking to my cash envelopes in the month of March. I only went over a little bit, and now I know where I can trim back in April so that I don't go over. =)

This weekend, me and C decided to go on a small trip down to Myrtle Beach, SC. It came about at the last minute, because I knew I'd have tomorrow (Monday) off work. We got lucky, and Chris was told that he didn't have to report in again til Tuesday. I asked a friend of mine who lives in Myrtle about good places to stay and she recommended Hotel Breakers. So we looked into it and they had an Ultimate Romance package where we got a rooftop ocean view room, chocolate covered strawberries, a small bottle of champagne, and free breakfast. The total cost for two nights? $230.

It took us 5 hours to make the 2 1/2 hour drive, however, because Friday evening there were tornadoes in the area we were coming from. One of the tornadoes crossed over I-95, which we were driving on, and stopped traffic for two hours! It was annoying, but today when we came back the drive was very easy. We are looking forward to going back in the near future.

Here are some pics:


This is the view from the balcony/patio attached to our room. It was huge, since it was a penthouse room.



This was also taken from the rooftop. Here you can see the water, the sand, the beautiful landscaping, and one of the hotel's swimming pools with two hot tubs. =)

C is a great boyfriend for spoiling me and taking me on trips. Also, I'm thinking we got a great deal because of the economy--the hotels are trying to generate business by offering cheaper packages. I highly recommend Hotel Breakers because it was clean, had great amenities, and the staff was wonderful and accomodating!

Meals - Week of 3/8

Sunday: Spaghetti with marinara sauce

Monday: Black beans and rice with green beans

Tuesday: Soccer parents feed me at the game. C is on his own.

Wednesday: M cooks? But if not--mac and cheese.

Thursday: Hamburger helper.

Friday: Vegetable soup and toast.

Saturday: Date night with C, so out to eat!

All I need to buy at Wal-Mart today is milk, bread, fresh fruit, and a bottle of aloe lotion because we got horribly sunburned watching softball outside. The gorgeous weather was awesome, but sadly we forgot to put on sunscreen before being outside from 10 AM until 4 PM! Oops!

Balance Transfer

After much runaround, I will be able to transfer my Discover Card balance over to another card offered by my bank. I will get 0% for 6 months on it, after which my rate will be 9.99%. I really would like to pay off the card in the next 6 months--it's going to be hard, but I will feel so free when it's all done!

Basically, my personal banker suggested this, but we couldn't do it right away because I didn't know the account number. I had cut up the card forever ago, and they wouldn't give it out over the phone. They promised to overnight me a new card, which I never got, so I called back to complain. Finally they admitted they could close the account and then give me the account number so they did that for me. I called my banker and left her a voicemail with all the information. Last night she finally called back and said that the transfer should go through soon.

At the least, all my payments will go straight to principle for the next six months. This will help immensely.

I can't wait to lose all this credit card debt so I can attack the car payment!!!

C gets back from his Army course tomorrow. The past 2 weeks really flew considering he wasn't around. We're going to make up for missing Valentine's Day this weekend!

February Update.

Sorry for my lack of posts lately! My week has been somewhat chaotic, which I am about to explain.

First of all, C left for some Army training on Wednesday. He'll be back on February 19th, so I've been catching up on things like cleaning my apartment that are somewhat neglected while he's here. Haha. I do miss him though. =)

Secondly, during the week, I accepted the position as the girls soccer head coach at my school. It happened really fast, but this is going to be really good for me. I'm halting my martial arts lessons for a few months so that I can save more money, so now I have time for coaching. An added bonus is that at the end of the season, I get paid $500! So between no martial arts lessons and the $500 I'll make from this, I should have another $800 in savings by June. At the minimum! So, the coaching position has solved my second job dilemma for the time being. When the season ends, I can look for something to fill in the summer months with.

In addition to all that, I will be transferring my Discover Card balance to a 0% for six months card from my bank. That should allow me to put a huge dent in paying it off since all payments will go on the principal.

I wish my budget wasn't so out of whack this month. I probably won't be able to save much, if anything. But I'm still thankful that I won't need to add any *new* debt (except for maybe that pesky dentist appointment that's at the end of the month...sigh).

How is everyone doing for the month of February?

P.S. I also updated my sidebar at the left with the total amounts I owe. ;)