August Wrap Up and Final Vacation Costs

August is in the books. In totaling everything for the vacation, we came in at $15,552, which was higher than I thought it would be, but this is every penny for the most part spent including the dog boarding. Most of the balance not prepaid will be paid in September when the final VISA is due, so where the vacation lands us in our overall budget will be finalized when I report September. Ground Transportation was much higher than I budgeted. Seeing the reality of how the Metro system worked and the amount of stairs, learning how Google Maps lay out walking distance and reality of actually walking lugging suit cases, meant we added nearly $250 in ground travel in taxi and Uber. We also added $70 worth of insurance on the two rental cars. We also added a few spontaneous activities such as a movie at the Grand Rex, the largest theater in Europe, on our last Friday night since it was a bit rainy and added the catacombs for our kids. We weren't as economical in cooking either since it was so hot, but we did keep expenses down by eating a lot of cheese, bread, crackers, and wine at home at the end of the day as opposed to at the restaurants.

There are so many things that I would do differently had I known more, but that is often the case of traveling outside your known area. Some things were less, many were more than I imagined, but overall I am satisfied with our budget. This was five people,three countries, two weeks after all and was roughly the same per person we spent when we went to London, and DH was only there one week, so actually we financially did better. I'll still recap the trip and give my opinion on what was worth it and what I'd do differently. Below is the recap in terms of our annual spending priorities.

1.      Fully fund the Roth                                              $13,000

2.      Once in a lifetime family vacation                        $15,552 ($3,000 added +$552 overage)

3.      College Fund                                                       $12,000

4.      College and Show Choir Road Trips                   $  1,500

5.      All State Camp                                                    $     650

6.      Home Upgrades                                                  $  9,000                                                                                                                                  $51,702

Annual Savings Goal          $38,702 ($51,702 priority budget-$13,000 from savings)

Roth                                          $13,000

Taken from Savings                 -$13,000

Vacation expenses paid             $11,751

College/Show Choir trips paid   $ 1,282

All State Payments                    $   650

Cash Savings Increase             $  3,067

Total Savings achieved             $16,750

Balance to save:  $21,962

Eek! This accounts for the last three check pay period I received on August 31, leaving just four months to reach this target. There is a small sliver of possibility of making the target because I'll have tapped out my deferred compensation by mid October so my take home will be more, pus I have a raise at the end of November. DH will also max out his deferred comp, but since he is commission, I can't put any strong estimates as to what if anything, he'll increase. For now, I'll just keep tracking, keep squeezing pennies and see how close we can get. The home upgrades/improvements will either need to be scaled back, deferred, or we tap beyond the Roth into savings. With college on the horizon next year, we know this vacation was a splurge. We will keep ourselves busy with more thrifty get aways for the next five years.