December 8, 2010
After all is said and done, we spent an insane amount of money preparing for this business trip. INSANE.
I will definitely use everything that was purchased for many years to come because they are all high-quality materials, and I most certainly used them every single day on this trip so far and wouldn’t have survived it without, but I still cannot believe the total cost at the end of the day.
My clothing cost at least $600. PiC won’t tell me how much my surprise warm fuzzy boots cost, but I know the coat was nearly $500. None of the coats I ordered from Lands’ End (I ordered four to try on as they don’t carry petites in store) fit well, nor were they as flexible. The one he ran out and bought can be unzipped to be just a down or just a raincoat as well as zipped together, and it’s got a lifetime guarantee. Add in new waterproof, lined gloves, a hat, and very thick woolly socks (on sale) to round out the total.
My tech cost another $700. The computer was nearly $400 and then I ended paying through the nose for a 3-pack of the Microsoft Suite which I intended to skip installing except our servers wouldn’t let me access my work email in any way shape or form via anything BUT the installed program. It’s never given me that much trouble before, and on the eve of travel, it kicked up such a fuss, I couldn’t risk it.
Web-only access continued to be a serious problem throughout the trip so it’s a good thing I did install the suite because I would not have been able to work and that’s a huuuuge no-no.
And of course, the tote bag didn’t show up until I was long gone had to be replaced by another one, so I had to hie me to REI for something waterproof and over the shoulder/cross body in the absence of anything lightweight and professional looking. Found it for $80. *sigh*
Honest to goodness, I really should have considered all these costs when scheduling the work trip, not just when it would be slightly less inconvenient to be away from the office. What a huge pain to have spent well over a thousand dollars and wasted all that time shopping and fretting. It was an unusual week and the snow made for an unusual trip and it was an awful lot of fun. But that’s an offsetting benefit you can’t really expense against the costs.
I’ve just been minding the cost of meals out down to recoup some of the per diem money even if it is just a drop in the bucket. Every little bit counts!
December 5, 2010
A quick photo montage …..
My first few days were spent in the country getting snowed on, so of course we had to walk the wide open fields with the dogs who romped in the snow. (This was only the first day.)
My first ride in a London cab was great. The cabbie zipped around all the local spots he could without veering off the path to our destination, showing us the park, stopping for me to snap a shot of Big Ben, and the church where Prince William and Kate will be married.
Did you know ….
that “giant prawns” are really just small-medium shrimp?
that black pudding is made with blood, fat and other filler?
that Marmite tastes like super concentrated soy sauce?
that tipping really IS only for good service around here?
that all plugs have an on/off switch?
that the exchange rate is positively abysmal and that converting GBP to dollars on every transaction causes heartburn?
that the temperatures dropped to 8 degrees below freezing Celsius and I survived? (ta-daaa!)
That’s thanks to PiC kitting me out – I’ve been double layering bottoms and quadruple layering tops before I put on the big coat, scarf, boots, hat and gloves everyday to stay warm. Mostly warm.
Second week shouldn’t be quite so cold, and the airports shouldn’t be frozen in either, I don’t think! I’ve been working like a fiend, 12-14 hour days and totally crashed this weekend so I missed a nice lunch in London. 🙁 But I needed the sleep and the quiet time, so I’m not going to beat myself up for it. I had a nice loooong walkabout town Saturday and ran out for some takeaway dinner tonight so I’m getting acclimated to city life again after being cozy in the country life for a week. Gads the country life was lovely. Everyone was incredibly friendly and so funny.
Bed early tonight, methinks….
November 20, 2010
There’s an idea PiC and I have been floating, kicking around, actually, for the past several weeks.
A friend is going traipsing about across continents for several months and has been prodding us to jump in for a bit of that trip sometime in the spring. We’d previously half-promised to join a pair of PiC’s friends in Greece “sometime in spring” but that couple has already decided on a week on Greece and another in Italy and at a time that may not work so well for us.
Leaving aside the question of whether I can save enough vacation time, there’s still the actual cost to get there and back, and fill my ever-starving belly! A very rough estimate of an acceptable budget: $2000-3000.
It’s a pretty crazy thought.
But.
So Delicious.
I hit FlyerTalk and Fatwallet to confirm my suspicions and sure enough, there had been a fantastic promotion for the British Airways Signature Visa months ago – 50,000 bonus miles after a first purchase and a $2000 spend in three months, but the current promotion on offer was pretty anemic at only half that so I held off. It’s nothing like the one from last year offering twice that, for a total of 100K miles, though. *dramatic sigh*
Lo, when I tried to book my travel for work, Chase/BA ambushed me with the premium offer, only if I were to apply right then and there and pay for my travel with that very same card.
Pacing back and forth, assailing PiC with demands for his assessments of our usual spending that goes on credit cards for the next three months, I found myself, after two hours of obsessing, applying for the card. What I did not notice, shame on me, was that a waiver of the annual fee wasn’t part of the promotion. I’d taken that for granted as a normal business tactic for all the new cards. And they get you right up front, too! The charge hit my card two days after I got it in the mail.
As a bit of emotional solace, though it’s hardly a real offset against $75(!), I just found out that this card no longer charges a foreign transaction fee. So there’s that.
The 50,000 bonus miles will pay for one transatlantic flight, so that’s one of us taken care of. Perhaps it’s worth $75 for PiC to pick up his own card after I’ve completed my $2000 spend so we can combine costs on his card? I don’t want to be spending above need just for the sake of getting bonus miles, of course, that’s silly and wasteful. But I am planning to pay things like car registration earlier to get it into the three month cycle for this card. We can do that for a number of things like Costco gift cards (which are another story entirely).
I don’t know if, when or how this trip will happen yet. There are still a lot of issues (hi, family problems) to be settled between now and then so it might be completely unrealistic to try and go away for such a big trip. But I’ll just keep squirreling money and miles away. Just in case.
October 16, 2010
This was fun until I realized 1) I can’t really remember where I’ve been anymore, and 2) I really haven’t explored the States very much.
visited 13 states (26%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
visited 5 areas (2.22%)
Create your own visited map of The World
Fabulously Broke, Asian Pear, Financial Catastrophizer and Shelley all had far more interesting maps on their blogs.
My Travel Wish List
Greece
Italy (again)
Scotland
Ireland
England
Austria
Spain
Australia
New Zealand
Maldives
Galapagos (like Well Heeled)
Maine
Vermont
Tahiti
Jamaica
Morocco? (as I get older, my sense of adventure changes)
Argentina
I’m taking at least several months’ break from taking days off to hoard vacation days and will only hit the road again for business, but it’s fun to dream in the meantime.
What’s on your list?
{————Carnivals————}
My belated thanks …..
to Tom Drake for hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance and including my post How will you earn that raise?
October 13, 2010
Let’s start with the ugly-money, shall we? Transportation
PiC paid a little over $400 for each of our tickets. *urk*
Other costs: $66 for shuttles, $107 for taxis. *urrkkk*
* The cabs were because we chose not to destroy me trying to walk 3+ miles round trip to and from our various destinations. He could have done it easily, but I would have been wrecked. The subway and buses didn’t really service the areas and times we needed, unfortunately.
Lodgings
Our hotel for a two-night stay and with an extra hour late checkout (requested at the last minute when I realized PiC wasn’t going to make it back from the marathon in time: Free (thanks to points redemption)
Food
Friday was our travel day and we subsisted on travel snacks we packed, plane snacks and then had a dinner covered by his gift card, tip not included: $68/$11 out of pocket.
Saturday – we had a free breakfast provided by the hotel (PiC had two), and a really late lunch that basically became dinner from 3:00 to 4:30 pm. Again, covered by the gift card: $92/$10 out of pocket. Yes, tip was far less because service was absolutely awful that day. Food was still good, but the server was terrible.
Sunday – it was free breakfast again separately and a nice lunch outdoors together after the race: $33/$6 tip.
Entertainment
We walked the park everyday, watched tv in the evenings while stretching and recovering from the very long walks, and to rest up for the race, there was a big ole country music festival going on in Millenium Park all weekend: all free (minus the cabs to get us the rest of the way to the convention center). All free.
Mini Photo Gallery
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| We’re in love with this heirloom tomato salad accompanied by burrata cheese, smoked sea salt & aged balsamic vinegar. |
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| Mediterranean octopus … something. It was good. |
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| Best sea scallop appetizer I’ve had in years. Perfectly cooked! |
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| Marathon food: Walleye pike on kale. |
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| Not Marathon Food: Turkey burger and a thousand french fries. |
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| Also Not Marathon Food: asparagus and caramelized onion pizza. |
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| Tagliatelle! |
Signs that made me laugh
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| What you can’t read at the top: Hot Asian Buns. *snicker* |
Sightseeing
October 10, 2010
Did you guys see that incredible sprint to the finish? That’s absolutely crazy. This year’s winner crossed the finish this year in two hours and six minutes and some odd seconds.
PiC and I have spent the last two days wandering Millenium Park and generally trying to take in as much of the city as possible while not overtaxing his pre-marathon legs, or breaking my non-marathonable legs.
It’s been positively gorgeous here, probably closer to 75 degrees with a light breeze. At least seven brides lucked out as well, sashaying through the park with their bridal parties of 12 or more, taking photos near the Bean, on the steps, amid the crowd of spectators in town for the marathon, for the country music festival or just out and about because the sun had re-emerged.
I thought we managed a nice balance between our two wildly different levels of fitness, considering he had to keep it very mellow and I pushed myself to walk between 3 to 5 miles per day in my quest to enjoy downtown and spend less on cabs.
We should have used more public transport to keep costs down, but we didn’t plan carefully enough to take that into account and were focused on staying in the lovely weather while it lasted. We’re definitely paying through the nose to enjoy that luxury. (In retrospect, all that walking was also foolish, I ache.)
Anyhow, we’ve got a few more hours in the Windy City before our shuttle picks us up. Pictures and a cost round up when we’re back home!
September 27, 2010
As requested by Stacking Pennies when I first mentioned flying Allegiant, my opinion now that I’ve flown my entire round trip: You get what you pay for, but only if you pay very little.
Pay more than $30 each way and you will probably be livid at what you overpaid for.
The MD-80s are creaky, ancient jobs that more often than not spill water on people towards the back (polled frequent fliers: this is true in their experience); the engines are so loud that you might suffer temporary hearing loss if you’re seated too close to them; they charge for everything like the right to choose your seat, even the “standard” free beverage so don’t expect a free glass of water, you cannot check in beforehand, if you miss your flight you have to wait a week for the next one or buy a new ticket on another airline.
It’s as barebones as you can imagine. More. I don’t know if you’re charged to use the lavatory but I’ve started to expect so.
So yes, if you snagged one of those magic $10 tickets, you should put up with all of that without complaint but if you ended up paying nearly standard fare before opting for any amenities, I can only imagine you’d be a tad grumpy. *hand raised* Other than that, we saved the cost of a rental, though marginally offset by the cost of public transit going to and from the Oakland airport on this end, and maybe a few dollars more than that for a standard fare into a more metro city.
Still, it got us into the destination with a minimum of fuss for our hosts and given the fact that they put us up in, while not decadent, very well fed fashion, I’m glad it was very easy for them to pick and drop us off. So there’s that.
{————Carnivals————}
My thanks …..
to Well Heeled for hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance and including my post on the costs of PiC’s Marathon entry win.
