I doubt if I'll take a vacation again this year

Ugh I am not happy about this either. First I didn't take a vacation in almost 6 years. Then in 2012 I sucked it up and went to Aruba. It was a great vacation and I would love to go again. Last year I decided that I really couldn't afford a vacation so I didn't go anywhere again figuring I would go in 2014. Well bingo-bango no. I'm not going anywhere again this year.

I realize that it's mid-April and there is still time for me to make something happen. Quite frankly though, it's not looking good for the home team. I'm really upset with myself that I've let my debt get the best of me. It's just me and although it's expected that I should have some bills, I should be able to eek out a small vacation at least every other year.

I need this debt gone because I miss vacation!

My car still isn't inspected

After I decided that I wasn't going anywhere for my vacation, I decided not to get my car inspected. I decided not to take the car in during my vacation so I would have it in case I decided to do any running around. Turns out that really wasn't necessary as I only ventured out a few times. I could have had the car done and back and still had several days to do running around.

I do have to still get it done but I'm going to put it off for another week or so. The inspection expired in July so it's not like I have to rush because I'm already late. I've thought about putting it off until October so the inspection matches the registration but I thought that would be pushing it.

To be perfectly honest, I'm just not ready to part with the several hundred dollars that I know it's going to cost me. Cars can be expensive!

I won't be going to a baseball game next week

Man things just keep getting worse and worse for me. First there was no real vacation planned which totally bites! I had gotten over that and I decided that I would do a mini-trip or two. Then last week I was out and I noticed that my car is not driving right at all. Did I mention that the inspection is expired so I would have to get that taken care of before I go anywhere? I also won't be able to get my car into a garage until Monday or Tuesday and I wanted to leave Monday?

That's not even the biggest reason that I'm not going though. I wanted to go to Toronto and watch a Yankees game. I was gonna shlep all the way up there Sunday, stay the night and go to the game on Monday, then shlep back Tuesday morning. It would have cost a few hundred bucks but it beats sitting at home doing nothing for a week.

Alas, it looks like I'm stuck in couchville for the week.

I need moer hotel points

The program that I'm in had another sale on points. I was about half-way there to getting more points. I was surprised that they offered the points for as long as they did. Unfortunately, I was not able to save enough points to get another stack added to my account.

I really want to go on a nice vacation in the next couple of years and I want my air miles and hotel points to pay for the vast majority of it. Since I'm a beach goer it's not that expensive for my vacations anyway. And I'm sure most people would say that it's not a good use of points, but it works for me.

Now I just need to get to saving!

I got some hotel points

Yay!! It was earlier than expected and I didn't have enough points in my account to get as many hotel points as I wanted but I did add almost 3k points to my hotel loyalty account.

According to the previous schedule, the points should not have been available until after January. However, I kept looking just to make certain. Sure enough the points were available last week. I jumped up and logged in to get them before they sold out.

There are still points available but I don't have enough points to turn in for more points. By the time I gather enough points, I'm sure they'll be all gone. That's ok though, right now I have enough points for almost 2 days. If I get a deal on the stay, I can stay anywhere from 3 to 6 days. As most of my vacations are only 4 nights, this works for me.

Now it's time to start stockpiling again so I can take full advantage the next time.

Well I have a chance to get more hotel points

I was looking through one of the websites that I go to looking for information on hotel deals when I saw a contest. It's for the main hotel chain that I belong to which is a good thing. You can win 50k points which is 1-2 nights unless you get the severely discounted room and then it's between 5k-12.5k. Not bad. But combined with what I have, it's almost enough points to get me a free stay (5 days or 4 nights).

I love this program because the points never expire. For me that's a good thing since I don't travel a lot. I can save up and take my dream vacation. Right now I have one pegged for 2014 but I don't want to get into it until I get more concrete plans.

But it's definitely exciting to start saving towards that goal.

I need more hotel points

I belong to several frequent flier programs, even though I don't fly a lot. However most programs allow you to accumulate points and as long as there is some activity over the previous 18-24 months your account will stay active.

The problem is that I don't have any points in my hotel loyalty accounts. I have one hotel chain that I have points in. However, the points expire every 24 months and they don't have any hotels anywhere I want to go. I'm still in my beach phase where all I want to do is go chill at a beach resort. This particular chain only has 4 or 5 islands. The problem is that none of the hotels are one the beach. On one island the hotels are in the middle of the city nowhere near a beach. That's not a deal breaker because the last hotel I stayed at was basically across the street from the beach and that's no big deal.

I really wish I could afford to travel more.

I was really trying to go back on vacation

I had hoped that the hotel/casino that I stayed at would have offered me a deal to come back. They're a pretty cheap resort in the first place so I wasn't expecting a free night but I was hoping for a $15-20 off discount per night. Sadly, I haven't received any offers and I don't think I'll be receiving any.

It's been almost 3 weeks since I've been back so I should have received an offer by now. Since I haven't received one, I can only assume that I won't be getting one. In reality, it's probably a good thing that I haven't gotten a discount. I would have booked another trip so fast my own head would have spun.

Oh well, I guess there's always next year.

My vacation was awesome

And expensive. I booked a fairly low priced trip but all of the "extras" really started to add up. I had to buy new clothes, because I don't wear dresses and capri pants regularly. I also had to buy beach supplies like lotions, travel sized sundries etc. Then I had to pay for luggage fees, parking etc. After a while, those numbers started to add up.

I did not get the all-inclusive meal plan so I spent quite a bit of money buying food. It costs the same as any big city so I wasn't too surprised. The next time I will go for the all-inclusive hotel. It won't save too much money but I do like the idea of paying for everything in advance. Then I would just need a few bucks for incidentals, souvenirs etc.

However I had a great time and I would gladly do it all again. As a matter of fact, I hope to do it again next year.

2 weeks to relaxation

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to really relax. Even when I've had days off, I've been stressed about how much we've had to do at work. Well work is slowing down, which means we're almost at a normal pace instead of a break neck pace. But more importantly, it's vacation time for me.

I have to finish this week and then I have next week, then it's vacation time. I took my normal week and then the Monday afterward so I have 10 glorious days off. I want to get as much done as I can in the next 2 weeks so that while I'm on vacation, I don't have to worry about getting anything done or stressing.

I want this to be a totally relaxing time.

It doesn't look like I'll take a vacation this year

Again. I haven't had a real vacation in almost 4 years. 5 years ago I went on a cruise that I didn't pay for (it was a gift), then the next year I went to Vegas for a few days. After that there's been nothing.

I had plans on going away this year but I waited to start planning and when I went to actually book the trip, the prices were way more than I was comfortable paying. I could still squeeze in a trip near the end of summer, when it's hurricane season, or just wait until next year and make sure to book early.

But right now my summer vacation plans are looking mighty bleak.

I'm going to start squirreling away vacation money

I had some vacation money but I added a good portion of it to my housing fund. I also sent my brother and my niece some money so my vacation stash is pretty short.

One of my plans for the new year is to start sending small amounts of money to my various accounts. One of those accounts is for stuff for my house, another is a savings account for my niece and now I'm going to add to my vacation money. I guess that I'll only have enough to go away once every two years which is not bad.

Especially when you consider that I haven't been on a vacation in about 4 years.

I need this cold to go away

I have a cold/the flu/yuckies...something. And I don't like it one bit! I've been sick for almost an entire week. I didn't feel well last Friday so when I got home from work I pretty much spent the entire weekend in bed. Then on Monday I left work early and spent the next two days in bed. I did go to work today but I felt terrible.

To add insult to injury, I burned two of my remaining vacation days so I have to reschedule my days off. I was supposed to have 1 4-day weekend and a 5-day weekend for Christmas. Now I have to decide if I want to give up one long weekend totally or have two long weekends, but shorter than I had anticipated.

I'm leaning towards 2 short weeks because I need all the time off I can get. Besides that it should be pretty quiet the week of Christmas anyway.

Yeah for another 3 day weekend!

Oh my how I love them! I'm pretty tired this week because in addition to working overtime, I worked 6 days last week so I haven't had a lot of rest. This morning, I almost overslept because I just didn't want to get up. Luckily tomorrow is Veteran's Day and I have the day off of work.

I don't have anything major planned. I'll sleep in, wash a few loads of clothes, run out to the store and then chill for the rest of the weekend. I'll also try to watch CNN or another news channel and watch one of the parades going on around the nation and watching the President put a wreath on the tomb of an unknown soldier. As far as my personal plans, I plan on getting as much done as possible tomorrow and Saturday because I am doing absolutely nothing on Sunday.

Yay for vacation days!

This is a 3 day weekend since tomorrow is Columbus Day. I still have several vacation days that I need to use before the year end, so I took Tuesday off as well. Now instead of having a nice 3 day weekend, I have 4 glorious days off.

I don't have that I plan on doing on my days off either. I just plan on relaxing and enjoying the days off. And the best part is that I still have 4 days of vacation/personal days left to take. I'll get in at least 2 more 3 days weekends! I surely won't know how to act next year when I get 3 weeks instead of 2.

Two short work weeks in a row

Just the way I like it. I was off last week and I didn't work on Monday of this week, resulting in a 4 day work week. Monday is Labor Day in the US and a federal holiday so I'll just work 4 days next week as well. Sadly, I don't have any plans to do anything special except hang around the house but just knowing that I don't have to go to work is cool with me.

Hopefully I'll have a way cool vacation planned for next year.

I'm getting travel fever

I haven't really been on a vacation in several years and I'm itching to go. To make matters worse, I've been reading a bunch of travel blogs getting ideas about where to go. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to go on a real vacation. I may have to consider going to visit family and calling it a trip.

I'm going to start saving now for next year because I miss my yearly vacations.

I may hit up MegaBus soon

MegaBus travels out of Pittsburgh and it goes to some really neat places. I can go to places in Ohio, New York or even 3 different cities in Canada. At this very moment Canada would prove to be a problem since my passport has expired, but I plan on taking care of that within the next month or two.

I figure if I can get a cheap bus trip, I can stay at a budget hotel and have a short getaway which I desperately need right now. It's not the beach vacation that I really want but anywhere is better than where I'm at right now.

I wasn't able to do anything for vacation

And this stinks! I've been sitting at home doing nothing for a whole week. At this point I am totally bored. I found out that my favorite baseball team is on a road trip. I could have gone to either of the cities that they're playing in but there were some obstacles so I had to cancel those plans.

I need to figure out what's going on for next year. Sitting at home for a whole week is for the birds.

I still don't know what I'm doing for vacation

And it officially started today. I'm supposed to go visit my mom but I'm not sure what day I'm going or if I'm actually going at all. One of my friends gave me a short-cut to try but I don't know if I really want to take that drive at all.

I really should have planned ahead because I wanted to go away for a week. Of course I waited until the last minute and now I'm unable to actually go away. I don't have the money like I did a few years ago where I was able to make spur of the moment decisions.

I'm not getting stuck again next year, I've already started looking at travel arrangements. I will be on a beach somewhere in 2011.