Cougar Flats Tent. A nice two-room tent, my husband can actually stand up in it and he's over 6 ft tall.

With Spring Break upon us, or for some their children, the thought of going away has been swimming around in my mind as of late. Since this month has not been inexpensive based on my calculations, my best option (meaning least expensive) is either camping or a day / weekend trip to a nearby city. I’m lucky to live on the coast and in an area that has a temperate climate all year long, so my options are copious. Ideal camping destinations are within an hour or three at the most, and gorgeous day trips involving either travel by train or car are within the same amount of time; from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, or Ojai to the Sequioas, the price for living in Southern California is sometimes negated by the glorious destinations within a 200 mile radius.

I’ve decided to break down my options by type, instead of price. Though the price range is similar, the experiences are not. First let me explore camping, something I love to do. Over the years, my husband and I have acquired enough camping equipment to make camping very comfortable (I also won’t be factoring this into the overall cost since it’s been compounding over the years). We are still “roughing” it in a tent, but our tent is larger (in comparison) than a studio apartment in New York. Below are some camping benefits:

• Beautiful scenery. Again, I’ve got weather on my side and a choice of desert, valley, mountain, or coast locations to choose from. I like to use ReserveAmerica.com to reserve campground spots. They show you an actual map of the campground sites and, if the campground allows, you can select your exact spot. This has come in handy when camping at both unknown areas and familiar ones. For instance, we like to camp at Wheeler Gorge. A creek runs through the entire campground and some sites are closer to the water than others. Their map allows me to reserve my favorite camp site, number 41, exactly where the creek bends. (I realize I just gave away my favorite site!) There is a small fee attached to booking through this site, but it makes up for it in convenience. Most camp sites range between $10 a night to $20 a night.
• Peace and quiet. Most campgrounds have a “lights out” policy and by 10 pm campers are required to whisper, or at least not whoop it up. For the most part, this is enforced. My husband and I have only had two problems (one really wasn’t a problem, just a very loud couple – if you get my drift.) One of the worst problems we ever encountered was a small campground that did not have a ranger on site, too many people in one campsite partying all night is not the ideal camping experience. We now make a point to camp at places that have a site manager or ranger.
• A camp fire. Who doesn’t love campfires? Roasting marshmallows over the fire, sitting so close you have to jump back to make sure an ember doesn’t land on you. Another benefit to booking online is making sure your campsite allows campfires and comes with a fire ring. Living in SoCal has made me very fire conscious, and we have learned the hard way that not all campgrounds allow camp fires. (P.S. The thought of marshmallows is much better than the real thing. After eating one or two, I’m done!)
• Hiking. Many of the campgrounds I stay at are within national parks. Most national parks have ranger stations where you can pick up a map that details the hiking trails. My husband, who is a good sport but not an extreme hiker, likes to choose the easier hikes that are under a 2 hour time span.

Making our camping comfortable has been a learning experience. We’ve now gotten savvy to a camping checklist and make sure we run through it before leaving. Organizing our camping gear in large, clear rubbermaid bins has also helped. Some things we take making camping comfy are a tackle box full of cooking utensils and spices, a blow up air mattress, an air compressor to blow up the bed, two camping stoves, an ice chest, camping dinner ware and cookware that stays in the garage all year long (we wash them before and after our trip), flashlights, lanterns, matches, and a portable heater in case of cooler nights. (And lots of propane!) Total cost of camping, including the cost of the site and groceries is usually around $200 for a three day trip. This price could be reduced based on the type of groceries purchased, but my husband loves grilling up filets while camping.

Our second option is a day trip to a nearby city. We have a couple of choices for traveling to a place such as Santa Barbara, San Diego, or San Luis Obispo. We can either drive, hauling our bikes on our bike rack, or take an Amtrak train. A couple of years ago we opted for the train to Santa Barbara. It was my first experience on a train and I loved it! Not only could we place our bikes in their luggage car, but the seats were really big and comfortable and you could get up and walk around to the diner car. The travel time wasn’t much more than if we had driven. Below I’ve outlined some benefits of a day trip (either by car or by train):

• Explore a quaint ocean city by bike. I’ve mentioned how much I love my bike before, but one thing I’ve noticed about cities such as Santa Barbara and San Diego is how bike-friendly they are. Bike lanes are clearly painted on most of their streets. Biking also lets you see each individual store and restaurant much clearer than driving past them.
• Bar hop. Yes, I know I shouldn’t be biking and drinking. However, I do feel it’s safer than drinking and driving. At least the only person I can injure is myself.
• Check out the residential neighborhoods. Exploring coast line cities is always fun, and checking out their residential architecture is something I like to to, whether on a bicycle or in a car.

There are definite benefits to both driving and taking the train. Train rides are generally a little more expensive. For instance, our trip to Santa Barbara cost us $67 for two people round trip. Driving, we probably would have spent about $30. When I factor in shopping and dining in a nearby city the cost ends up being very close to camping, hovering around $150 – $200.

What trips are you planning this spring or summer? Are you finding ways to save money? Are you staying close to home?

Yakezie Challenge going strong!

This week, Ryan over at Planting Dollars is hosting the Yakezie Challenge Results and doing a darn fine job if I do say so myself. As an active participant , I want to highlight those sites that have increased their traffic the most this past week. I’ve highlighted their most recent posts, all tantalizing reading material:

• Girl with a Red Balloon (named after a cinema classic – love the name): Odds and Ends, Plus a Break has increased her traffic by a whopping 45% and is recovering from a tooth extraction, ouch!
• Young and Thrifty: I’m a regular reader now, so check out her “Other” Investments post. Increased her traffic by 34%, you go girl!
• Rainy Day Saver: I’ve been reading her blog since I started mine. I love her new design, check out her most recent post about not Beating Yourself Up Over Spending. Increased her traffic by 31%. (There’s a trend here, the female bloggers have been growing their audience the most….must be that girl power!)
• Stay at Home Mom CFO: Another female blogger that increased her traffic by 26%, check out her recent post about Living in 1 of America’s 25 Most Richest Counties.
• My Money Minute: Some of us can definitely relate to Jason’s most recent post, Unemployment Benefits Denied! He increased his traffic by 25% (finally a dude, right?)
• 151 Days Off: Sometimes I read blog posts without reading the ‘about’ page and based on the tone of the writing, I make an inference about if it is a female or male blogger. I was completely wrong on this one. Here is her latest post, Where Do You Get Your Inspiration. She’s increased her traffic by 23%.
• CJBowker: His most recent post was a Yakezie Wrap-Up, so I’m including his second most recent post, What Do You Do? Increased his traffic 22%.

Great work on the part of the Yakezie members. Selfless promotion does work!

Finding low cost options for traveling to a funeral.

Man, if you look at my last post and this one, you’re surely thinking I’m obsessed with death. Not so, I say. However, death is a certainty no one can escape. And with death, comes funeral services. And with funeral services, comes family members scrambling to make it to the burial service. With last minute travel arrangements underway, getting the best deal is imperative. This past week my husband’s grandfather passed away, it was his last remaining grandparent. (My last remaining grandparent died over 10 years ago and I attended his funeral.) He made the decision that he would travel to Nebraska for the services, and because it was financially too expensive for me to accompany him with missing work plus the additional cost of a flight, we decided I would stay home. I honestly only met his grandfather once 11 years ago, so I was okay with this arrangement. I’m sure you are now realizing why I’ve been focusing on death this week!

Since death is imminent, yet elusive, meaning you can’t pinpoint the exact date of death, booking travel arrangements last minute can become costly. I’m the financial accountant around here, so I’m usually the one in charge of searching for the most economical airfare. We had less than 4 days from the time of notice to the day of the funeral to book the flight. I immediately began searching multiple travel websites. Travelocity.com is always the first website I scope out since they were one of the first online travel sites, but one I’ve recently started using that searches multiple sites at once is Kayak.com. Not only does Kayak search their own database for the lowest fares, it gives you the option of searching an additional 5 sites (this helps me remember all of my options): Priceline, Hotwire, Travelocity, Expedia, and Airfare.com. Smaller browser windows pop up on your desktop so that you can literally compare their rates side by side. This is by far their best advantage compared to other online travel sites.

After glancing at all of the different sites plus the flights on Kayak, I found the best price and shortest flight time (very important since my husband hates traveling!) on Priceline.com. For under $600 we were able to book a round trip flight that would allow my husband to arrive the day before the funeral. Unfortunately, he had to say an additional day longer than he would have liked or pay twice the price for the flight. Funny how returning on a Saturday is half as much as returning on a Friday. Some tips if you’re ever in need of last minute flight arrangements:

• Search multiple sites, or use Kayak to do this for you, for the best price.
• Be a little flexible if you can. For instance, my husband made the choice to stay one day longer even though he really wanted to return a day earlier. Luckily he was staying with relatives, so the cost of a hotel didn’t have to be factored in here.
• If you know you have to book a flight for a funeral, do it as soon as you know the date of the funeral, don’t wait! My mother-in-law waited one additional day to book her flight and it cost her quite a bit more money.

Death is an uncomfortable topic for some, but it is an event that happens once in everyone’s life. Being able to attend a funeral of a loved one gives people closure, and being able to do that without going into debt relieves some of that stress.

On a side note, I didn’t contact the airlines directly and ask for a bereavement fare because in my experience, the online rates are usually less expensive.

Have you had to make last minute flight arrangements due to a death or emergency? What did you do to minimize the flight cost? Have you used Kayak for booking your travel needs?

Last year, we added a travel accident rider that is worth twice the amount of our original policy. This covers car accidents, plane accidents, pretty much any accident where one is physically moving to and from a place. This week, my husband had to travel to a funeral. As I was booking his flight on Monday, I realized I had forgotten to pay the annual premium on this rider! Now, I’m not wishing any ill-will on my husband (I love him!), but the idea of him traveling clear across the country and NOT having this additional policy in place made me nervous. As he was traipsing across the country on a total of 4 plane rides then renting a car and driving on snow-covered roads, I knew we had to remedy this before he left. With a quick call, we made our payment and settled my uneasy mind.Yes, I know. This sounds very shallow, wanting to make sure I eek out every dime possible in case of death. But that’s what life insurance policies are for!

A few years ago, National Geographic posted a chart showing all the possible and probable ways to die. With death being a 100% sure thing at some point in one’s life, it was an interesting tidbit of information. If you look below, you’ll notice heart disease is the primary killer among humans followed by cancer, but motor vehicle accidents are 4th! Plane accidents involving deaths are pretty low, coming in 13th, just after bicycle accidents. Funny thing, I’m not so sure my rider covers biking, an activity I do frequently. Take a look for yourself:

Ways to Go from National Geographic and 10 Minute Math

Do you have a life insurance policy that covers your spouse? What about travel accident insurance? If you don’t have a policy, what reasons made you decide to forgo one? Is this just a morbid topic that you rarely discuss with your loved ones?

A dream yard, by Sunset

One of the challenges my husband and I face when looking at our budget to buy a house is the “fixer-upper” status of the homes in our price range. Our price range is based between a 2.5 to 3 times our income calculation that puts us in the ranges of $250,000 to $300,000 comfortably. Living in Southern California, this price range will get us a smallish-sized fixer upper in an okay neighborhood. With that said, viewing homes within this price range is very discouraging. Imagining them “fixed up” is difficult, if not impossible since we’ve never owned our own home. One place where I acquire some terrific ideas is Sunset Magazine. A lot of my ideas come from here, and they aren’t a sponsored link or anything, I swear!

Here are just a few examples of fabulous fixer-upper ideas:

• Losing the lawn. I’ve written a post about this before and Sunset Magazine has a variety of ideas on what to plant instead of a lawn to minimize water usage. They also show the difference between a boring green expanse of lawn and a colorful variety of textures and heights using drought tolerant plants.
• What to do once you’ve lost that lawn. In the Phoenix -metro area of Arizona, many homes have replaced their lawns with gravel. Not a luscious landscape to gaze upon. Sunset Magazine shows what you can do instead of just throwing down the gravel. Mix it up a bit with large pavers and drought tolerant plants.
• Extending the porch. I’m lucky to live in a temperate climate. Most of the year I can hang outdoors on my patio and enjoy a brewsky. Sunset shows how to take a small porch and turn it into living space incorporating a living area and outdoor fireplace.
• Teeny -Tiny lawn ideas. There is always the possibility of my husband and I purchasing a tiny home on a tiny piece of property. Expanding the overhang of a porch, adding the right plants in the right place can make a small yard seem like a haven.
• Private front lawns. We have been having a problem lately with a particular neighbor coming over almost everyday. We are just too nice to tell him to get lost. Sometimes, making your front lawn unapproachable is the best option. Sunset has creative ideas for that as well, like adding multiple walls covered in foliage making the home less approachable by strangers.
• Deep-set lawns. A huge yard is great, but if you’re not sure what to do with all that space it can be problematic. Creatively using the space wisely is important, some ideas include adding overhangs, patio areas, and garden areas to make it a functional yard like the photo in this post.

These are just a few ideas I gleaned from their before and after yard make-overs.  Here is the link to their entire slide show. Of course, purchasing a fixer-upper and turning it into a gem takes a lot of hard work and elbow grease,…..oh yeah, and money. Yet, these inspiring photos make me think twice about the whole “fixer upper” aspect of purchasing a home.

Have you turned a house into a home? How long did it take you to create your “dream home”? Did you have to refinance or take out a HELOC to do it? What advice would you give someone thinking of purchasing a “fixer upper”?

Cut up those credit cards?

One of my goals for this year, that I have partly accomplished, is raising my credit score. I need to get my score above 740, at minimum, so that when I apply for a mortgage loan, I’ll be able to get the best rate. I still need to raise my score about 40 points (this is an average as all 3 credit bureaus are reporting slightly different scores). One thing I’ve learned about improving my credit score, is keeping my debt to credit ratio low. Since I’ve paid off all of my credit cards, I’m looking pretty good here. However, another factor that affects a credit score is how much total credit banks are willing to loan you. Since I’ve been on a mission to improve my poor credit history, I haven’t had much credit extended to me these past few years leaving me with very low credit limits.

So, here is my dilemma: I have two credit cards with low credit limits that are charging me monthly fees and/or annual fees (totaling approx. $155 for the year) . I don’t use these cards at all anymore. However, there is a catch with these two cards: they were originally a way to pay off old collection debt. These cards were offered to me about 6 years ago to pay off two other credit cards that had gone into collections. Once I paid the old debt off in full, they extended a limited amount of credit to me. I’m now thinking of canceling these two credit cards now that they are paid in full, but then my overall total available credit limit will be reduced by almost $1,000. How will this affect my credit score? Will it ding my score by a few points? Since I’m hoping to apply for a mortgage loan with in the next year or so, I’m trying very hard to keep the activity on my credit report to a minimum.

After doing some research, canceling my two credit cards would probably affect my credit score a little bit. By how much, I don’t know exactly. I have two options; A.) I cancel these cards and save $155 annually, with the potential of losing a few points off my credit score, or B.) I keep these cards until I am able to purchase a home.  That could be up to 18 – 24 months meaning I would have to spend up to $310 on fees, but I’d be saving my credit score.

For now, I think I will keep the cards. If purchasing a house becomes ever more elusive and my time frame extends to more than 24 months, I might just go ahead and cancel these two cards. I do know that when I obtain that mortgage loan, these two cards are getting the ax!

What do you think? Would canceling these cards now be beneficial? Am I making the right choice by keeping these cards a little longer?

The Yakezie Badge

The Yakezie Group and the Alexa Challenge is going strong. Now with so many blogs involved in this challenge with the idea of networking to build up our readership and promote well-written personal finance blogs, I want to send a thanks to those carnivals and blogs that included one of my posts.

• Fiscal Geek: Thanks for including my Rainwater Collection Ideas post.
• Consumer Boomer: Also included my Rainwater Collection Ideas post.
• Beating Broker: Visitors really liked my Rainwater Collection Ideas post! Here it is again.
• Planting Dollars: Finally a different post shared, The Young and the Homeless. Thanks, Ryan!
• Out of Debt Again: Thanks for listing The Young and the Homeless post.
• Start Tags: I’m not really sure if this is a blog or not.  I think it is a link aggregator or RSS feed, but thanks for mentioning my Rainwater Collection Ideas.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Our first young and homeless (or urban nomad) sighting was near Palm Springs right off a highway exit; a very young, beautiful woman with dirty blond dreads holding a “Hungry, need help” sign. She looked about 20 years old. My first reaction was that she was a run-away.  Young, homeless people aren’t that uncommon in a place like Venice, CA which is not that far from where I live. Yet seeing one so far east off the 10 freeway through me off guard. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop to help. I felt horrible about that once we were back on the highway.

As we continued our journey eastward, crossing the Arizona State Border, I noticed a young man walking in the middle of absolutely no where. He was on the other side of a barbed wire fence in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, a large duffel bag slung over his shoulder walking as if he was on a mission. As he was walking in the opposite direction that I was driving, I thought his presence was peculiar to say the least. We were at least 20 to 30 miles from a town or a truck stop. This downward gazing, beanie wearing young man obviously wasn’t hitch-hiking since he wasn’t close enough to the road. The man’s presence in the middle of sparse desert was eerie in some ways. I can’t say for sure he was homeless, he wasn’t begging or trying to hitch a ride. He also didn’t hold a sign that stated his situation. His duffel bag was really my only clue to his possible predicament. But the fact that this was the second young person within a few hundred miles who seemed alone left me thinking about the state of our economy and how tough it must be for young people these days.

Again, I didn’t stop to help. I was zooming down the highway at 75 MPH (this speed is legal in Arizona on sections of the 10, I swear). These images keep popping up in my mind over and over again. Reading articles in Time Magazine and MSN.com about how difficult it is for teenagers and young people to get a “first” job these days only confirms that there are more young, homeless people today than in the past. Not because of mental illness or drugs, but because our economy is shrinking. There are so many skilled, experienced workers to choose from, young, inexperienced job seekers must be having a heck of a time convincing a manager to hire them.

What will this eventually do to this generation of young people? Will they be late bloomers in some ways because they nabbed their first job in their mid- to late-20’s instead of getting an early start in their teens or early 20’s? Will they forever be behind the 8-ball and financially doomed? Will these two young, urban nomads eventually find jobs, reconnect with their families, get help? These questions continue to haunt me.

On a similar – yet different – note, I found an intelligently written blog about a woman raising four kids in an RV. She is currently unemployed and struggling to make ends meat. However, her blog is witty, inspiring, and coming from a totally different perspective. Check out The Box Car Kids.

I'm burning my candle at both ends this week.

I’m posting this mid-week because 1.) I didn’t post any round-ups this past weekend, and 2.) I’m really behind on some projects…crap!  Some terrific articles have been written on various Yakezie member sites that I’d like to share, instead of banging out an article of my own. Enjoy!

• Sweating the Big Stuff and How to Raise Your Credit Limit (This also touches upon hard inquiries and soft inquiries)
• Young and Thrify and What’s Your Latte Factor? Of course I had to read this one! I love my Starbucks. However, it does make me think about spending my $2.50 daily. It sure adds up!
• Ultimate Money Blog is running a whole series on state economies. I love statistics! This one is about Alaska. So who wants to live near Sarah Palin?
• Rainy Day Saver changed the look of her blog too. I like it! Check it out. (P.S. I’m still working on mine )
• My Money Minute and Wine on a Budget. I personally am more of a beer drinker, but who doesn’t love wine? Okay, me. But most people like it.
• Monevator plays devil’s advocate on Wasting Money on Memories. Yet, the conclusion is well done.

Since I’m burning the candle at both ends this week (to use a figure of speech), I will make a point to post something meaty in the next day or so. Please hang in there,  I’m just juggling too many jobs right now. (That’s a good thing, though. Right?  )