cruise is 3 wks away and I have already spent $460!

[cuthbert732]

Like.

 

Never understood how people can live paycheck to paycheck. We never cruised or went on expensive vacations until we had built up an emergency fund.

 

Hardest part of our married life was a few years when we had two mortgages and had to watch our spending very carefully.

 

I never understood it either until it hit my family. Company closing down and people having hard times . We save up enough for taxis and hotel stay and no matter how hard we pay our tips because the staff earn that. This time around me and hubby will share a suitcase and 2 carryons to cut cost.I work hard and no longer can wear high heels :(:( so i have collected lots of flip=flops and sandals to see what works best for me also no extra in suitcase hubby is the police when watching me.I save enough to enjoy my vacation and for 3 drinks of the day or maybe 4 or 5.

[ScottsSweetie]

I'm interested to know how much internet time that $160.00 paid for, and how much of that time you will actually use. DH also must keep in touch with work while we are cruising and we have found that paying for minutes used is cheaper than buying a package. He logs on and downloads everything, then reads offline, then he can write responses while still offline, log on and send emails. You may find that on your next trip this could be more cost effective for you as well. :)

[deborahjo]

Saver here also. While at Mall of America for my birthday I went into Nordstroms Rack Store and bought 2 new formal dresses for $39.00 each. Each dress alone was over $200.00 and I would have never bought them.

[Gloria Mundi]

did I mention that I did not pay for the cruise :) based on my past gambling Carnival is giving me a free balcony for my wife and me plus $450 in cash....

 

Trust me. You paid for it.:)

[7x57]

And basically, YOU don't have to "Get It".

It's none of your business who, how or why someone else spends their own money. If I'm spending YOUR money,,, then it's your business. Until then,, you're just someone else with an opinion.

 

Yet people make it public how they spend their money. That opens the topic for debate.

 

Only prepaid tips and pre-cruise hotel. Probably will not even do tips prepaid in the future.

[Mxlady]

We prepay everything and the travel expenses, then we know exactly where we are in our spending. We are on vacation and I don't want to count pennies, nickels, and dimes. BUT I don't want to take out a loan to get us out of hot water either. Sometimes our S$S exceeds out OBC and sometimes it doesn't but we don't do without anything either. Now lets get on the ship and not worry about how everyone else enjoys spending their money.

[Wolfie48]

The bottom line is whatever works for you. Pre-pay everything you can, or come back with CC debt. Either way you are on a cruise so enjoy it! No one can tell another person what's best for them.

[Gloria Mundi]

Trust me. You paid for it.:)

 

But to answer the OP: we end up paying a lot in advance and I'm fine with that. Sometimes the airfare and hotels near the port are paid for a year in advance. We still have bills left over when we come home, but they're maybe 10% of the cost of the trip. I'm pretty careful with money so I like that- and with interest rates as piddly as they are I don't lose much by paying early.