MyMoneyMinute.com

In the wake of the Haitian earthquake disaster, let’s interrupt my current series to focus on how we can help.

Flexo, a blogger for Consumerism Commentary wrote a great article with good advice on how and where to contribute safely to the Haiti Disaster.  In his article, he cites NPR’s report that donations via text message that charge your phone bill may take as long as 90 days to be received by the Red Cross!

Responsible Giving

To avoid scams and prevent delays in your donations, give directly to a charity’s website, and give only to established charities whose values align with yours.  A quick 5 or 10 minute Internet search is well worth it.

If you’re looking for a place to donate, here’s a few reputable charities that are heavily involved in Haiti that I recommend:

Food For The Poor – this is where I contributed.  A great organization that has been in Haiti for years.

Samaritan’s Purse – recommended by Jon Acuff from Stuff Christians Like.

ChildHope.org

BeyondBorders.net

The Haitian-American Friendship Foundation

WorldConcern.org

Two orphanages already operating in Haiti (via Hugh Hewitt website):

God’s Littlest Angels

Mercy & Sharing

Feel free to post other reputable charities in the comments below.


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6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!

7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,

8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

I thought this verse was applicable since we’re inbetween a two-part review of The Grocery Game. What part of the passage above sticks out to you and why?

Bible Verse Bible, Grocery Game, Proverbs, verse, VOTD

Not but a few years ago, my wife and I would routinely eat out every meal – and I mean EVERY meal. We justified it with long work hours and longer commutes. Who wants to get home at 8 or 9pm and then make dinner, right?

An Eye Opener

We finally pulled our heads out of the sand (and other various places) and realized that 2 sit-down meals/day x 30 days/month = in the ballpark of $1,500 PER MONTH!! We were getting fatter and poorer at the same time.

FOOD – The Ultimate Budget Buster

It sounds funny, but while we graduated from grad school with the Mt. Everest of all debt, it was recognizing our astronomical food costs that finally triggered a need to trim our budget. Why? Probably because the student loans can’t be changed – we just assumed we’d make payments on them for the next 30 years just like our mortgage – it was not going to change. However, food is a cost that was out of control, but can be changed with some effort.

There’s An App For That!
The Grocery Game

We still struggle with eating out too much, but the one application that’s helped us eat more homemade meals is The Grocery Game.

The Grocery Game’s premise is simple. Each week, you buy a Sunday paper and clip coupons from ads such as the SmartSource and Red Plum, and file them away. The Grocery Game has access to pre-release weekly specials from most major grocery and drug stores. They match up weekly specials with the coupons you have on file. So not only is the product on special, you also maximize savings by adding a coupon on top of it, which many times is doubled or tripled, which magnifies the savings!

The weekly list is color coded: black means buy if you need it (only a decent savings); blue means significant deal (stock up while it’s cheap!); and green means with the sale price + coupon, that item is FREE!

What’s The Big Idea?

The idea behind The Grocery Game is that you stock up on items when they are at rock-bottom prices, so you don’t have to buy them later at regular price. For instance, we have deoderant we bought for $0.25, and several months worth of cereal and we never paid over $1.00/box. Other items like meat, toilet paper, and air fresheners were all purchased at well over 50% off. All products are major brand labels.

Cons

The cons of using The Grocery Game all are based on the sacrificing of convenience. When you eat out, you don’t have to plan a meal, or keep an inventory of food at home. It is time consuming to clip coupons and establish a filing pattern. You also spend more early on while you are building your inventory. Most of the cons relate to establishing a system, and with anything, it gets easier the longer you do it.

Pros

Since you’re trying to break your excessive restaurant habit, ANY new system will have kinks to work out. Even The Grocery Game’s own website admits it takes a few months to work through a coupon cycle and build your inventory. The savings are obvious, substantial, and forces us to eat at home more because of the sunk cost of groceries in the fridge. We also love the “thrill of the hunt” to find the best deals, and in a twisted way, provides us an activity to do each week together that saves us money, when otherwise we’d be out on the town spending money.

Cost

The Grocery Game charges every 8 weeks based on how many stores you want lists from. Weekly lists from one store costs $10 every 8 weeks. Additional store lists are $5 per 8 weeks. They carry most major grocery stores and drug stores, so for example, access to 8 weekly lists for Kroger grocery store & CVS drug store would be $15 – that’s less than $2/week!

Personal Account

Later this week I’ll post an interview with Julie, a neighbor of mine who is completely entrenched, and winning, at The Grocery Game.

Have you tried clipping coupons or playing The Grocery Game? Is FOOD the ultimate budget buster? Let me know how food fits into your budget – leave comments below!

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Budget, Uncategorized food, Grocery Game

The holidays are over and we’re back to the daily grind of work and school. Did Christmas get the best of you? If you are typical, you had a few unplanned events. Maybe Aunt Mildred’s family were a last-minute show for Christmas, and you had to run out and buy a few unplanned gifts. Pehaps you bought that special someone a flat-panel, Hi-Def TV, then at the register you were suckered into overpriced HDMI cables and an extended warranty. Days later you look at your account balance and wonder how you spent so much! No worries you think, because, in Ceasar’s infinite wisdom, he purposely planned a day of renewal and redemption a mere week after Christmas — New Years Day!

Unplugged: New Years Resolutions

So just as you promise to shed extra pounds due to all the cookies and egg nog you consumed (purely hypothetical situation! LOL), your New Years Resolution is to cut out the fat in the household budget. But New Years landed near a weekend, so you didn’t get a chance to grocery shop. Now you’ve eaten out for lunch all week and wonder if this New Years Resolution is sinking faster than the Titanic!

There’s An App For That!

You can’t achieve a goal by merely stating the preferred end result. Goals need specific application to be successful. In this upcoming series, I will provide common-sense, tangible ideas to help curb your enthusiasm for spending in key areas of your budget. Starting next week we will work on the Food App, with my two-part review of The Grocery Game.

Tell me — What is your biggest budget buster? Food, sports, child’s activities?? Let me know a bit about your biggest budget buster in the comments below and we may address it in a future post.

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Budget

Face it — we’ve all made goals

Lose 10lbs (or 20.. or a lil’ more, LOL), get that degree, read a book, or even get through a Bible study series.  To achieve your goal, it is a great idea to break that goal up into incremental steps & check up on your progress frequently.  I was listening to a Zig Ziglar tape last night, and he was telling the story of how he decided to lose 37lbs. in 10 months.  So he broke it down — 3.7lbs. per month; less than a pound/week; in fact he even broke it down to 1.9 ounces/day!  While 37lbs. seems insurmountable, 1.9 ounces each day certainly seemed attainable.  He also would check back periodically to see how his progress was coming along.

If you want to finish that degree, break it up — semester by semester, class by class, hour by hour of class & study time if need be.  If you want to read a book by a certain date, do a chapter break-down and allocate time accordingly.

Likewise, your finances are no different.  Perhaps I should’ve come across Ziglar’s advice earlier this year, and I could’ve broken down goals into monthly morsels.  But, what I can do, is take a look back and review our progress from our New Year’s Financial Resolutions.  We are now 3/4 of the way through 2009, so it’s a good time to venture back and see how we’ve been doing with our goals, and if/how they’ve changed.

Original 2009 Financial Resolutions

1.  Pay off H’s Car Loan

YES! The car was paid off early this year, as detailed in my post, “Don’t Laugh, It’s Paid For!” We’re relieved the consumer debt is gone, hopefully for good.  Now we can put all our effort and focus into the student loans.

2.  Pay off My Bar Study Loan

Balance-wise, it is a very small educational loan.  But we want to just pay it off to use the extra $50/month to add to our snowball!  Plan is to have done by February as well.

YES! We were also able to do this early on this year.  Like I said in my original New Year’s Resolutions post, it was a smaller balance, and we were able to take the minimum payment of $50/month or so and “snowball” (apply) it to our next student loan balance.

3.  Establish a “tweener” Emergency Fund

If you are extremely focused and intent on paying off your debt in an 18-24 month period, Dave Ramsey recommends a “baby” Emergency Fund of $1,000 to protect you from falling off the wagon back into credit card debt.  Once this is paid off, you then fully fund your Emergency Fund with 3 to 6 months expenses.

Since our student loans are a little more long-term than the consumer debt we have paid off, we want to establish a “tweener” Emergency Fund of $10,000 by July.  This would give us a little more cushion so we can begin to attack & pay down our student loans.

4.  Pay off H’s Parent Plus Loan from College

A moderately-sized loan in our world, we took this loan back over from H’s parents after getting jobs.  We just thought it was the right thing to do.  We believe it is attainable to knock this out in the 2nd half of the year, and have it paid off by December.

5.  Begin saving for future car

YES! NO! uh.. SORT-OF! Here’s the deal.  After paying off Resolution #2, we continued to snowball our monthly payments, but stopped adding any surplus money to our debts at the end of each month.  Rather, we attempted to pile up money for any number of life possibilities that we expect could happen:

• Emergencies — We wanted to have money available as our “Tweener Emergency Fund” in case life happened.
  
• Gaps in employment — Because I do project-based work, we wanted to bank up money in the event I was unemployed for a lengthy amount of time.  Good thing we did.  I spent 7 weeks off this summer between projects!  It really helped to have a little money set aside — it saved our budget and our sanity.
  
• Buying a new car — I have nearly 193,000 miles on my 2000 Nissan Maxima.  I hope the thing runs for quite a while, but we want to bank away some money in case the inevitable happens — the car blows up on me and we need to buy another car.
  
• Having children — This is a reality for most young marrieds, and one that’s probably closer to reality than not at this point.  We wanted to bank money away in case my wife had medical complications, or needs to take extended time off work.

So as you see, we were able to reach the goal of a “Tweener” fund, but the slow economy caught up to me and my project work, which in-turn slowed down the money pile.

There’s still hope of achieving all these goals, although paying off H’s Parent Plus loan will probably be shifted ahead until sometime next year.

Do you have financial, health, or other goals that you’ve made? What’s your progress looking like??

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photo by frli

Personal Finance goals, new year, new years resolutions, resolutions

In a recent interview with Parade magazine, Jay Leno talks about his transition from hosting The Tonight Show to his new prime time slot.  It was a very personable interview.  While most celebrities appear self-absorbed, Jay Leno comes across as a hard-working regular guy who hit the big time.  But success didn’t exactly fall into his lap.  Here are a few financial lessons to be learned from Jay Leno:

#1 — Finding a Job:  Do Whatever It Takes

If you really want a job, do whatever it takes to make a good impression. Years ago I lived in Boston, and when I saw a Mercedes/Rolls-Royce dealer, I thought, “I’d like to work there.” I asked about a job, but the boss said, “We’re not hiring now.” Monday morning, I returned. I went to the car-wash bay, said “I’m the new guy,” and started washing cars. After three or four days, the boss saw me and asked, “What’s he doing here?” The car-wash guy goes, “He’s a hard worker.” I said, “I figured I’d work here until you hired me.” And I got the job. That attitude has always worked for me. – Parade Magazine

I first read this in disbelief.  Jay’s persistence enabled him to find a job working around cars.  Even if he was only washing them, he still found a way to be around something he loved.  In my career path, most of the time I’ve waited for the door to be opened wide for me.  If Jay Leno wasn’t kicking the front door down, he was at least sneaking in the back door.

#2 — Hard Work Pays Off

After 20 years of hard work, Jay Leno was an overnight success   In 1973, Jay opened a comedy club, and worked the improv circuit for many years.  In the late 80’s, Leno began to fill-in as host for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, before finally replacing Carson in 1992.  On top of his television show, Leno continues to do stand-up approximately 160 nights each year! 

It is easy to get discouraged in your career, and there are many ups & downs.  But if you love what you do, have passion for it, work hard towards your goals, you will live a fulfilled life — regardless of how many millions come your way   I love justice and the rule of law.  I studied hard in school.  Jay reminds me that I need to keep working hard to find my niche.

#3 — Live Well Within Your Means

I know what you’re thinking: “Sure, if I had a ten-figure salary, I’d be able to live within MY means too!”  But for Jay Leno, this habit began early in life.

Leno may have millions, but his approach to wealth dates to his early days turning a wrench.

“I had two jobs as a kid, one at a fast-food restaurant and one at a Ford dealership. And I’d put the money from one job in one pocket and spend it. And the other paycheck I’d save,” he says. “I do that now. I have always banked my Tonight Show money and lived off the stand-up. I have one credit card, no mortgage, and I don’t lease.” — USA Today, 7/16/2008

His frugal ways began early.  He saw the benefits of training himself to save money.  For teens out there, could you not do the same thing?  For young singles, make the switch before you are exposed to the leveraged lifestyle of credit cards and car payments.  For married couples, what can you do to begin to live off of one spouse’s income?  If this seems impossible, start slow — live off of 95% of your income, then 90%, etc.  Work your way into setting aside money.

#4 — Give

In 2001, Jay’s wife Mavis was on the board of Feminist Majority, and the couple donated $100,000 to their cause of educating the public on the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.  Jay has also donated for auction Harley Davidson motorcycles signed by celebrity guests who appeared on The Tonight Show.  Proceeds from these auctions have raised nearly $3 million for victims of 9/11, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina.

While this exposure and charity may financially be a drop in the bucket for Leno, my gut feeling is there is plenty set up for charities that we just are not privy to in the outside world:

Any plans for his Tonight Show windfall? Leno leans over a stack of papers, pretending they’re bank statements. “I suppose I’ll just look at the number one day and go, “Oooh, that’s pretty neat,’ ” he says. He says he has set up foundations that donate to a range of charities but then closes the book on the topic. – USA Today, 7/16/2008

What I learn here is that life is more fulfilling when you are contributing toward a cause bigger than yourself.  We do that by donating time, money, and in Jay Leno’s case — his celebrity status.  Sometimes these gifts are public, but many times they are private, putting priority on the cause rather than the giver.  We should do what we can, and usually we can do more than we think.

#5 — Substance Over Style

His swift gait carries him past dozens of motorcycles, another longtime passion. In the mix is a new Ducati Desmosedici: The first one off the Italian factory floor went to Tom Cruise. Leno praises the bike but hastily adds he’s just borrowing this one. “I don’t really need an $85,000 motorcycle,” he says.

“These machines are really my only indulgence,” he says. “Other than that, well, I’m still the kind of guy who goes to McDonald’s with clipped-out coupons. My wife, Mavis, will take me out to a nice restaurant, but the whole time I’m going, ‘Food costs this much?’ ” – USA Today, 7/16/2008

Leno obviously has an enormous amount of income and wealth, but still has not lost that ‘regular-guy’ charm.  He never let style outgrow the basic substance of a fruitful life — hard work, saving, ignoring fear.  His lifestyle leaks into his television career.  While other late-night hosts Arsenio Hall and David Letterman got many of the headlines and accolades from supposed hardcore fans, Jay Leno, in a workmanlike fashion, outlasted Arsenio and repeatedly obliterated Letterman in television ratings.

While I may not win any ratings battles, I took away some sound investment advice from this: 

Every few months, there’s a new investment fad or get-rich-quick strategy that pops up (flip a house!  buy gold!) — but ultimately, the best strategy is to diversify your investments, and go forward in a workmanlike manner.  You may not always be as exciting as the fads (Arsenio), but ultimately, your returns (TV ratings) will be higher while others get caught in the crashing wave.

photo by johngulliver

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Personal Finance Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

DishNetwork HD Platinum Package FREE

While recently surfing the outer-banks of the Internet, I found out that DishNetwork was now offering their HD Platinum package for free if you subscribe to a Classic Package + HD.  Here’s a list of Platinum HD channels: 

• HD Movie channels MGM-HD, Universal-HD, and HDNet Movies
• Sports channels NBA-TV HD and NHL HD
• A&E’s Crime & Investigation HD
• FashionTV HD
• BET Jazz HD
• LOGO HD
• MavTV HD
• World Fishing Network HD. 

I don’t know about you, but if my fishing shows aren’t in HD, it’s just not worth watching   What’s next — a Frisbee Golf HD channel?  Perhaps Bocce Ball HD?  But I digress..

 

7 Steps to a Lower DishNetwork Bill

If you already have a Classic Package + HD, you can immediately save $10/month on your bill by calling DishNetwork (800) 333-DISH, or just go online and do it right now!

1.  Sign into your DishNetwork account and click on the Programming link.
2. Under the HD Programming options, uncheck all of your current HD package(s).
3. Click the “Review and Order” button to verify your HD package(s) were removed.
4. Click on the “Back” button at the bottom of the page.
5. You should now have a new “HD & Platinum” as an option for $10.  Select this as your HD programming option.
6. Click the “Review and Order” button to verify the combined “HD & Platinum” package was added.
7. Click on the “Order” button to finalize.  Your ‘new’ programming will take effect within a matter of minutes!

 There’s a great thread on this topic at High Def Forum, including comments from an off-duty DishNetwork employee.  Continue to enjoy your HD programming with a slightly larger bank account!

M$M v1.02

I’ve been away from the blog for quite a while, but there’s no time like the present to get more content out there!   I look forward to putting out more informative (and maybe even slightly entertaining!) content — oh yeah, and do it more consistently, too!

photo by redteam

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Budget

“Don’t Drink, Smoke, or Chew…

At the beginning of this month, the largest tobacco tax increase in history came into effect.  The Federal tax on a pack of cigarettes increased from 39 cents/pack to $1.01/pack.  Strategy involved is at least two-fold.  Idealists believe from a health perspective, the increased taxes on tobacco is enough to force people to quit smoking, while the more cynical say it’s just a ploy to generate government revenue, particularly from the middle & lower class, where percentage-wise, it will hurt their pocketbooks greater.

…Or Associate With Those Who Do.”

This is a tough one for me.  I can’t stand smoking; moreso cigarettes than cigars, hookah, or smokeless tobacco.  I hate when I’m forced to breathe toxic air because of someone else’s habit.  I also hate having to spend money on dry cleaning because my clothes get cigarette smoke ingrained in them anytime you go to a restaurant.

But I also hate taxes.  However, government has a clear history of promoting public policy by dangling purse strings.  To the citizenry they promote charitable causes, home buying, education, and parenting by providing tax breaks.  To the states they offer matching federal dollars to build highways and infrastructure.

The difference with smoking, however, is that instead of a passive tax break, this is an active taxing of the citizenry’s actions.  There IS a difference between encouraging behavior by providing tax relief, and manipulating behavior by forcing your hand with a tax.  But here, it’s a bad habit that most don’t care about anymore; and since it doesn’t affect them, they’re all for it.  I guess it comes down to whether you’re an Idealist or a Cynic on this issue.

Twitterverse

Here’s some comments I got on this topic from my Twitter buddies:

• @MoneyEnergy – an increased tobacco tax is a good thing in the long run – it’s only painful in the present for a select few… my 2 cents.
• @VictorB123 – I think tobacco is the modern “tea”. People should start growing their own and avoiding the tax if they use it.
• @gregzimmerman – ridiculous money grab!
• @PerryNunley – I quit smoking about 1 year ago cuz sin taxes are stupid (so is smoking).
• @photog357 – Utterly asinine. It’s nanny state tactic, & illogical in that revenue goes to counteract activity they want money from.
• @The_Weakonomist – I decided to be OK with it. They do risk an underground tobacco uprising. Moonshine? No. Brownburn!
• @blockss – Well, it’s quite interesting that the Federal Gov’t will need to recruit ~20 million more smokers in order to pay for SCHIP [the name of the tobacco tax legislation].
• @ManVsDebt – I hate smoking, but think this could be a slippery slope… How long until Fat Tax? Hmmm maybe I’d shed some pounds…
• @MoneyEnergy – but if more tax is necessary, shouldn’t it be on smtg we want to discourage (based on obj. evidence)?  It’s not like the ONLY tax would have to be on cigarettes, etc. besides cigarette butts everywhere pollute, too.

Me?  I say tax the tobacco enough to provide vouchers for my dry cleaning bill.

What do YOU think about tobacco taxes?

photo by Chris Schroeder

taxes

Party Like It’s 1773!

Today, thousands if not millions of people are expected to turn out to local Tax Day TEA parties.  The Tax Day Tea Party is a national collaborative grassroots effort organized by Smart Girl Politics, Top Conservatives on Twitter, the DontGo Movement and many other online groups & coalitions.

TEA stands for “Taxed Enough Already”, and these grassroots protests are in response to reactionary and excessive tax & spend policies by the U.S. government prompted by the recent bailouts and stimulus plans passed by Congress & signed into law by President Obama.  The TEA Party is analogous to the Boston Tea Party of 1773, a protest over the American colonists being subject to British taxing policies without any representation.

Here’s the video that started it all:

CNBC\’s Rick Santelli\’s Chicago Tea Party

Where’s The Party?

Thousands of Tax Day TEA Parties are scheduled today in many cities around the country.  For more information on a TEA Party in your local area, visit the Tax Day Tea Party website.

I’m Busy, How Can I Follow Today’s Events?

There are many political pundits, bloggers, and organizations covering the events nationwide.  Here’s a few I’ve seen:

Twitter

Many people are covering local events real-time on Twitter:

• @johnculberson
• @NewtGingrich
• @LeadershipInst

You can also search Twitter for comments using the following search tags:

• #HHRS (Hugh Hewitt Radio Show)
• #TCOT (Top Conservatives On Twitter)
• #teaparty
• Tea Party

Facebook

Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party

YouTube

Do a search for “Tea Party”.  Plenty of attendees in numerous cities are posting their videos throughout the day.

Report Back to MyMoneyMinute!

Are any of you attending a Tax Day TEA Party today?? Please leave comments below about your experience, as well as links to pictures.  I may do a follow-up post if there’s enough reports generated.

photos by skye820

Politics, taxes bailout, boston tea party, Hugh Hewitt, John Culberson, Newt Gingrich, Obama, stimulus, Tax Day TEA Party, taxes

This past weekend, my wife & I took a weekend trip to Austin, and had a great time.  There were a few lessons learned to pass along.

The DOs & DON’Ts of Weekend Travel

• DO clean your home before you leave; DON’T come back to a messy house.

On any vacation, it’s nice to come home to a clean house, isn’t it?  We don’t always follow this advice, but it is a relaxing feeling to come home and know you don’t have any chores to do for a few days.

• DO use priceline.com or some discount hotel website to book a cheap hotel.

If you’re not camping, it’s the best way to get a good deal on a weekend getaway.  We pricelined a 4-star hotel in Austin for $90, and may even been able to go lower.

• DO make it a road trip; DON’T fly.

Drive somewhere.  Spending time on a drive can be as much fun and quality time as being in the actual destination.  Also, given the current gas prices, it’s just cheaper.  You also have the freedom to take the “back way” home and explore small-town America.  We did this by driving through part of the Texas Hill Country on the way back home.

The only exception to this might be a weekend trip to Vegas, since there’s such great package deals, and plenty of direct entertainment in the casinos to keep you occupied for a weekend.

• DO pack a bottle of wine and some snacks; DON’T spend all your money at bars & restaurants.

You may be eating out all weekend, but if you pack a few snacks and drinks, it will cut down on your weekend food tab.  This is especially true with alcohol, which can often double your restaurant bill if you’re not careful.  To help soften the blow of a high bar tab, we brought a bottle of wine with us to share at the hotel, and grabbed some cheese & bread from the local supermarket.

• DO find a way to make it an extended weekend; DON’T only make it a one-night adventure.

Weekends go fast enough as it is.  Find a weekend where you can take a Friday or Monday off to extend your time.  It makes your schedule a little more flexible and a little less stressful.  We took off Good Friday and made it a three-day Easter weekend.

• DO see something of historical significance.

We arrived in Austin on Friday afternoon, with just enough time to stop by the state capitol building.  It was free to park that day, and free to enter the capitol and look around.  Texas is rich in history and it was a nice semi-educational detour to stop by and look around.  Next time we’ll have to go when the legislature is in session, so we can meet our local representatives.

• DO ask for your friends’ recommendations; DON’T travel somewhere without some knowledge.

Everyone we knew, especially the native Texans, had been to (or went to school in) Austin.  There was not a shortage of excellent information.  Friends will give you the ‘insider’ information, like the hole-in-the-wall restaurants that don’t cost much, but have excellent food and atmosphere.  We found a great restaurant & bar by calling and getting a recommendation from a friend who went to college in Austin.

• DON’T spend money at the chain stores; DO visit the local establishments.

I can eat at Chili’s or On The Border in Dallas; there’s no difference from one suburb to another.  The real fun is tasting the local cuisine or finding the mom & pop establishments.  It is more hit & miss this way, but ultimately you’ll have more memories of visiting the local shops or restaurants.

• DON’T buy spa packages from the hotel.

This goes along with the chain vs. local establishments I spoke of above.  The hotel spa packages are overpriced, and don’t get you out into the town.  We found a day spa down the road that was local and had better prices.  The massages were great, although the pedicures unfortunately were a disaster.  Maybe we should have used more of my advice above, and asked a friend for a recommendation!

• DO attend an out-of-town church service

I know growing up, being gone for a weekend meant no church service.  However, if you’re a person of faith, I highly recommend attending a church service while you’re out of town.  It gives you a fresh perspective on how other churches worship & operate.  A different pastor or speaker can also give you a fresh perspective on fairly common topics.  It also helps you realize that God is a whole lot bigger and encompassing than your local church, with all its joys and flaws.

How about you — What would you add to this list?  Any that you agree or disagree with?  Let’s see some comments below!

photos by veganstraightedge & nicolasnova

Travel alcohol, Austin, church, food, hill country, holiday, hotel, massage, pedicure, priceline, restaurant, road trip, Travel, weekend, wine