November 2018 Budget Recap

Another month of travel is in the books! During November, we road-tripped (more like air-hopped using our Southwest Companion Pass) all throughout the United States. After Disney, we went to New Orleans, Tulsa, Nashville, Seattle, Los Angeles, and ended in Hawaii.

Three of those stops involved staying with and visiting friends (Tulsa, Seattle, and LA). We also had some pleasant surprises along the way in terms of coincidental scheduling (e.g. attending the CMA Awards while in Nashville, which was unplanned).

With the first week spent in Disney, $568 spent on CMA Awards tickets, and visiting seven different states, how did we do in terms of budget?

$238 under budget, actually! Let’s check out the details.

November – US Road (Air) Trippin’

After the high-spending month of October, November brought us back to a typical month, coming in $238 under budget for the month. This brings our seven-month budget to within a sliver of our target: only $153 over our $36.7k budget, or within 0.42%.

Despite being slightly under-budget this month, here is another sampling of some of the luxury expenses that could have led to an even more frugal month. This demonstrates that we are able to travel and see the world for this budget without restricting ourselves to the level of only sleeping in hostels and eating ramen:

• Disney splurging on food and entertainment in first 6 days of Nov. ($680)
• Attended the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards in Nashville ($558)
• Hawaiian Island-Hopping Hotels, the cheapest we could still find – Kaua’i was $183/night, Maui was $154/night ($521 total)
• Brian got scammed the first time trying to buy the above CMA Award tickets ($150)

How did we do it? A few of the key things that literally saved us thousands ($2158+ to be exact) this month:

• $1666 saved from the Southwest Companion Pass, meaning we booked all our flights using points (and I still have 110,000 remaining!), and Alyssa flew completely free
  • Note: normally the Southwest Companion would pay $5.60 in taxes and fees only, but we even had those reimbursed from my new Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card, which reimburses up to $100 in airline incidentals each calendar year
  • While I obtained this using a combination of Marriott Rewards points and Southwest Credit Cards two years ago (no longer allowed to transfer in hotel partners), now is a great time to take advantage of the Southwest Credit Card offers out there for $60k points to obtain a Southwest CP for January 2019 through December 2020.
• $210 booking rental cars in Hawaii using Chase UR points
• $282 misc. savings from Raise.com gift cards, using our Priority Pass to get free food and alcohol at airports vs. paying, and other misc. Savings
• While we didn’t compute the value, we had our flights, housing and lunches covered the entire time while teaching in Oahu. For anyone that has been to Hawaii, you can imagine how much more that would have added.

Total monthly B.A. Livin’ savings (not including Hawaii reimbursements for teaching) = $2158 + several thousand more in Hawaii reimbursement

November 2018 Monthly Stats

For the first time since we started, we only visited one country (not including the “countries” we visited while in Epcot) the entire month – the USA. However, we did manage to stay in seven different states within the US.

For those that prefer more of a visual display of budget data (positive dollars corresponds to under budget):

Travel Rewards Points Usage

We obtained over $1800 of value this month from using travel points, which was primarily our Southwest Companion Pass and points (obtained via credit card bonus sign-ups), and Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

Our balance only went down about $300 though, because a lot of the Southwest flights had been booked the month prior.

Southwest Companion Pass – our major saver

As mentioned last month, the Southwest points alone – 40,000 points for 5 flights – are actually around $1280 in value, assuming the standard 1.6 cents/point, and then double the value due to the free companion pass, where Alyssa flies completely free each time I book a ticket. (40,000*.016*2 = $1,280). And I still have the equivalent of $3,200 in Southwest points remaining in my account (including CP value), although we unfortunately will have to let the CP expire at the end of 2018.

We are still debating whether it makes sense for us to get the Southwest CP again for the next two years. If we were going to stay in the US, we absolutely would get it again for two more years starting in Jan. 2019. However, since we won’t return until May (and Southwest doesn’t operate in Australia, New Zealand, or Asia), and then won’t be taking many trips for the remainder of 2019, we figured it may be best to wait until 2020 to get it. The risk is whether or not it will still be easy to get using the Southwest credit card sign-up bonuses.

The end of the year is the optimal time to consider getting the Southwest CP, since you can time your expenses to hit in January, resulting in the bonuses paying out in January of the new year and giving you the CP for the following two years.

Learn how to get the Southwest CP for 2019-2020 here.

November 2018 Expenses vs. Budget

Below are our actual expenses vs. budget for the month of November 2018.

Food was over budget, which was expected since we were eating out at Disney, eating out more often when visiting friends, and on the move a lot.

The Discretionary overrun was mainly alcohol at Disney ($223), and Brian being scammed when attempting to get CMA tickets ($150 for a good lesson and reminder on Craigslist – more on that in a following post).

While flights and housing look cheap, keep in mind how much we were able to save due to Southwest CP and points, staying with friends for 11 nights, and getting reimbursed for teaching in Hawaii.

Also, because we were on a cruise last month without WiFi, we decided it was better value to go all-out on data (our Google Fi plan plateaus at $100 at 10GB in a single month, and is free after that) vs. paying the equivalent of several hundred dollars for WiFi on the ship.

Check out more in our lessons learned section below for details about Google Fi and their recent announcement to support most iPhones and other Android phones, as well as our referral link to get $20 in Google Fi credit for new users.

Our expenses over time for November 2018:

Click for interactive chart

Lessons Learned and Takeaways

• Southwest Companion Pass is incredible – saved us over $1300 this month, and only cost was getting two credit cards and meeting minimum spend
  • Right now, Southwest is offering 60k bonus sign-up offers for their Business credit cards, which makes the 110,000 Southwest points easier than ever to obtain.
  • That means you get the 110,000 points to use when redeeming for Southwest flights, but you also get to choose a companion who flies completely free every time you fly, for the remainder of the current calendar year and the following calendar year
  • When timed right, you can have the bonus hit your account from the cards in January 2019, meaning you have the CP for all of 2019 and 2020.
• Don’t be afraid to visit and stay with friends while traveling
  • While we would sometimes feel guilty that we might be imposing, our friends were usually enthusiastic to have us come and visit and stay with them
  • This is a great way to see new places, save on lodging, and also catch up with old friends!
• Google Fi data is cheaper than paying for WiFi on a cruise
  • As we discovered, it was more convenient – and cheaper – to max out on our Google Fi plan for the month, rather than pay for WiFi on the cruise ship
  • I think it is only a matter of time before data over cell service becomes cheaper and more convenient than paying for internet, even while at home – especially once 5G speeds come out!
  • Bonus – Google Fi has recently announced that you can now use iPhones and non-Google Android phones, so check out our referral link below if you’re interested in signing up
  • Click here to get $20 off when signing up for Google Fi by Jan. 8, 2019 (Disclaimer: affiliate link)
• Craigslist Scam Lessons Learned
  • Although Craigslist harps on it over and over – never (EVER) send electronic payments to someone you haven’t met if they haven’t delivered the goods already (and even then, probably don’t do it)
  • I thought I was smarter than Craigslist and going to be protected by using the Zelle bank transfer service, offered through Bank of America, but came to learn that it does not offer the same type of protections that PayPal offers.
    • Zelle should ONLY ever be used to send money to friends and family, similar to Venmo. There is no buyer protection like PayPal offers.
  • I will share the play-by-play of the entire conversation in a future post, in the hopes that our readers can learn from my mistake and avoid potential scams in the future

Assumptions and Notes:

• All monthly expenses are totals for two people

In December, we’ll wrap up our teaching in Hawaii and then heading to the land down under – Australia! Tune in next month to see how it is living in Australia.