Travel Starr

Octopus babies inside of their eggs

An adult ocean sunfish compared to them at birth

Budget Travel Series Expectations and Money, John and I dropped about $450 on a one dive trip a few days ago. It was a dark water night dive. Imagine being one of six divers miles off the coast with the water depth well over a mile. You are suspended by a tether, dropped into this deep, dark abyss with a tiny flash light and your diving gear. First you just want to not be a snack for a lurking shark but as you are down there you want to make damn sure this experience is...A...WESOME! Well, what happens if it’s not? What happens if you chicken out? Note here, if you are diving, just say your ears hurt, don’t say you are seasick, that doesn’t work and they will still throw you overboard. What about all that money? What about all that expectation? What if you actually blogged that you were going to do this dive and you didn’t? I think this type of quiet fear stops us from budgeting? What you say? She’s lost her mind, that’s beside the point. It’s much easier to spend money thoughtlessly in little ways that to spend with thought and intention and use your money towards big trips that take months and years to save. These purchases are daunting because of this silent fear that they will be a disappointment. Well, I’m hear to tell you to be proud that you are making the plans! It’s the process that defines the journey and budgeting is a wonderful way to start intentionally processing one part of your life. Spoiler alert, I did do the dive and it was AWESOME. These crazy sea creatures migrated to the surface and I got to see thousands of them. Be brave fellow budgeters, Ally See more

Budget Travel Series It’s not the Marriott and it sure ain’t the Weston... This last leg of our trip we’ve rented an Air BNB a few blocks from the beach. The cost per night ends up working out to $130/night. Since we did the time share presentations for the last two places this is the most expensive place we have yet stayed. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but the last two places had every convenience, including a pool, hot tub, staff, and beach view. It’s a good thing that ...we planned to do all our adventures at the end of the trip or I think that I’d be pretty bummed. Tonight we do a black water dive, tomorrow whale watching and wild dolphin swim and a few days later two advanced boat dives. Here’s what I think about our budget and traveling, because we have a budget to start with, we are already planning next years vacation, including the costs, and have started our monthly savings. As we get closer to our vacation planning we have a very good idea of how much money we will have and we budget accordingly. What we do on our vacation is directly related to our budget and some of our best vacations have actually been the cheapest ones. If you just want to lay around and do nothing I’d really want to be at a resort type destination but If you are an adventure type person I think you can be very creative where you stay. Off to the Beach, Ally See more

Budget Travel Series Yesterday John and I went to our favorite dive shop and dropped $800 on one night dive and another day dive trip. We originally were going to spend $1200 but after the sticker shock we decided to stay closer to the island and save some cash. People hate budgets, I get it, there is this feeling of guilt, hassle and embarrassment. But there is a upside, simple budgeting is like having a gas gauge. You know when your tank is getting low and you will have opt...ions, drive less or put more gas into the tank. No budget? You are driving a car that when it runs out of gas, it drives you into debt. Anyways, I digress, we blew the budget with $800 in diving and $400 in snorkeling. I thought we’d spend about half that, but...we hadn’t eaten out (except for those awesome cheeseburgers), and we hadn’t had any cocktails out (except for one beer), so we decided to move some money around and dive like the rich! As far as guilt, hassle and embarrassment-I’ve got my credit cards paid off when I get home by keeping within our overall budget, the hassle is paying off, and embarrassment? I find myself so damn proud that we’ve chosen adventure over fine dining. Sea ya at the beach, Ally See more