Seattle

Well, I now have a bit of dilemna... some friends and I had originally planned a trip to Seattle for the Canada Day long weekend, but the plans kind of fell through recently. I had moved on and was planning other things for this weekend, when lo and behold the plans came back into being!

So... I'm going to go to Seattle with them, and it's going to be a blast... but I just haven't budgetted for this trip... yet.

So, here's my dilemna... currently my goals are sitting as follows:
Savings account: $8,193 (still need $1,807)
Pre-Trip Cash: $1,545 (still need $455)

So.... I will be bringing in around another $600 from fast-food job which will cover my Pre-Trip cash and give me about $145 to spare. I currently have $822 in my chequing account and will be getting another $1,100 or so from office-job. This will barely cover my savings account goal.

This is how I planned my month. This way, I would be basically at even at the end of the month and could start new goals next month. So... there's my problem. I'll either have to wait to accomplish a goal and use the cash for Seattle instead, or put everything for Seattle on my credit card, and pay it off next month when I get paid, which I would rather not do.

So far, the plan for Seattle is that we will drive from Calgary to Seattle (12hrs approx) on Friday, June 27th. We will arrive in Seattle Saturday morning sometime, and spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday night in Seattle. One of the gals has to be back in Calgary for 2 p.m. on Tuesday, and so we will fly (Air Canada most likely) back Tuesday morning.

Here's the proposed budget:
Flight: $260
Hotel: $200 (most likely 4-5 of us will share a 1-bed, king size hotel suite and some will sleep on the floor)
Gas for driving there and rental: $120
Transportation while in Seattle: $20
Food while in Seattle: $200 (most likely at least one fancy dinner.)

None of this includes any shopping I'll do, which probably won't be tons. Either way, that adds up to $600. In my opinion, that's a pretty expensive trip, but the airfare makes it much more expensive.

So..... I'm not sure what to do. I'll wait another couple of days to see if any plans get finalized (which they probably won't), but more likely than not I'll be winging it.

So.... now comes the decision. Do I wait to put my money into my savings account and continue to add to my Pre-Trip cash, or other way around??? Ahhh!

And again, I'm lucky since the Canadian dollar is doing so good against the US, that at least I'm not getting nailed in terms of the exchange, but again, I've never been to Seattle. Those of you who live in (or have visited) Seattle, what do you think about the Budget? Too much, too little??