Seattle

Okay, so I promised the financial side of my spontaneous Seattle trip, and so here you have it!

Here is what I am budgetting for the trip:

One way flight from Vancouver to Seattle: $165 after taxes and fees
Hotel (2 nights in Seattle): $80
Rental Car: $100
Gas: $80
Food: $150
Shopping: $150

Total: $725

Now, the $300 of shopping and food is completely dependant on how much I want to eat, where we eat, and what kind of stuff I want to buy. The fact that I am moving to London in t-minus 3 months still lingers in the back of my mind, so I tend to disregard most shopping because I wouldn't be able to bring everything that I want to buy with me.

I took out $300 USD today, which cost me just over $310 CAD. Which kind of hurt, since the exchange rate is pretty close to 1:1.

Either way, now it's time to pack!

Seattle... AGAIN

Okay, so now we ARE going to Seattle. OMFG. Make up your minds!!!!!

They called, gave me some $$ stats, asked if I still wanted to come. Wanted to say a big, fat NO initially (just to spite them) ... but said yes. First out of guilt, but now I am glad I said yes, because I am excited.

(And, as a small, midly 'too much information' thought, I am halfway through my 'time o' the month', so all that will be cleared up by weekend, YAY!)

My financial thoughts and budget for this trip will come in the morning. For now, I am tired.

My Pre-Trip spending...

So... seeing as I'm close to reaching my goals.... I thought about the many ways I'll get to spend my pre-trip cash! I'm looking forward to going on a mini-shopping spree, as long as I know exactly what I'm going to buy. There will be no impulse shopping here!

So, some of things that I had planned on using this fund for that I have already purchased (and don't include in the fund).

• Point and Shoot Camera
• Spare battery for DSLR Camera
• Major item of luggage
• External Hard-Drive
• 2 Plug Adapters

So, really, when I think about it, most of the stuff that I had planned to buy I have already purchased. I'm sure as time goes on I will find more things, but for now, these are the things that I'm thinking about:

• Spare battery for Toshiba laptop (assuming that I can get the damn thing fixed)
• Spare battery for new Nikon Coolpix D52 (Point and Shoot that I just bought)
• Packing cubes, Ziplock bags and other small packing accessories.
• Burnable DVD's (storage!)
• Smaller, carry-on luggage
• Rick Steves' travel DVDs and guidebooks (love him!)

At the moment I can't think of anything else, but again, I'm sure I'll find more.

I'm also thinking about what I want to do with the leftover money. I'm debating between putting it into different savings accounts, buying another large-scale item (camera lens or the sort), or use the money for whatever needs I'll have while out in Toronto visiting family.

Is there anything that I've forgotten on this list?? I can't think of anything right now...

Now that I'm really thinking about it, I'm glad I didn't end up going to Seattle... I would've had a lot of fun there for sure, but now, I'm so close to my goals that I can taste it. It's on the tip of my tongue and I can't (freaking!) wait!!!

As well, I'm a bit OCD with trip-planning. I make timetables and shedules and do probably between 80 to 100 hours of planning for every 3 weeks of trip or so. That sounds like a crazy thing to do, but trust me, it'll save you not only cash, but headaches as well. Either way, there wouldn't have been the time to plan enough for Seattle, and I would've ended up following people around, most likely to places and things I didn't care for. $1,000 is a lot to spend on a whim.

I can't wait to do my "Goals Accomplished!" post - and I'm already thinking of more for summer!

I still need to get my computer working again. It's stressing me out and all I want is for it to work reliably and properly. My father said that it should take less than an afternoon for him to walk me through downgrading to XP. (If you can call it downgrading, I'm happily calling it 'being rid of the monster!'). Now all I have to do is pin him down for an afternoon.

I also spent the better half of this evening photographing the items that I'm packing away for my kitchen box(es). I plan to itemize these things into folders and label the boxes appropriately, so that if I ever need an item, I won't have to sort through multiple boxes, I can simply look for a photo (which will eventually be in my Creative Memories photo-database software) and immediately know which box it is in. Yay for neerdy organization!!

Things feel a little more organized, and I'm pleased.