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A Wicked Fun Time In Chicago

December 7, 2022 This past weekend, we took our annual trip down to Chicago, which was also paired with a trip to the theater. With being in Project Money, have been more conscious of our trip expenses and we heavily discussed if we just go down for just the evening or spend the night, like we normally do. With traffic and the unknowns of early winter weather, we decided it would be best to spend the night down there, and so we did. One of the main things we continue to learn in Project Money is that we can, and still should, be partaking in fun trips, but need to be more proactive with the planning and take advantage of cost savings measures where we can. So how did save on costs? Theater Tickets: Krystal follows Broadway in Chicago on Facebook that will post promo codes for discounted tickets on shows they have coming to town. Way back in May, Krystal saw that Wicked was coming back to Chicago; a musical Alisa had not yet seen, and bought her an early Hanukkah gift. The orchestra seats we had should have cost us $595, but with the early purchase and discount code, the total cost was only $338. (Savings = $257)
Parking: Whenever we are traveling in a major city and need to buy parking, we always purchase a parking pass in advance at a garage; not a hotel. This not only helps us to know which parking garages have vacancies before we arrive to our location but shaves off around 50% of the costs had we bought a spot onsite. For our 24-hour parking in downtown Chicago, only 1.5 blocks from our hotel, and with unlimited in & out privileges, it was $18.  Side note: had we bought parking at our hotel it would have been $60. (Savings = $42) iPass: We may only go down to Chicago a few times a year, but having an iPass is a must, as it saves 50% on the costs of tolls. While we don’t know the exact cost as it is deducted from our iPass account credit ($20 reload amount), it should not have been more than $8. (Savings = $8) Hotel:  Krystal has had a rewards account with Hotels.com for many years. This rewards program allows guests to collect stamps. For each night you stay, you earn one stamp, and once you earn 10, you receive a 1-night stay credit (the credit is the average of your 10 hotel night costs). To maximize our return on a free night stay, whenever we travel and have to book our own hotel, we both use her account so we can reach our reward night faster. With the multiple hotel stays we had when we traveled around in Spain in September, we easily earned our reward and had a $179 hotel credit to use. Alisa also had a $30 hotels.com gift card she earned recently from doing a 10-minute survey from an organization she is a member of. With the hotels.com reward credit and $30 gift card, we only paid $76 out of pocket. (Savings = $206) Food:  As traffic to Chicago was crazy, it took us 3.25 hours to drive down there, which only allowed us 40 minutes to check into the hotel, change, and get ready for the show. After the show ended at 10:15 pm, we were starving and the only thing open near our hotel was Potbelly. While the cost upfront was fully out of pocket at $22, Alisa signed up for Potbelly rewards (while waiting for her sub to be made), used it at checkout and has now earned a free sub for the next time she goes there. (Food credit/savings = $10) Hotel Internet:  While many places offer free internet, our hotel did not, and would have cost each of us $11 for 24 hours. However, if you are a Hilton Honors member, it is free. Alisa signed up for this reward and not only did we get free internet, we will also earn loyalty points through them now, too!  (Savings = $11) After checking out of the hotel, we quickly popped by the Christkindl Market to get mulled wine which came in a 2022 souvenir cup ($10 total). Before heading back home, we did stop at a fun Hanukkah-themed bar near Wrigley Field; something we have never found in Milwaukee and have been waiting a few years to check it off ‘the list’. There was a little splurge here on themed drinks and quick nibble = $32. **Total cost: $542/**total savings = $534. With the theater tickets, the cost was a little more than we normally spend (except the year we got ‘Bougie Chips’ at a bar – ask us about it sometime!...), but we feel good about that since our advance planning and use of rewards accounts, we saved just under 50% of the costs. You might also be interested in Whew and wow! This has been quite a challenging and eye-opening process! It has been very hard to do this project as part of a couple when both of us appear to handle finances and money very differently. If I’ve learned one thing it’s that you can start out with very similar goals and desires but unless you are actually working hard towards them each week, they aren’t easy to maintain collectively! While we probably aren’t in last place, we sure aren’t in first either and that's okay. During the week of November 23, we wrote about how we were going to look into options for cost-saving measures. One of those measures was to analyze any balance transfers that may have been available to us. One of this balance transfers ended up being a very good offer, 0% interest for 18 months with a 3% transfer fee. It was time to take a couple small balances and one larger balance and combine them into what will be one card payment using this balance transfer offer. This past weekend, we took our annual trip down to Chicago, which was also paired with a trip to the theater. With being in Project Money, have been more conscious of our trip expenses and we heavily discussed if we just go down for just the evening or spend the night, like we normally do. With traffic and the unknowns of early winter weather, we decided it would be best to spend the night down there, and so we did. Something that stands out lately are the number of outlets competing for one’s time, attention, and especially our hard earned money. I don’t know about you, but it can be exhausting dodging solicitations and avoiding temptation left and right, especially around the holidays! It seems I can’t make a move without a text, email, phone call, commercial, mailer, advertisement, etc. attempting to draw me in on the next latest, greatest thing I supposedly ‘need’ to buy. Ah, consumerism. If it wasn't so cold out right now, we might not believe that the end of the year is fast approaching, but alas – it is! With that, we have been starting to crunch our numbers and see if we met our savings and debt payoff goals for this year and are starting to make some savings goals for next year. To assist with this, we have also started looking at what are current expenses are, current loan and credit card rates and seeing where we might be able to cut additional costs by either canceling services, negotiating costs and/or switching companies. Initially, we weren’t sure exactly what to write about for this week’s blog post. However, the subject came to us this past weekend as we were reviewing certain aspects of our finances. We both have credit card debt we are working on paying off and recently made sizable progress towards that goal. However, we’ve noticed that our low interest credit cards have recently experienced additional hikes in their APRs (and appear to continue climbing). For example, one credit card has now climbed to from 9.9% to 15.85% due to varying APR with the market based on the Prime Rate. Many of us enjoy hosting parties with friends and family for seasonal activities and Holidays but don’t want to break the bank doing so! For me and Krystal, a Fall Halloween event is one of our favorite gatherings we host each year with close loved ones. Here are some of our money-saving tips to ensure sure the fun doesn’t become overshadowed by ghastly receipts! I don't know about you, but I, Krystal, grew up in a pretty cold house during winter. We lived in a rural-ish area where natural gas did not run, thus propane was our main heating source, until my father installed a wood stove when I was late middle-school age. Nevertheless, the heat in our house was turned down low (better for breathing we were always told, too!) while we slept and were away at work or school. One thing we’re still working through is being a bit more proactive about unexpected house costs. Sure, we have small savings account for house expenses, but mostly this is to cover our homeowner’s insurance deductible. Like my father taught me with my car insurance deductible, I try to pretend this money just doesn’t exist, thus, why we need to plan better for those unexpected house-related costs.  This week’s two unexpected costs were our dryer needing a repair and our fence project taking a lot more money than expected. 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