When we decided that we wanted to spend a couple of months in Europe for the winter, I knew that saving money would be a challenge. We were in the middle of a Pandemic AND we had just started a business that wasn’t making any money. In fact, we were doing just enough to get us by…in the hopes that our business would have a chance to see a real cruise season.

I had seen a post about an envelope challenge to save money. And it was then that I knew this would be a good way for us to save. You might be wondering, “How does the envelope challenge work?” In the initial post that I read, it suggested that you take 50 envelopes and write the denominations ($1 - $50) on the envelopes. Each week, you would then select an envelope. You would then put that amount of money in the envelope that corresponds with the number on that envelope. At the end of the 50 weeks, you would have saved $1275.

I knew that we were going to need more money than that for an extended trip to Europe, so I doubled the number of envelopes from 50 to 100. Each week, we pulled two envelopes from our bag…and then during that week we got the money and put it in the envelopes. Some weeks were tough. Sometimes, we used money that we would have used to go out to eat…and some weeks we used cash from tips. Some weeks, if we would pull two envelopes with high denominations, we would pick again. But EVERY week, we would pull those two envelopes. And luckily for us when tips were good, we were able to stuff three envelopes in a week.

During the course of the year, we saved $5050…just by putting that money in envelopes and NOT using it on dumb stuff throughout the year. It was so fun to go to the bank with my stacks of cash…and it was a HUGE sense of accomplishment that we were able to SAVE this money during a pretty difficult time.

Taking this trip was a priority for us…and it just goes to show that you don’t have to be rich to be able to live the kind of life you have always dreamt of!

In less than a year, you could complete the envelope challenge too! Where would you go on YOUR dream vacation? Comment below!

If you have not yet listened to the Podcast, check it out here!

Are you the person who has everything planned from the packing list to the itinerary when you travel? You know what I mean…the seasoned traveler who is 100% prepared for anything and everything. That was definitely how we viewed ourselves as travelers…until two weeks ago. Travel is something that George and I have done together (as often as possible) since our first month together. In ten short years, we have traveled to all 50 states, several countries, countless cruises, and hundreds of thousands of road miles! We know how to travel. Or so we thought!!!

As with a majority of the world, Covid-19 happened and the world stopped…especially our beloved world of travel. This was finally our chance to get out and enjoy the world outside of our little bubble in Skagway. It had been over 630 days since we vacationed…and our lack of “experience” showed! If you don’t believe me…look at how we overpacked!

For some people whether or not to vaccinate became a political issue. For us, it meant that we were one step closer to being able to travel again. In fact, as soon as our first dose was completed, we booked a cruise for later in the year. We had originally planned a Mediterranean cruise for November, but that was cancelled. Once that happened, we changed gears and planned a cruise to Mexico from California.

Traveling to and from Skagway, Alaska is not as easy as one might think. You have to ferry or fly to Juneau, which always adds at least a day onto your travel plans. Since we needed to build in a little cushion, we planned to spend some time in Seattle and California before we actually left for our cruise. All I can say is thank goodness we had that cushion.

The week leading up to our trip was filled with a lot of wet weather. We had flights scheduled out of Skagway, which can always be a little iffy if the weather is not great. The morning of our trip, we heard a flight come in the morning, which was a welcomed sign…but we were still not out of the woods! About an hour before our flight, we called the airport and were super excited to find out our plane was on the way! WE WERE GOING ON VACATION!!!!

We arrived in Juneau without a hitch. We even had time for a delicious dinner at our favorite Juneau restaurant! Our flight from Juneau to Seattle was scheduled for the next morning at 5:30 am, so we planned to arrive to the airport at 4:00 am. I don’t know about you, but I can never really sleep soundly when I have an early morning flight. I was worried that we would not wake up for our 3:00 alarm, so my body was restless…and I was awake by 2 am.

We were all up by 3…and excited about our day of travel ahead! About ten minutes before we were ready to head downstairs, I decided that I would download some podcasts for our plane ride. It was moments later that panic set in…I had left our passports in Skagway!!!!!

For our flights, we did not need passports…but for our cruise they would be a required document. There was NO getting out of traveling without them! We quickly weighed the options of getting on our current flights and having passports shipped to us overnight…or changing our flights to a later flight and not leaving Juneau until we have the passports in our hand. The bad thing about a misstep like this is that you can’t just drive home and get them. It is not physically possible.

This hiccup then set off a long chain of events that made this day the longest day of our lives! Here is a glimpse of the chain of events that occurred over the next couple of hours:

· George contacted Alaska Airlines to change flights to the 6:30 PM flight.

· I contacted the house sitters to have them get our passports to a friend who brought them to the airport.

· Our passports were sent on the next available flight (as cargo) to Juneau – weather permitting.

· We cancelled our Covid tests which were scheduled for Seattle upon our arrival.

· We located a Covid testing site in Juneau and scheduled appointments for 11 am. We completed these tests and hoped for the best.

· We rented a car in Juneau, so we could complete all of our tasks and have a place to hang out once we checked out of the hotel.

· We ate breakfast at Donna’s.

· Yay…the passports arrived. We picked them up from Alaska Seaplanes Cargo.

· We tried to nap in the car…unsuccessfully.

· We arrived at the airport, excited about finally being able to complete the next leg of our trip!

· Our family unit CALMLY AND EFFECTIVELY worked through and solved all problems (SUCCESS).

Our excitement lasted until we boarded the plane and realized the three of us were in the last row of the plane…on a narrow body plane. We were shoe horned in the seats pretty good. Alex and I took turns sitting forward and sitting back, so we would have a little space. Good thing the flight was only two hours. Two hours…until we arrived in Seattle and had to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes before we had a gate. Would this day ever end?

Because we had planned on spending the day sightseeing in Seattle, we had a rental car reserved and paid for. Now that we were arriving so late, we really did not need it. But having a car meant we would be able to go grab a quick bite to eat before we went to the hotel and CRASHED from exhaustion. What we didn’t realize is that the rental car pick up was located off site…and it was probably further away than our actual hotel!

When we arrived at Alamo, we were second in line. As we waited the queue filled up. There was one employee helping customers. And one employee who sent people in line to a non-working kiosk before she sent them next door to Enterprise and then left for the evening. There were about 4-5 groups of people in line behind us and one being helped at the counter. Then the employee announced that the computers crashed and everyone should head to Enterprise next door. We went from being the first in line to being in the back of a line of 20 people.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the employee that had been helping us in Alamo said that Enterprise computers were down also and we should rent a car somewhere else. However, we had already paid for our car with them! And it was now 11:30 at night on what was the longest day of our lives! This is at the point where we lost it. As a family, we had handled all of the bumps in the road with stride (which I was so proud of). But after all of this, we snapped. And by we, I mean the calmest one in our group lost his cool…and it quickly started to escalate. Until I corralled the guys out of the rental car place and we hopped on the shuttle back to the airport…so we could take the hotel shuttle.

We arrived at the hotel around midnight…about 21 hours after our journey had started for the day. We were tired, grumpy, and hungry. The small bit of joy that faced us was that we were in a town that had Door Dash…and restaurants were actually open past 8 PM! For most, this would be no big deal…but when you live in a rural town in Alaska where EVERYTHING closes early and options are slim, this was a small win! We got some food delivered to us and passed out!

We were done with this day!

And definitely done with this lesson. I can assure you…I will NEVER forget our passports again!!!!

Blog

Travel Hack: The Envelope Challenge

A Series of Unfortunate events: Travel Edition

Roadblocks: Can't Stop, Won't Stop!