I’m sure it’s possible to vacation inexpensively.

I did not, however, do it.

After adding up all the receipts, I spent approximately $500 on my trip to New Mexico with my mom. That’s impressively low for a six day vacation, until you consider that my mother paid for the airfare, lodging, and membership in the dance camp we attended.

My responsibilities were food and gas – and given that food totaled $187 for the weekend (our food was included at the dance camp), and gas only $55, there was definitely some, uh, discretionary spending in there.

So where did it go?

  • $110 went to parking at Boston Logan airport’s economy lot for six days. Some economy that was! A better option would have been to have someone drop me off, but my flights were midday, making that inconvenient. Parking at the Woburn branch of the Logan Express and taking the shuttle also might have been cheaper (though likely not by much). Flying out of Manchester, NH might have been an option in other circumstances, but was not in this case (this trip was a replacement for a canceled trip to England, and our non-refundable airfare could only go towards a flight out of Boston).
  • Around $122 went to souvenirs – not including some that my mother bought for me. I am pretty happy with my purchases, though. I tried to pick things that were consumable or which stimulated the local economy (which appeared to desperately need it). Hence I ended up with a sterling silver zipper pull made by a Native American artist in Santa Fe, a bottle of honey made in Escondida, some hand-crafted soaps from Taos, and a jar of pinon salve made in Datil. I probably spent the largest amount of money at once at the gift shop at Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge, where I spent one of my best days, but was consoled by the fact that it supported a non-profit, environmental organization.
  • Interestingly, the places that were the most expensive to eat were also the most “institutional” and unspectacular – such as an Applebee’s near the airport, or the Shark Reef Cafe at the Albuquerque Biopark. Eating local food would have been the cheaper option in most places.
  • Speaking of the Albuquerque Biopark, we paid $24 ($12 x 2 admissions) for a combo ticket that also admitted us to the zoo and let us ride the train between the Biopark and the zoo free of charge. Of course, we never got on the train, nor did we get to the zoo! We could have saved $10 if we’d only paid for admission to the Biopark. Ah, planning.

So after all the sopapillas and green chile cheeseburgers are out of the way, can we afford this? Tentatively, yes. It won’t send us spiraling into debt, but it is a bit of a hurdle. We may need to dip into the emergency fund, and, as you might know, green chile cheeseburgers are not an emergency.

The upshot is that I feel bloated, like after a heavy meal. I need to take it easy for a while; curl up with a book from the library and eat dinners out of my pantry.

All that said, what I really paid for is the chance to spend time with my mom. That’s priceless.

Related Posts:

Join In!