HisHersMoney

I am a huge ski fan and my favorite place to ski is Steamboat Colorado. We were trying to plan a trip in Jan / Feb time frame but were have a tough time finding the right dates that worked for both of us. THen we saw online that the resort was offering free lift tickets from THanksgiving to CHristmas when you booked your lodging through them.

We did some research and found a good deal on airfare $270 each from the Washington DC area right into Steamboat an found an ok hotel room for a week for about $500 so we went ahead and book a week in December. Including ground transportation and everything we came in at under $1200 for both of us for a week. The only additional expenses we will have are food, drink and ski rentals for Him. Luckily we have been saving into a vacation account at INGDirect so we will just transfer the money and book it!

Him has never been to Steamboat before so I hope he likes it!

Today is Black Friday which should mean some of the greatest retail deals of the year. I have to say I’m not overly impressed. I did find a great deal at my favorite clothing store Martin & Osa. An additional 30% off even on top of sale and clearance prices. I picked up a great cashmere and soy sweater. I have a blue one already and wear it both to work and out and about casually. It is so comfortable and fits great. Normally $70 and I got it today for $21. I also picked up a tee and two tanks to wear under my sweaters. Shipping was free so my total cost was about $35.

I looked around both online and in the flyers and really didn’t see anything else we needed or that was on the Christmas list that was a great deal. Him found a computer game that he wanted that was on sale for $10 with free shipping from Best Buy so we picked that up as a stocking stuffer.

I was surprised to see that a ski jacket that I bought from Sports Authority a couple of weeks ago was actually more expensive today even though it was on the cover of there Black Friday ad. Just goes to show that you really need to know your prices before shopping.

I saw on the tv this morning that they were giving a few holiday tips. Some of which were basic: wear comfortable shoes, duh. But a couple were good tips: If you find what you want buy it now and keep all of your reciepts so if the price comes down you can get a price adjustment.

I am basically done all of my xmas shopping and stayed pretty close to budget. Him and I budgeted $225 each for each other and I came within 10% so that works for me. We ordered some photo albums from MyPublisher online with some pictures of us to give to family which included engagement and wedding pictures so those will be going out to the parents and grandparents. We shopped ahead of time with them and got 50% off.

Other than that there are just a few small things I might need to pick up such as office gifts but nothing that will break the budget. We put away $25 every two weeks into our INGDirect savings account so the money was ready and waiting for us when it came time to shop!

As you can tell, both Hers and I have been remiss in posting for a long time. I think we just got burned out, especially Hers. For me it was always coming up with topics to write about. I mean, there are only so many stories about using coupons that you can write! I think that I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re really not into what most would consider ‘frugal’ living. We both make above-average salaries since the median household income is currently $61,500 according to the IRS.

I’ve been reading RichSlick’s blog a lot lately. A lot of what he writes about doesn’t directly apply to us since we only invest in mutual funds in our 401k’s and IRA’s but there IS a difference in your life when you have disposable income. We’re lucky enough to be able to max out our retirement accounts while at the same time finally getting out of debt and putting money into an account for a down payment on a home. For us, budgeting means putting money aside so that we can go eat a $200 meal at one of the country’s best restaurants if we want.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are growing pains and issues. I’ve always been too much of a big spender and just now have my credit card debt under control. I have Hers to thank for that. She started being fiscally responsible right out of college and has continued down that path to this day. Early retirement is in sight, we’ll be almost debt-free this winter with only a single car loan left over, and we are going to start looking for an investment/retirement property in Colorado. Life is good. It always could be better though. So we’re going to continue this blog while we continue our life journey together. We hope you’ll join us.