His Hers Money

We stayed at the Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay, Jamaica and it was really nice. The rooms were excellent and came with a jetted tub (which we didn’t utilize), four poster beds and a balcony that looked right out over the ocean. A few little things that we appreciated with the rooms is that there was a little mini fridge in the room with bottled water and a variety of sodas in it which where included in the all inclusive and they replenished them every day. Also, the staff came and serviced your room twice a day. First in the morning for the standard daily service and then again while you were at dinner to pick up and turn down the beds. Since everyone came back to their rooms to shower from being at the pool and ocean all the day to prepare for dinner it was nice that they went in and straightened everything up.

The staff was absolutely wonderful and really made our stay super enjoyable. They did a great job in getting people involved in the activities and just making the days and nights fun. It was great to basically see the same people everyday working around the property and they do an amazing job of actually remembering everyone’s names.

The only thing we can’t really rave about was the dining. Breakfast we ordered in to our room each morning which was great. Coffee, fruit, omelets, any breakfast thing you could really want. Lunch we usually grabbed from the beach side grill and it was fine. Burgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken caesar wraps, etc. Nothing fancy but it was fine.

Dinner was the one thing we wished was just a little better. FOr one thing, I would have like some air conditioning. Later on at night it cooled off and was plenty cool outside but at dinner time it was usually just a little on the warm side. The rooms all had air conditioning in them but the dining rooms didn’t. The food was … ok…. Nothing great, but you could usually find something to eat that was ok.

So, all in all, as I sit at home drinking a Jamaican rum and coke, writing this post I can say we had a great time. We met some great people, a couple of which we exchanged email addresses with, and look back on it as a great trip. We would definitely consider going back to that or another Sandals Jamaica property.

We’ve now made it almost one full month in our new joint blogging endeavor. So far I’m very proud of the time that Hers has put into this as it really is her first blogging experience other than a few guest posts on my personal blog. I would like to start doing monthly updates of our financial progress and also the progress of this blog. I figure that with 3 1/2 weeks under our belts I would go ahead and do one now and then start trying to be on time at the beginning of each month.

We’ve been able to get one of my credit cards paid off, the engagement ring paid in full, and more than the minimum payment for the highest balance of my cards. Unfortunately, I had to pull $2,000 out to pay a retainer fee for a lawyer instead of paying down debt further. So overall, good progress and it will seemingly get better.

The site itself is receiving steady increases in traffic each week according to our install of Mint:

I’m hoping that means that we’re doing something right and that people can appreciate what we’re trying to do and our writing style. I’ve almost become obsessed with reading all of the other PF blogs out there in my newsreader each day and trying to participate as much as possible.

There should also be some semi-regular columns starting soon. I have what I feel are a few good ideas for series that will prove invaluable to us in tracking our progress and education in all matters personal finance related.