Balancing frugality with living life

February 22, 2008 · Posted in Frugal Spending, Saving Money

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We’ll be traveling this weekend again to see family, which got me thinking about balancing frugality with life in general. To me, material possessions aren’t very important. This isn’t to say that I’m not thankful for what we have, but our life isn’t focused on getting more “stuff”. On the other hand, when it comes to traveling to see family, our costs seem to be getting increasing with each trip (gas, tolls). However, we’re not willing to cut the number of trips we make to see family each year.

There are alternative routes to save on tolls, but it increases our 6-7 hour road trip to 8-9 hours, and increases our gas costs. We have been able to convince some family members to travel our way, but there are members of the family (great-grandparents, great-great aunts and uncles) who cannot make the trip. Traveling by plane isn’t really feasible in terms of cost or location.

We do travel with a set budget, and we do an excellent job of staying within our means, but it is still a decent amount of money, especially when we end up traveling more frequently due to unexpected circumstances. We’re currently living in a location where we are not close to any family, but the job market in the Midwest is horrible (and we are not sure that we want to return there anyhow).

This is one area of our lives where I really don’t see a feasible solution. If you are not close to family, what do you do? Have you sacrificed traveling? Or is it something necessary that you’re not willing to compromise?

I can say that after this trip, I hope that we can be closer to home until nicer weather! Have a wonderful weekend!

Comments

4 Responses to “Balancing frugality with living life”

CyberCelt on February 25th, 2008 3:26 pm

I do not visit as often as I could. With the price of gas, there is nothing you can do to economize on a long trip.

The only think I might suggest is to make the trip fun by using the backroads (save the tolls). With stopovers, picnics, side trips, this would lengthen the trip, but you will be amazed what you might find just off the highway.

CyberCelt’s last blog post..Steve Newcomb is Going Green
moneyloveandchange on February 26th, 2008 1:26 am

CyberCelt,

We are definitely considering using some alternative routes on longer trips - we have even considered camping at one of the state parks we pass. The only problem with this right now is that our trips are so short to begin with (2-3 days).

I know that we could go less and stay longer, but everyone wants to see the kid every couple of months instead of a couple of times a year. We’re not getting any younger though, and as you mentioned, gas isn’t getting any cheaper!

Thanks for the comment
Beth on February 29th, 2008 8:33 am

We visit less often than we would like. We issue open invitations to all of the family, but the invites are rarely taken up.

Beth’s last blog post..How fast do you type?
moneyloveandchange on February 29th, 2008 11:37 am

Beth,

We’ve been lucky enough to be able to lure some friends and family out our way as well. Lots of food and promises of spending time at the state park (it’s about 5 minutes away, and we have a canoe) seems to help!

Thanks for your comment