Time to buy plane tickets for Thanksgiving?

February 21, 2008 · Posted in About Us, Frugal Spending, Saving Money

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Our family is taking our first real vacation since 2004 - now that our son is 2, it is time for him to begin to see the world (we’ll start with the USA). We have close friends that live in Arizona, a state which neither my husband nor I have seen. These friends are getting ready to return back east in another year or two, and have been wanting us to visit. The time seemed right for us to plan a trip.

We thought that sometime around Thanksgiving would be a good time, and our friends have been looking for plane tickets since January. My friend called us yesterday with some great flight times and prices, and we decided to take the plunge. We’re really excited to be going, and have set aside $1500 for this trip.

Our plane tickets were $700, which leaves us $800 for everything else. If we use it, airport parking will be about $75 (we have friends that may be able to help us out here), and I am not sure if we will need to rent a car or not for part of the trip. We’ll be staying with our friends for most of the time, but we would like to spend a couple of nights in Sedona (we’re looking into discount lodging right now for this part of the stay). We do want to see the Grand Canyon (yes, I know, big hole…), but other than that have no tourist attractions planned.

So here’s my question: for a family of 3, is my budget reasonable? We tend to be pretty frugal at home, but would like to have money set aside to take our friends out to dinner, etc. I wouldn’t say that we want to be able to blow money uselessly, but we don’t want to spend our trip pinching pennies either. This is our first big trip with the kid, and we want to be prepared. I like the fact that we have a lot of time to plan ahead, but I would still appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have!

Comments

3 Responses to “Time to buy plane tickets for Thanksgiving?”

Becky@FamilyandFinances on February 21st, 2008 11:45 am

That’s funny, my husband and I are going to Sedona in May for a friend’s wedding. I think I’ll be buying the plane tickets today.
We are looking into renting a room through Vacation Rentals By Owner (vrbo.com). There was at least one place in Sedona that was cheaper than a hotel room and included a kitchen (good way to save money on food!). I haven’t used vrbo yet, but I’m looking into it for two trips we’re going on this year and I really like the concept. Just a thought!

Becky@FamilyandFinances’s last blog post..Getting Our Free Credit Report
moneyloveandchange on February 22nd, 2008 2:04 am

Thanks for the suggestion! I will definitely check it out. I know that we may be able to take advantage of a friend’s RCI membership, but the more options the better! We’d definitely love a place with a kitchen…
S.B. on February 24th, 2008 7:10 pm

We stayed at Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon and got a room for $69 dollars a night and it faced the canyon. You can’t beat the price - it was rustic, but not bad at all. I’d look into staying there if you can - we loved it!

S.B.
http://bethriftylikeus.blogspot.com

S.B.’s last blog post..Do It Yourself: Car Maintenance