Over the MLK Day weekend, Bird and I traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida for a friend’s wedding. It was a lovely weekend and worth every penny we spent. Although there were definitely a few ways we could have saved. Let’s get to the numbers.
Flights: $415.25 - Flights were actualy $578.42 for the two of us, but I used $163.17 in Credit Card rewards put towards the cost.
Checked bag fee: $40 ($20 each way) - We saved some money by only taking one bag for the both of us, but I still hate baggage fees.
Rental car: $155.68 – I was basically the driver for the group all weekend so we rented a bigger car than we normally would have. I did use a coupon from an Entertainment book to save $36. We were an hour late turning in the car, which cost us about $20 extra, but it was worth it because we got an extra hour at the beach. 
Gas: $50.57 – We did quite a bit of driving and covered a lot of territory.
Lodging: $704.58 – This is where we could have saved the most money. We stayed in a really nice place because that’s where our friends were staying. And while it was nice to stay near friends, I don’t think it was absolutely necessary and we maybe should have stayed somewhere else. Since Bird was in the wedding, she was busy all weekend and we didn’t even get to spend that much time enjoying the place. I hate to admit this, but we went to the breakfast buffet one morning and I should have known better, but when the bill came upon checkout two days later, we found out that we paid $52 ($26 each) for our breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and french toast. That’s the worst I’ve been ripped off in a long time.
Groceries: $7.89 – I bought some treats and some cold medicine because I was feeling a little sicky.
Date night: $48.23 – On Sunday night we went out for dinner and a movie. We had some pizza (and ice cream) and watched Sherlock Holmes. We liked the movie more than the pizza.
Biking: $48 – On MLK day, we left West Palm and headed toward Miami. We went to the Everglades and rented bikes. Entrance fee was $10 and then I paid for 3 of us to rent bikes ($38). It was a very fun outing and fun to get up close to the gators.
Lunch in Miami: $25 – We stopped in a little Cuban restaurant for lunch but we didn’t love the food.
Beach parking: $1.25 – On the way back to the airport we stopped at the beach because it was finally sunny. We spent about an hour walking and getting sunburned just in time to drop off the car and catch our flight home.
Tolls: about $10 – We were on tollways all the time and I think it added up to about ten bucks though we didn’t keep track. It was just a dollar here, a dollar there all weekend long.
Total cost: $1,506.45
Ouch. We did some good things to save money like using a coupon for the car and checking only one bag, but we could have done better. The best cost savings would have been staying at a different place (or at least not eating breakfast there!). We probably could have rented a smaller car for less money and then also saved on gas money. Also, if we could have turned the car in time, that would have been a good savings. The good news is, we had budgeted this trip ahead of time and we had enough money in our travel fund to cover it. Now we’ll start replenishing the travel fund for our March trip to Florida!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You didn’t do all that badly given the weekend parameters. If you are going to a “lifetime event,” such as a wedding, you “pay” to be near the venue and the people. As long as you like them and have a good time with them
, you’ll be even more glad as time goes by that you had the chance to be with them. Next time you travel to FL, you can build on what you learned this time around (pick up breakfast food at a grocery!) and have another great time for less money.
The Everglades trip sounds nice, except for the alligators. Gators are evil!
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Trips like that are always tricky because you have the unexpected social things and then expenses like medicine that sneak up on you. That is too bad about the expensive breakfast! I hate when you leave feeling ripped off. In any case, I’m glad you had a great trip and I’m sure the weather was sooo much nicer than you are used to up there!