Greetings from Fire Island, NY, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. (But we only tell our best friends about it, so shhhh.)

When we last checked in, we had reached our first destination, New Jersey, where we stayed with a dear friend and had a delicious dinner.  The next day for lunch, we bought a salad for our hostess and shared a big one between us, total cost $20.  The on to Brooklyn, where $20 bought us (and several of our friends) a few slices of great New York pizza, some soda and a great night with more childhood friends at a free concert featuring Blondie, Pat Benatar and The Donnas.

Next stop, Long Island, where we stayed with family and visited the beach outside their door.  After a stop at a local supermarket, we stocked up on items that would surely be overpriced if we bought them at our next destination, Fire Island, and tiny sandbar of a beach paradise, with nothing but beach, bay, bars and a few little shops.  (Very expensive, but I hear that next week the stores start cutting prices drastically in order to clear out their inventory before the summer ends; will keep you posted).  Supermarket bill, $80.  Savings over Fire Island prices, probably $75.

We parked at a friend’s house, saving over $100 for parking, and another friend drove us to the station, savings of about $5.  The ferry ride over was $34 round trip for the both of us, and we are now ensconced for the next week at the home of another dear friend,  just steps from the beach and a short walk to the town.  So far, we’ve been cooking and BBQing, and our on-island expenditure up to now has been $6 for yummy water ices.  Added to the running total, we’ve now spent, between the two of us, including gas for the car, roughly another $200, bringing us so far to a grand total of about $500 and we’ve been gone a week, and traveled about 1300 miles.  So far, so great!

It’s good to have friends in high places!  (Of course, they’re all always invited to visit us in Florida any time they want.)

Until next time, stay cool!

(BTW, we didn’t win the lottery…yet!)

For more about travel on the cheap, click here.

The Queen and I have reached our first destination, New Jersey, where friends await and the gas is cheaper — and they pump it for you!  We came prepared with gas and gift cards from cash-back rewards, and we saved by figuring out how to fix a blown fuse ourselves.

We stayed at budget hotels along the road, splurged on Lottery tickets in most of the states we passed through, and joined a dozen of our childhood friends for a delicious family-style dinner and ate more than our fill for a very reasonable price.  We used Dunkin’ Donuts coupons for a few discounted meals and free drinks and snacks, and munched on nutrition bars purchased by the dozen at Costco.

Between us, the total so far has been less than $300, of which real out-of-pocket cash was probably slightly more than half.  This is a small savings over the current airfare costs, not including the luggage fees and airport transfers, and a huge savings over the AutoTrain, which would have cost us over $700 including us, the car and the accommodations.

We’re keeping a running total of money spent and money saved, and will keep you posted as the trip continues.

Here’s a little video of us taken along the way.

Let me warn you, it’s kind of nauseatingly shaky.  But cute, we think!

Postcards from the Road

Meanwhile, click here for other info on discount traveling.

More to come!

My sister, the Rebate Queen, and I are hitting the road in a few weeks for an extended road trip to NY and the Northeast.  If there’s anyone who is better than me on saving money, it’s her.  We will report on our money saving techniques and successes (and failures!) as we plan and go.

One stop: Visiting my little country house in the Catskill mountains to bring home some of my stuff.  Talk about a deal:  I bought this house for only $30,000, fixed it up, expanded the porch and deck, filled it with lots of Vintage Catskill furniture and knick-knacks, and now have it on the market for much more, after 10 years of enjoyment.

But I digress.  First job is finding the best and cheapest way to get there.  Do we fly? Do we drive? If so, which car?  And who’s going to do the driving anyway? As a Florida newbie and ex New Yorker (i.e., not a daily driver) I don’t always make my passengers comfortable).  Where will we stay?   Actually, I’ve never meticulously budgeted my travel expenses.  This will be an adventure for sure!

If you’re traveling this summer, there’s lots of good news — gas prices going down, tons of great deals, lots of people taking the summer off (i.e. laid off) so easy to find travel companions.  At the same time, Continental, like other airlines, just announced the addition of checked baggage fees, Spirit Air is now charging for seats and drinking water, and other airlines are trying similar tricks.  So buyer beware.

We’ll do our best to help you find ways to travel cheaply this summer.  Here are a few links to get you started.

Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, for more on travel, click here.

Sea World was fun!  We saved a few bucks by buying tix online, then upgraded to a Fun Card that will get us back for free until the end of the year.  Of course, we had to ASK for the upgrade, actually two or three times, but it was worth it; we’ll be sure to go back.

Since I wasn’t too hungry at lunchtime, I bought a kids meal, which included a cute little lunchbox — will be a perfect kids’ toy/gift for when the friends visit — a drink, and a healthy raisin snack.

Remember, always ask for more than you expect, and you may be surprised.  Also, be mindful of waste (ie the kids meal).  The money you save on silly little things will add up so when you want to splurge, you can afford it and not feel guilty!

I looked at several discount travel agencies (I will list links to some of them next week), and got us set up with a hotel and some food.  Now, what I wanted was discount tickets for Sea World.  Checked on the SW site, a few others, Googled discounts and visited some other sites where I could find deals that I might be eligible to participate in — which I wasn’t.  So, lots of time invested for a really minimal ROI.   Honestly, I got to save a few bucks, but I’m not sure it was really worth the time.  Today’s tip — sometimes you have to measure money saved in relation to what you could have done with the time, and sometimes, it’s just not worth it.   Check back in a few days and I’ll give you some stuff that will be (worth it, that is).

I have been doing mystery shopping for a few years now, as working at home alone gets really boring sometimes.  Doing these shops was/is interesting and fun, and a good way to get out of the house and make a little spending money.  

Among the shops I have done are gourmet restaurants, lots of hotels and bars, high-end designer boutiques (where, if you know me, you’ll know that even if I could afford them, I’d never but at retail) and real estate sales and rental offices.  Every three months, I get a free oil change, and once I had a full servicing of my car.

 When I tell people that I do this work (not the people I am shopping, of course) they usually have two comments:  That they heard that mystery shopping was a rip-off and not real, and that they would like to do it themselves.  Today I address both of these questions.

First, is it for real?  Absolutely!  Just don’t get hooked up with the wrong companies.  Anyone who wants to charge you for signing up — just hit delete.   In my humble opinion.  (Do expect, however, that for certain jobs you are expected to make a purchase, sometimes a large one, and you may not be reimbursed for up to 7 weeks.)

I will be adding links to several companies shortly, and am also checking out books that delve into this topic deeply; I will report back if I find anything useful and cheap.  Meanwhile, here’s a link to a company that I work with a lot:  It’s called Beyond Hello and they have a great assortment of fun and profitable shops.  More to come.

Now, back to Saturday’s adventure.  I did this shop in which I had to spend at least two hours in the casino and evaluate members of the staff.  I brought along my friend/yard sale buddy/co-conspirator Judith and we both signed up for the players club — when visiting a casino always sign up for this promotion.  You can turn down the gifts of mugs and T-shirts (unless you really want them) but definitely go for the free money.  Many casinos give you a gambling credit (this one was for $50), PLUS we got free lunch at the Prime Rib Buffet (not bad at all, and plentiful).  As part of the shopping assignment, we had to visit all the sections of the casino and eat and drink.  We entered the salon for a specialized genre of Bingo, and sat down to figure out the rules of the game.  Before Judith even got to sit down, I won $165!   Pocketed the winnings, played a few minutes longer still on the casino’s 50 bucks, and left a few minutes later.  Cashed out, finished the assignment, and left with a net win of about $125.  And that’s not even counting the $60 I will be paid for doing analysis and report (about another hour).  Not a bad day’s play, um, I mean, work.

More info to come.  Meanwhile, just search mystery shopping or secret shopping to get started.  Email me if you have questions.