I’m traveling to NYC later this month. Fortunately, my family and my best friend live there so I don’t have to worry about paying for accommodations, but I will have expenses. I’m saving a significant amount of money on travel this year — instead of taking the bus down to the city, I’m going to drive to a Metro North station and take the train in.
There is a very convenient bus that travels twice a day, to & from NYC, and the bus stop is just 10-15 minutes from my house. However, it costs $80 roundtrip and it drops you off at Port Authority. Don’t get me wrong, Port Authority is a great hub for transportation and it’s definitely gotten better since I lived in the city, but it’s not my favorite place. The train is only going to cost me $16.16 roundtrip (I get a discount for being disabled and I bought my ticket online) plus whatever it will cost me for the gas to drive down (which is probably about $10 to $15 more, depending where I buy my gas). It will cost me $3.75 per day to park my car at the station, but the parking company doesn’t charge for weekends so this will cost less than I originally thought. I’m also planning on purchasing a 7-day Metro card so I can get around the city easily. The cost of transportation for this entire trip is equal to the cost that roundtrip bus ticket!
Since I will be continuing to live simply, wisely & deliberately, I’ve decided to pack lightly for this trip. I’ve been accused in the past of over packing… and the thought of me trying to wheel my carry-on suitcase up & down those stairs in the subway just pains me! I want to be able to pack & carry everything, including my laptop, in my laptop messenger bag. (It’s a weekender-sized pink & black bag that I bought last year from ebags.com — unfortunately they no longer carry that bag, but they have two bags which have characteristics of my bag.) To help me, I went to a great website called OneBag.com. The give a lot of tips on how to travel lightly, and I found a diagram on how to pack efficiently. I will not be traipsing about with a heavy load this year! By the way, I will be taking baking soda & vinegar with me instead of the many health & beauty products I have packed for trips in the past.
I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about the other expenses for my trip. I’ll probably eat out more than usual, and I’m not sure if I will be able to resist a bargain, even if I am not intending to shop in NYC. I’m planning on using part of my food budget this month to cover my trip. My pantry is relatively well stocked, so I don’t think I’ll need to spend as much on food this month. I have money in my savings account if I get in a pinch (not that I want to spend it though).
Hey, if you don’t know this already know this, there’s a website where you can find gas prices in North America (USA & Canada). The parent site is called GasBuddy.com — from that site you can then go to your state or province and get the latest gas prices… thanks to the members of the site who report their area’s prices. The site has it’s drawbacks though — I live in a tri-state area and it’s not convenient to easily go back & forth between states. Also, I became a member of my state’s site but, if I want to contribute to the database for another state, I have to become a member there too. There’s a complicated point system as well, and points don’t transfer between states. If you just want to look up prices, but not contribute, it’s a great site to visit.
Btw, I did go shopping the other day… I bought only what I had to and spent the rest of my time gathering data for my pricebook.
