Queercents

Kimberly and Elizabeth are the co-founders of Go Green Travel Green. As life partners and avid travelers, they’re committed to reducing their environmental impact. In addition to being eco-conscious, they’re budget conscious and have written a guest post that keeps both green and greenbacks in mind when exploring our lonely planet. These are their words…

One common deterrent to “going green” when traveling is the perceived expense. People think that being environmentally friendly will cost them a lot of money. But, in actuality, eco-conscious traveling can save you money.

For the sake of comparison let’s consider a weekend trip (3 days, 2 nights) from Washington, D.C. to New York City.

Transportation (getting there and away):
Regular Travel: Plane
cost: $160 roundtrip
Green Travel: “Chinatown” Bus (far fewer carbon emissions than a plane)
cost: $30 roundtrip

Savings: $130 Read the rest of this entry »

At Treading Together we often work with diversity and multiculturalism. Many of our events or programs revolve around holidays such as today, Black History Month in February, or Women’s History Month in March etc.

I wondered if there might be a personal finance connection. Here are a few of the connections I found.

• Forbes.com reports that Priceline.com is offering special rates to Atlanta Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s place of birth. The best deal runs about $420 per person (from Boston) which includes round-trip airfare and 3 nights’ accommodations at the Hyatt Place Atlanta Galleria.
• Penny Nickel age 25 from Washington, DC recently made a compelling case for the connection between the notions of King’s “drum-major instinct” and frugality. You can read it at Money and Values.
• On LinkedIn.com’s Q&A I threw out the question asking what employees, employers, and businesses are doing to recognize or celebrate King’s holiday. I found one answer on my own at Money.com which reports CIGNA, a major provider of health car insurance, is sponsoring the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 18th Annual Tribute Concert.
• One source suggested honoring today’s holiday could be as easy as doing some volunteer work. It is tenuous but the personal finance connection here is a chance to make a deposit in the bank of Karma. In Ten Money Questions J. Mark White reported “the most important thing a person can do… is give back to the community. It’s like creating good business Karma.“

Any other ideas about the connection between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (the man or the holiday) and personal finance?

UPDATE: In the comments a discussion about rail in California and Europe develops.

This holiday season I documented some of my cost-savings methods related to travel which is a favorite topic of mine. Now that the holiday season is finally drawing to a close here is an article about one of my very inexpensive holiday journeys (day trips). At Queercents we have previously discussed the theme of managing without a car but the discussions focused on in-town travel. This post covers regional travel for those who make the commitment to live with out a car.

On Facebook of all places my fifty-something cousin contacted me about joining that branch of the family in Rockford, Illinois for Thanksgiving dinner. Rockford is only just over an hour away by a car, to far to walk of course, and at that point I had decided not to go out of town in order to conserve on the travel budget (rental plus fuel). Read the rest of this entry »

“In the right seat, getting there can be half the fun.” – Executive Platinum Program Guide

I did it! I ended the year with 101,816 elite qualifying miles granting me Executive Platinum status on American Airlines for the flying year of 2008!

How did I do it? Do you remember the mileage run I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? Well, I didn’t actually do a mileage run for the pure sake of the miles. Instead I cancelled my award ticket (free and doesn’t count for miles) for our holiday trip to see my family in Ohio and rebooked it as a regular (albeit very expensive) coach ticket. Jeanine still flew for free but because one of us had a paid ticket, they went ahead and upgraded both of us to first class.

What did this ticket cost me? $850. Before everyone gasps and chastises me for blowing a boat-load of money… hear me out. If you divide $850 by 14 months (I’m guaranteed Executive Platinum status through the end of Feb 2009), this comes to $60.71 per month. Pennies in my opinion for this perk. Some of you spend more on lattes every month. Read the rest of this entry »

“There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.” – Orson Welles

I’m 2,602 miles shy of Executive Platinum status on American Airlines this year. Why does this matter? Executive Platinum is the Holy Grail for frequent flyers. Primo status offers perks and benefits that only a true road-warrior can understand and appreciate.

I’ve never made Executive Platinum status – which is 100,000 actual qualifying miles flown in one calendar year (and doesn’t include those accrued using an AdAdvantage Mastercard – those points count toward free tickets, but not status). I make Platinum year after year, but Executive Platinum is what sets apart the men from the boys. Silly as it seems, I’ve always wanted this validation of the elite. God knows, I travel enough. I feel like I deserve this designation. Read the rest of this entry »

Having a travel partner can be challenging. You want to tour the house where John and Paul wrote over a hundred songs together; he’d rather see the Beatles museum. You want a salad; he wants a hot dog from a vendor. There isn’t time for everything, and there certainly isn’t enough money for everything. The emotional and physical challenges are, however, in most cases, far outweighed by the financial benefits of traveling with another person.

I have a new traveling partner. Circumstance brings us together really. We both have similar destinations on our agenda; we both want to see as much of Europe on the smallest possible budget while we’re in school here. He’s an undergraduate, in his early twenties, and a Christian from Wisconsin. It might seem that we have very little in common, and at times, we do indeed seem to speak different languages. But, when we met and began talking at the university’s international orientation, we quickly connected; so we decided to give traveling together a whirl.

Our first day trip to Cambridge went exceptionally well, so this weekend we decided to go to Manchester and then on to Liverpool, both on the opposite coast from where our campus is located. We checked out bus and train tickets, and both were quite expensive as the cheap-booking dates had passed (we didn’t plan too far in advance for this one). He brought up the idea of renting a car. I might not have considered this on my own. I haven’t owned a car in three years and try to make mass transit use my first option, but, honestly, I’ve been craving some time behind the wheel. And I wanted to try the “wrong-side” driving thing. His inventiveness here has been one of several circumstances prompting me to accept the fact that two minds are often truly better than one. He did the detail checking, and the car was cheaper, by half, of a single round-trip bus ticket; also, a valid U.S. driver’s license is all one needs to rent a car in the U.K. I’m not exactly sure why, but no preemptive foreign driving lessons are required. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently got back from a wonderful vacation in Northern California. While I am thankful to say all my luggage and fine California Wines made their way back to Pennsylvania safe and sound, my experience in digging up details got me curious and concerned. All this thinking got started early in the trip as we tried to determine the most cost-effective way to legally get wine we purchased while touring Sonoma wineries back home to Pennsylvania so we could cellar and enjoy our gems.

Pennsylvania is one of those red states where direct shipment is prohibited. While PA is not alone, all I can say is this convoluted system really sucks (my technical term) when it comes to the personal freedom to visit and patronize wineries across the U.S. and abroad (which adds a whole additional level of complexity). Apparently as a country we encourage consumerism in all forms except when it conflicts with the political agendas of certain states and their lawmakers.

I’ve read articles before that talk about the trials of lost luggage and what is covered and not covered in terms of airlines reimbursing you for your loss. The Travel Insider has a good series on what to do if your bag doesn’t appear on the carousel (part 1) and then what happens when your bags are officially declared lost (part 2).

Besides the dizzying array of insulting steps we need to take to get ourselves and the bags on the flight, I am getting a frustrated chuckle as I read Part 2 of this Travel Insider article. Did you know that if your luggage is lost the airline will only reimburse you depreciated value for your items? Read the rest of this entry »

I call it “Vaga-bonding”. I’m bonding with new places, pets and people this year. One of the many wonderful benefits of being queer is worldwide queer community and one of the benefits of queer community is queer housing connections. While in college I benefited from this in terms of living in great all-queer households, and now I get queer community on a more adult level. I can move from house-sitting job to house-sitting job and never pay rent and I can travel without hotel costs.

Professional House-Sitting is great for artists (like me), the self-employed, people in periods of transition out of live-in relationships, people waiting for the buying of a house to go through and my own personal number-one reason is that I don’t want to settle for any living-space right now. I want to look around and find a great deal and that may take months to a year It’s also great for anyone who wants to enjoy more luxury than they can by themselves afford. I’ve always been one for make-believe.

Reasons people hire house-sitters: Read the rest of this entry »

With the summer travel season upon us I wanted to write about one of my favorite travel related savings tips and hints. Hostels, most often overlooked as a lodging opportunity, actually provide a wealth of savings and cultural opportunities.

Full disclosure and fair warnings up front: I’m a member of my local non-profit hostel’s board of directors. Many hostels not only provide lodging for guests of all ages but they also enrich their communities through education and outreach. We just celebrated our tenth anniversary here in Madison, Wisconsin which was an opportunity to host community members for an afternoon of entertainment.

For the budget savvy, hostels offer two great money saving opportunities. First, a bed here in Madison starts at around $18 per night. Single rooms start around $41. Many hostels, including Madison’s are located in the heart of metropolitan areas. Compare the hostel prices to the room rate for the hotel across the street where rooms start at $199 per night. Both the hotel, and Madison’s hostel are located two blocks from the state’s capitol building.

Second, many of a hostel’s community educational, social, or cultural events are offered to the public at no or very low costs. Not only does this present another savings opportunity but it means that your money is well spent and will be reinvested in the local community. Read the rest of this entry »

My mind has been focused on one thing in the last two weeks- Tahiti. Now, I am not the type of girl to spend my life dreaming of things I can’t have. The difference here is that I actually believe that I can have this trip; so long as I follow my savings plan for it, and if I’m realistic that it may be two more years.

If you have never experienced something, you can kind of tell yourself, “Oh, it can’t be as good as they say.” And then maybe you’d settle for Hawaii for cheap. Truthfully, I have been to Tahiti a few times as a child and my first name is the name of one it’s islands. I can’t tell myself it’s not really paradise, because it is. It’s tropical perfection where they speak French, eat gourmet food and women go topless. There are paintings by Gaugain of beautiful Tahitian women everywhere. And though it’s not a big name on the gay travel sites, it’s decidedly queer friendly.

People use the phrase “A Trip to Tahiti” in jest. Tahiti implies the unthinkable, unaffordable, ultimate luxury. But it’s a real place and I’m about to tell you how to get there for cheaper. Read the rest of this entry »