A Trip On A Family Vacation At California, Disneyland, The...

I’ve been on a family vacation for ten days that included a road trip to California, Disneyland, the beach, and a family reunion camping trip. It was a pretty ambitious trip and has provided an interesting reflection on budgeting – budgeting time, budgeting money, and budgeting food. I read an article recently that said the biggest reason people are late is that they are too optimistic. I laughed out loud when I read that. I so often optimistically try to fit in one more thing before I leave and then end up leaving late or I get too optimistic about there not being any traffic and then I am shocked when I hit traffic and arrive late. Truly budgeting time in a way that makes me not late means budgeting for contingencies, allowing room for things to go wrong, and knowing everything will not go as planned, but still being able to arrive on time. I have to put extra time into my time budget, or I run out of time too soon. I think the same is true for food and money too. I have to plan for contingencies, know everything will not go as planned, and add in extra room when I can. I took money expert Dave Ramsey’s â€Å"Financial Peace University† class just before I left on vacation and so made an effort to budget my vacation money the way he recommends, using envelopes for each category. I separated our travel food budget into 10 envelopes, one for each day of the trip, and put cash into each envelope to use on food each day. What a challenge that has been! There have been meals where