When people ask my husband and I how our cruise was or make
any comment about us cruising, I can “hear” them wanting to ask the question, “
Soooo…..how do you afford to cruise every year?”…..but they usually
don’t ask unless it’s someone who knows us well or they have no inhibitions about asking personal questions!
In 2007, it was our
25th wedding anniversary and we decided that we would go on a
cruise. We saved, scrimped and re-worked the yearly budget until we came up with the moolah. It was going to be a once-in-a-life-time trip
and that would be the end of it…..or so we thought.
When we were de-embarking
the ship in ’07, I looked at my husband and said, “Guess what we’re going to do
next year for our vacation?” Naturally, he is a good husband and just said,
“What?” to which I replied, “ The same thing we just finished
doing…..cruise!” He said, “OK” but
that’s not where the dialog ended.
We started talking
about how on earth we were going to be able to go every year on a true vacation
that got us both away (far away) from work & home. We came up with some ideas and they’ve worked
great for us since that first cruise.
For starters, we have
a separate bank account for just our vacation. It’s a high interest (not that
it makes that much but…..free is free) and there’s no charge for this account.
Talk to your bank and see what they have.
We’re in Canada and there are lots of freebie options for accounts.
We talked about our
special days of the year and discovered that it was really stressful buying
each other gifts sometimes!!! Sooooo…….ALL our birthday, anniversary, Christmas
& Valentine’s money goes into the cruise pot! Now think about how much you
spend on your spouse for presents….surprised?
I know of people who spend the amount of a cruise for one person on just
their spouse’s birthday but then say they can’t afford to cruise. We also put some of our birthday and
Christmas money that family gives us towards our cruise.
We also look for extra
income. My husband works elections, has an on-line business (it’s in American
dollars so we use that as our cash flow while travelling) and he also gets a
generous bonus at Christmas that always goes into the cruise pot.
We’ve cut back on
certain things that we are now more careful in buying. If it can be purchased
used rather than new, that’s a huge savings. We’ve down-graded our cars instead
of upgrading to a higher-end model and we’ve not purchased any new furniture
for a few years unless it was necessary.
I keep a sharp look-out for bargains and we use coupons like crazy!
Lastly, if you’re
like us, you have to fly to your cruise port and this can be costly unless you
are handy to an airport that you can get super flight deals on. We’re in Nova Scotia, so not near the US
border which means no cheap American flights for us. We fly from our local
international airport but use air points with our credit card. This card allows
us to make all our business & personal purchases which add up quickly for
those air points. We have a card that pays for itself because of our flights
and we pay it off before it comes due so they don’t make any money off of
us! And with this card our flight is
free AND we choose our flights instead of them choosing them for us.
You can choose to
cruise “off season” during the less expensive months but take into
consideration that they are less expensive during those times because of
hurricane season (Autumn) etc.
Book a cabin you can
afford. If you want a Jr. Suite, then you may have to save your pennies a
little longer. We’ve had outside, balcony, extended balcony and inside cabins
and as of 2017 we’ll just be doing and inside cabin for more affordability.
I know there can be
other costs too but they can be done without if you really are serious about
cruising. (rental car, expensive hotel the night before, meals out during that
time etc.)
Happy cruising!!!
