Budgets Are Sexy

You ever have those experiences when you realize life can be full of SUCH adventure? That sometimes we’ll miss out on it if our eyes aren’t opened wide enough? I feel like that’s what happened with this Poland trip.  I could have easily passed it up (and saved a crap ton of money) but instead I embraced it!

And Poland. Was. AWESOME.

Incredible people, incredible adventures, and most importantly, an incredible wedding!  The best one I’ve ever been to actually :)  I kinda wish all of our weddings were that way here in the States – 2 full days of being with friends and family and celebrating altogether, it was so cool. And I imagine pretty expensive?  (Although not quite as much as it would have been if taken place in the U.S. I’m sure)

The only thing that sucked was that it was too short. 5 days just isn’t enough to take in everything an entire country has to offer, esp if 4 of the days were consumed with traveling and wedding stuff. But then again, if I wasn’t thinking of it as a “mini-vacay” I probably wouldn’t have gone!  No way in hell I could have taken off any more work and gotten away with it, so it is what it is.

Here’s what the financials ended up looking like – and keep in mind travel is the one thing I allow myself to splurge on. Some people have fancy toys, others fancy clothes, but for me it’s these “life experiences.” Here are the deets:

The Total Damage:

• The plane tickets: $829.20 – This was by far the most expensive part, and if you follow me on Twitter you’ll know why – I had to buy my tickets ONE WEEK before take off!  It was freakin’ insane, and I wanted to punch the person who forced me do this (my friend).  Long story short, he bailed on me the week before after promising me he had already bought both of our tickets (I was supposed to pay him back so that we could get good rates THREE MONTHS ago).  I’ve since forgiven him because the new me is not harboring any ill-will toward anyone anymore (much better for the soul, btw!) but he did cost me $300 here.  F’er.
• The hotel: $181.05 – How’s that for 4 nights at a pretty posh hotel?  Gotta love that Zloty!
• Cash withdrawals: $164.82 – This covered most of my food that wasn’t covered by the wedding, a good $50 worth of currency for my collection (mostly paper bills, but also all the coin denominations I could find), along w/ other things like beer, magazines (for the plane), taxis, tips, and a new hairdryer. The hotel didn’t have one, can you imagine?  And before you ask, it’s for my hawk.  It takes a process to get that thing up the right way! ;)
• Wedding gift? $100.00 – Via a crisp $100 bill, baby! Nothing but the best for my friends ;)  I’m including this here in the post since it’s technically an “expense,” but I’m not including it in the total number since I’d have given them this gift anyways, regardless if I flew out there or not

Total damage of $1,175.07

Not the worst it could have been, but also not the best.  It really should have come in at around $900 I tell you!  But you know what?  I would never take it back in a thousand years.  I had one of the most exciting and adventurous trips of my life, and I met all sorts of wonderful people in the process.

So as always with my trip updates, it cost a little money but it’s now a lifetime of crazy great memories :) And it’ll have to be the last one for a while too before I get fired.  I’ve taken more vacation this year than the past 5 combined – somebody stop me!

Originally published at budgetsaresexy.com.