Over the past week, my schedule has been so busy, and I've been out of town, so I haven't met my daily goal in almost a week. I've been getting very few points. Today, I decided to start uploading videos, articles, and photos again.
Last night, I had 6,000 points even at the Midnight point update. As of the 10pm update just now, I have exactly 6,300 points! That's 100 more than my actual daily goal, which helps me recoup some of the points I didn't have the time to earn over the week.
I've almost hit my monthly goal, as well. My monthly was 6,200 points, or 200 points per day. I started the month with 195 points. I've earned a total of 6,077 points, so by tomorrow, I should hit my monthly goal a few days early. I had hoped early on I'd have enough for a $125 payment this month but I don't think that'll happen. I'd need a total of 7,815 points on the 31st. That would mean 505 points per day for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
SOOO not going to happen. I might be able to have about 600 points 'banked' when I cash out on Tuesday, though, which means for April, I -might- be able to have enough for a $125 payment at the end of the month.
April is a busy month, but also a month filled with photo opportunities. Easter is on the 12th. Spring Break is the week before that. Raegan turns 13 on the 28th. On the 24th, I'm heading up north to go yard saling with my in-laws. Plenty of photo taking chances!
My goal is to have $500 saved up by the end of May from Gather earnings (I got $100 for both January & February, and have enough already for another $100 for March, leaving me needing $100 each for April & May) so we can go camping in mid-June.
I have about $700 total in the bank for it- $200 from Gather, $500 from our tax refund. I have the biggest main expense taken care of with the tent purchased. Then, I have a $50 gas card saved, and enough points on MyPoints for a free $25 card, and enough points at my gas station for another $25 gas card. That'll give me $100 to use towards gas.
The first park will be $29/night for 3 nights ($87), minus $5 per night for reserving online- $72 total for the first stop.
The second park will be $34/night for 3 nights, no internet special- $102 total.
The last park will be... well. Undecided yet, actually. I had thought to do Jelly Stone for the last night, but they raised the prices to almost $50/night during the week. That's just too pricey for me. The only reason I was stopping in that area was for the Jelly Stone, so now I'm looking at alternative areas. I don't want to spend more than $40/night, total, but would prefer $30-35/night.
The last stop will be 3 nights as well, then we'll head home. The other perk to that park was that it was the halfway point between the 2nd park, and home. I could head further north, but that makes for a LONG drive home. I just briefly looked at the East side of the state, but that's a long drive from park 2 to the East coast.
So, anyway, I'm estimating that in all, I should spend under $300 for the camping fees. I know one park I can go to where family usually stays, and where I've gone the past two years. It runs $21 a night, and it is a nice park. Maybe that's what I'll do.
It's a bit out of the way, but not horribly out of the way. At $21/night, it's only $63 for 3 nights. That'll bring my total fees up to $237- not bad!
I'll also have to buy a county park tag for that campground at $20, and I plan to buy a state park pass, because we'll be near a LOT of state parks while we're up north, so that'll be another $20.
Food wise, I plan to buy groceries along the way, and maybe treat out for snacks (like an ice cream cone, or some cotton candy, etc), but either pack a lunch for day trips, or make our meals at the camp grounds.
I figure gas is covered. With just what I have now, I can get food, park fees, parking passes, and afford to splurge just a bit. However, one of the things I really want to do is to take the kids to Mackinac Island. That's going to be pricey, though.
Just to get to the island, it's like $50 something for me and the kids ferry pass. I want to say $56. Just checked- it was indeed $56. If I want, I can do a ferry/carriage deal. That means we get a carriage tour of the island when we get there.
The total for that is $99.25. However, it gives a fantastic tour of the isle, and allows us to see a good deal of the isle, and the parks. If I bought the tickets separately, it would cost me $11 for kids ferry, plus $9 for the tour, and $23 for my ferry, and $23.50 for the tour. That's $106.50, so it IS a savings if I do it all at once.
I would LOVE to go to the isle. I'll have to wait and see, though. It's a big chunk of money, but I can get out fairly cheap on spending on the isle. We can go ahead and each spend $10 on a souviner, and get some fudge and an ice cream cone while there. Still, it would be around $160-75 with the tour, and $110ish without the tour. But, without the tour, it's a lot of walking, or a lot of staying near he shops, which won't give us a whole lot to do during the day.
Other things I want to do while we are camping:
Explore the shore line of Lake Michigan, and Lake Erie.
Go to the drive in movies at Traverse City.
Visit local state parks.
Spend one afternoon at the beach on Lake Michigan.
All of that stuff is fairly frugal, though.
Well, those are my evening thoughts. How about yours? I tend to ramble on, don't I?
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Comments: 15
Now Holland State Park has some beach front camping....and they have some wonderful beaches over there. (I went to college in Holland).
I figure 6-8 weeks and I'll meet the PS2 goal. :)
I think Chris would like it because he loves history, and seeing new things. The only one I'm not sure about is Gillian just yet.
I am planning (tenitivly at least) a day trip up to Taqoumanon, and the Soo Locks as well when we stay in St Ignace. Also Castle Rock is right near the camp ground, and only $.25 to enter, so that'll be fun, too.
Auntie M
That's a half day, so we might leave on the 5th. I haven't made any reservations yet, but plan to fairly soon. The drive to Traverse City is about 3 hours. The campground is actually in Buckley, though.
So, is Auntie M going to come with? The only downside right now, is that the first two campgrounds are KOA, and they will only allow 1 tent per site. Now, we can have up to 6 people per site, so you can always share with us, but you wouldn't have your own tent unless you got your own site.