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Mr. Savemycents cleared his work in week 7 and we were able to spend a really wonderful week together with BB exploring all that Oahu has to offer and enjoying a beautiful week in sunshine and warmth before heading back to winter in NYC.
Travel and Transportation – $217.50 total spent, $1,000 in free value
Airfare – from Honolulu to Newark, $11 in taxes and 15,000 Turkish Airlines miles, at least $1000 in free value – Travel hacking this particular ticket was not easy. I won’t explain how it works as this travel hacking blog explains it better than I did. Mr. Savemycents did a great job hacking this particular leg! It indeed took 2 business days for the miles to transfer, and then Mr. Savemycents did a HUGE hack to get the tickets ticketed without us needing to go to the airports. We were both confirmed in Premium Economy seats. Later on, my father upgraded me to Business Class paying cash as a gift, but I decided to leave that out of this accounting as it wasn’t originally planned for.
Bus – $16.50. One of these days Mr. Savemycents took me to visit Lanikai Beach, one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the world. I sat on the shore with BB while Mr. Savemycents got a snorkel in and he even swam alongside a sea turtle
Rental car and gas – $122 – we got a rental car for the final weekend because it was going to cost money to get to the airport regardless. We could have used some points, but after pricing it out, the daily cost went down to about $45 / day in which case we felt it made more sense to pay cash instead of points. We took the bus into downtown Honolulu, made a stop at the Aloa Moana Center, before taking another bus to the airport, to make a fun day out of it.
Transport home from Newark airport – $59 – We did not do a cab home straight from Newark airport because by crossing state lines from NJ to NY adds a huge premium to the fare (not to mention the tunnel tolls) and then to our neighborhood would be nearly $100. Instead, we took the Newark Express Bus to Port Authority Bus Terminal and then caught a cab from there home. The bus ride is always a calming experience for us as we watched the sun rise over New York City and we plopped BB into a seat inside his Doona car seat and he promptly slept the whole way.
Lodging
Cottage – $400
Food – $108 total spent, $18 free value
The famous red fish curry at Uahi Island Grill
We went back to Sushi II. This is butterfish. So good.
Hale’iwa Bowls has delicious fresh acai piled high with fruit. This is a large size
Matsumoto Shave Ice is still one of the most popular spots for this concoction around the island
We came to the No.7 Japanese Food Truck in 2018 and repeated again in 2020. It is a GREAT food truck spot in Hale’iwa. You’ll need to park in the shopping center parking lot and then walk across to get here. They have benches for seating. You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu
Misc – $129
Miscellaneous spending included Mr. Savemycents and I touring the USS Bowfin at Pearl Harbor, seeing the Byodo-In Temple at the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, and a gift card for someone who helped us on this trip.
Inside a torpedo room on board the USS Bowfin at Pearl Harbor
Flag on top of the USS Bowfin at Pearl Harbor
Week 7 totals: $845.50 cash spent, $18 in free value realized
Trip totals: $5,217 cash spent, $10,166 in free value realized
Now for the post-trip credits!
$1,000 food and transport credit – For all the groceries and eating out and MTA passes we did not buy in New York for 7 weeks, I give ourselves a $1,000 credit, which is the approximate of what we might have spent if we stayed home. This is something we do for all vacations because at the end of the day it still all comes from the same money, just shifting it around. This matters less for you readers because it’s not like you’d have the same credit, but it matters for us because it helps show the “real” cost of a vacation and not double count items.
$650 Bank of America Premium Rewards statement credit – I use the Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card. a lot of this trip’s expenses (and expenses related to having a child last year) went to help me qualify for the sign-up bonus. We then applied 65,000 reward points to receive a $650 statement credit for this month. At the time of sign-up, I would get 50K bonus points after making at least $3K in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening. Then, because I’m a platinum honors tier member of Preferred Rewards, I get 75% extra points. You earn 1.5 points for every $1 of purchases (1.75 for me), and 2 points for every $1 of purchases on travel and dining (3.5 for me). Points are redeemed for statement credit at a rate of 1 cent per point. We also get a $100 statement credit for Global Entry which we used to apply for Global Entry for BB, and also another $100 statement credit for qualifying airline incidental fee transactions (such as checked baggage fees, ticket change / cancellation fees)
Trip cash spend post-credit: $3,567 for 7 weeks, or about $509 a week for 2 adults, $255 a week for one adult.
Enjoy this? Follow along live with me on Instagram as we travel the world for 85 days through March 2020! Our next leg is changing. We will still be traveling, but stay tuned to see what the new itinerary will be!
