Little Black Guidebook

We just got a letter in the mail and $20 charge on our credit card from Avis. Apparently we made a traffic violation while in Germany and they are charging us to let us know that. They didn’t even provide the contact number for the German authorities to call to resolve the issue! Not impressed with the Avis customer service here. All I have is a letter with a postal address of the German Bayern authorities and no way to contact them except by sending them a letter. Avis you get an “F” for customer service and assistance.

I do find it interesting that we got a ticket at 8:39 pm on August 11th, at which time we were eating pizza in an Italian Restaurant in Austria and not even in Germany at all! Oh well, we’ll see how it pans out.

Word must have got out that we have a house with water rather than a dry cabin, a separate bathroom for guests and aren’t weird stalkers, because we’ve seen a flurry of requests to surf our couch this month. The most important lesson learned is that CouchSurfing experiences vary in what you get out of them. Its really about community and culture sharing rather than free lodging.

Our first guests were quiet and neat and we cooked dinner together, but I couldn’t tell you much about them, their trip or even remember their names in a week. Our second guest didn’t arrive with a guidebook itinerary in hand and actually wanted our input on our hometown. Even if I hadn’t had time to show her around myself she would have had a different experience, because she actually asked us rather than having preconceptions and a checklist from a guidebook.

She also had genuine interest in meeting us as people and getting to know us which resulted in a few late nights talking about travels, life and enjoying the red wine. It also meant that instead of getting just a few blankets and pillows from me, she got two days of my time, a guided bike tour of our town, shopped together at the farmer’s market for a fresh salad to go with a very Alaskan halibut dinner and an 8.5 mile hike guided by us over mountains to a hot springs. In other words she saw things that weren’t in the must-dos of a guidebook and had a far different experience.

Nothing was wrong with the first guests and I left them a positive reference, but I want to be that second guest and go beyond the guidebook.

My Tips for a Positive Hosting Experience

• Look for a completely filled out profile before agreeing to host.
• Look for positive references on the profile before agreeing to host.
• Look at how long ago they signed up for CouchSurfing.
• Write actual e-mails to feel out the surfer’s expectations. Does this person seem independent, or do they want to be shown around or tag along with you everywhere?
• Do not feel obligated to host. If you’re changing your plans just to host and its inconvenient for you it won’t put you in the right frame of mind to be a good host. Also, read their profile carefully, if all of their positive references have comments about what a good time partying they had and you’re a tea drinker who works an early schedule, it may not be a good fit.
• Communicate some things with your profile: whether they can have guests over, smoke, what they can borrow (blankets/pillows/etc.), whether you have pets. All this info helps guests know whether to contact you or not and can pare down incompatible guests.
• Once your guests arrive some basic communication goes a long way. Tell them your rough schedule, what time you’ll be up and when you’ll be in bed. What part of the fridge they can use and what food they can eat. Whether you plan on having any meals shared with them.
• Have a spare key made for the house, but do not feel obligated to give it to them.

I’ll do another post with Tips for Surfers after our first surfing experience this fall.

Big Red Couch Set 1 (1 of 5), originally uploaded by DaveAustria.com.

We have one week of our Europe trip from August 11-18 where we have no plans yet. (Probably will have a car rented, oh God those poor Germans.)

We know we’ll be in Munich for most of that time, with possible side trips to visit some friends in Passau and Nurnberg in there somewhere, but for now we’re keeping things unplanned so we feel less like we’re on a strict tour of Europe and more spontaneous. This has me freaked to have no hotel plans, just a list of back-up hostels and an iPad with Wifi. Where will I sleep? A bench?! Sigh.

So I am trying to up my Couchsurfing.com cred by being a host before trying to be hosted. I have a feeling that if I was requesting someone in Munich for their couch, they’d be happier seeing I’m not some crazy person. So tomorrow I am having 3 young Chinese ladies over for two nights.

This has brought out my “I’m hosting Thanksgiving and the house must be perfect and everyone must be fed and entertained constantly or I’m a horrible person side.” I really have no idea what they expect beyond what was in my profile: a couch, pillows and their own shower.

I really don’t want to freak them out, so I have limited myself to e-mailing them a list of local events going on this weekend (Solstice baby, oh wait, that’s depressing because then we start losing light.) and cleaning the house to within an inch of its life. (What happened to Spring Cleaning?)

- Clean house
- Folder of local brochures and a list of events during their stay
- Plenty of pillows and blankets and towels
- Bus maps

Previous hosts, chime in, what else am I missing?

Lonely Planet‘s 1000 Ultimate Experiences iPad app Is Free For 3 days.

I don’t have an iPad (yet), but I might download this for future use while its  Free [iTunes via SAI]

Available modes of transportation to us:

• 2010 Subaru Forester, see No Spending Month = Most Expensive Month of My Life
• 2002 Hyundai Elantra
• Bikes (2)
• Public transportation bus system (limited, but available)
• Walking paths (1.5 miles is pretty much walking distance and that’s how far away my work is)
• Friends with cars

With all the options we have is it really necessary to have two cars? NO! In fact, since we got the Forester, we’ve driven the Elantra a grand total of (TWICE in 2 months). And this summer we are going to bike our commutes.

This month we’ll be conducting an experiment. We aren’t going car-free, but car-less (although this family does go car-free).

Normally we drive 15 miles round-trip every day. The 2010 IRS mileage rate for business mileage is 50 cents. So for every two miles under 465 that we drive this month we’ll be transferring $1 to the travel fund. If we drive 0 miles this month that’s $232.50, practically a 3-day German train pass.

Its easy to go car-free in some cities, but in Alaska its not that easy. How easy would it be in your home-town?

I have been so vocal against my battle against the household bulge that I am being joined by several of my coworkers. We’re turning our workplace parking lot, which is on a major thoroughfare into a employee-wide garage sale. Hopefully the pool of stuff and prime location will result in better turn out and more money coming from our purging.

Today is the day of the big yard sale following up on our downsizing purge. We’ll see how much all that clutter is worth. Right now its actually costing me in time, energy and space so even though it will be worth far less than paid, its worth infinitely more than being in my house. I’m not falling for the sunk-cost fallacy. All remaining items will be going to charity. The cash is going straight into the travel fund.

March was the single most expensive month of my life, but that’s ok and here’s why. We weren’t planning on purchasing a car, a piano or a PlayStation this month, but we were planning on purchasing them and we had saved for them by putting money aside to pay cash.  We saved and then watched for the right deal.

Car: The 2010 Subaru Forester we bought was used. Rather than buying new we purchased a 3 month old vehicle for $7k less and we still have 33 months of warranty left. The owner drove it up to Alaska and then decided he wanted a big truck. His poor planning is our gain.

Piano: I have been taking lessons again for 4 months by driving to the University and borrowing one of their pianos, but now I have my own. Estate sale sold me a Grandma’s barely used piano which was worth $4,500 for $1,500 after a little negotiation. I had my piano tuner’s jaw on the floor when I told him what I paid.

So despite the fact that I spent more money this month than I did when I got married I would consider it a success. Planned spending after saving is ok. The main spending I wanted to control was the frivolous and discretionary spending.

Here’s how we did on the frivolous and discretionary fronts:

Food/dining = $1,155 went to $630.83 for a savings of $524.00 a month. Wow that category was out of control.

Entertainment = $225 went to $128.97 for a savings of $96.03.

I think we’ll try again to work on those two categories and start making transfers into our goal savings account for our next trip. Its looking pretty empty at the moment and its good to have a goal to save for.

My desire to wander is unsupressable. I am dealing with it in two ways. First is the big Moving Overseas exercise. 2nd, I’m planning my next trip. So pause all the home improvement posts for a sec and let’s talk logistics.

New Jersey and New York public transit. All I have to say is, “Thank goodness Google has a public transit route planner!” I have the perfect storm of obligations occurring next month all in one-week that will have me flying into Newark, going to Philadelphia, West Point New York, New Brunswick New Jersey, and New York City. The turn around times just don’t make renting a car feasible. Its too expensive to rent, park, navigate and the trains just seem way more convenient. But it does take pre-planning of routes, trains, back up plans, coordination and flexibility. A car just goes with you when and where you want it to.

Tale of two methods of travel.

Take the first leg of my trip for example, Newark Airport to Langhorne, PA to visit my Grandparents.

• My parents: land +1 hr to collect bags and get to rental counter, +1 hour to pick up car and arrange family and bags in car, +1 hr stop for dinner once safely outside of airport pricing zone, +2 hours to drive to Grandparents if all goes well. This works for them, there are 4 of them to worry about now that 3 of us are grown and its more cost effective and less stressful for them.  (arrival time at Grandparents 11pm)
• Me and hubby: land carrying our bags, +1 hr to get to train station in time for 6:40pm train after grabbing a quick bite to eat when we land at the airport or eating prepacked snacks; arrive train station where Grandparents are waiting to pick up 7:57pm; arrive Grandparents house 20 minutes later) (arrival time 8:20pm, cost $14.75 each train ticket)

Next up I have to figure out trains from PA to Grand Central Station, NY then on to Garrison, NY to meet the ferry to West Point. Then ferry back from West Point, train to New Brunswick, then train back to New York and once more back to Newark for the flight home. Hopefully it will all work out smoothly, and thankfully if the plan doesn’t work and I have to adjust things as we go along, we don’t have pre-purchased Italian train-tickets and no Italian language skills.

Even with English not being a barrier, do you know how hard it is to figure out public transportation in American cities sometimes? There are exceptions like DC’s metro, but even then have you tried using Metro buses? Its like a secret club, once you figure it out, you’re in and party to some good, cheap transportation, but its not really accessible to tourists or travelers without a lot of effort on their part. Of course, I’ll admit, by the time I figured out metro buses, I was glad those obnoxiously loud Hard Rock Cafe clad tourists weren’t crowding my metro bus like they were my Foggy-Bottom metro stop during certain hours. I just wanted to sit in peace with my headphones wearing my business suit (but no flip-flops or sneakers so I wasn’t a completely assimilated to DC commuter).

Wow, now that digression came out of nowhere. Here’s hoping for the best.

I’m sure my husband read this subject line and went, “Heh, this won’t last as he glances at the J.Crew box I still need to return.” Well keep reading dear.

One of my inspirational reads is the Man vs. Debt blog. He writes about his world travels with under 2-year old daughter and wife in tow and how getting his finances in order has allowed him to be location independent. I read for the travel inspiration, but ocassionally some of the financial points stick too. The author Adam also writes for Untemplater and recently posted this 30-day “No Spend” Challenge.

Now my finances are probably in more order than 90% of people my age, but I like forcing myself into challenges just to see if I can do them, if the outcome of that challenge would be important to me.  Given the nice change I saw in cash-flow during my no-spend day I figure a 30-day challenge will have  a big impact in the travel fund.

My version of the challenge:

NO SPENDING on anything non-essential. Things like:

• clothes/accessories
• electronics
• lunches/dinners out
• online purchases
• “good deals”

Allowed discretionary spending

• investments
• Auto-paid items (Netflix, cellphone, Weight Watchers)
• shared non-lazy experiences

A note on shared non-lazy experiences: Just like a diet, the whole family isn’t going to suffer. I will make an exception to the challenge, for instance dining out, if my husband suggests it (he rarely does, its always me) and its because he genuinely wants to treat us and not because we are being lazy, ie. we haven’t thawed anything to cook that night.

Challenge starts now and runs until the 7 April. Anybody want to join in? What are you cutting back for?

Books of a Wannabe Mad Scientist, originally uploaded by xtacocorex is watching curling.

This post: “Selling Back Really Old Textbooks Online” is a good description of a way to make money selling old books online for money. I’m all about that right now, given that every spare penny goes in the travel fund and that I am very anti-clutter at the moment. But this method is way too labor intensive for me. I’ve been to the post office dozens of times because of “ship by” dates when selling things on Amazon and eBay and its no fun, not to mention a waste of gas.

A slightly less profitable, but far less labor intensive method would be to setup an Amazon seller account. Ship Amazon all your books and let them ship them to each buyer and deposit the profits into your account directly. Ship once and forget. You set the price you’re willing to accept. This also lets people get Super Saver Shipping on your items. Sure you’re stuck with Amazon and might not get highest price, but you’re also not stuck running to the post office.

Add $409 over the last 2 months to the travel fund.