Give Me Back My Five Bucks

Last night BF and I stayed up late and started to really plan out our trip. So far, we’ve been able to plan and price out Vancouver-Africa-Moscow-Mongolia-China. And then we get stuck. The original plan was to go from Northern China to Nepal via the Silk Road railway, and do Southern China near the end of our trip – exiting out of Hong Kong. But the double Visa is only valid for 90 days or something like that. So we might have to do China all in one go. Which is lame. And also, I think BF said you only … Continue reading →

I am so excited for my sister to come visit! She hasn’t been back to Vancouver since our failed trip to Idaho back in April. This will be a proper visit – without any major car crashes. Knock on wood. Unfortunately plans are up in the air and I’m not exactly sure what we’ll be doing, except that for sure we’re going to the Death Cab For Cutie concert on Thursday night. And I’ll probably spend $40 on dinner that night for myself, sister & BF. We’re going to a yummy Chinese restaurant around where I used to live when … Continue reading →

I’m thinking of buying a small backpack. I don’t have one for day hikes – BF has 2 of them, but neither have water bladder holders, and I don’t like having the bladder just sitting in the main compartment with all my other things. And also, they don’t have any structure to them … so while they’re great for shoving in our main backpacks and using them for summit days, they’re not comfortable for day hikes. I’d also like one that I can also use for our day excursions on the Alaskan cruise (5 weeks away!!!). There’s one I’ve been … Continue reading →

So far I’ve earned $55 worth of Amazon gift certificates thanks to Swagbucks – and I’m just 3 more Swagbucks away from getting another $5 gift certificate. :) Here are the books that I definitely will be purchasing: Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel Rough Guide First Time Around the World Lonely Planet SE Asia on a Shoestring Thailand: A Climbing Guide I have my eye on a few other books too, but those are the books I want first. And I love that just by using the internet a little differently than I was … Continue reading →

Last night we went grocery shopping and I spent $57.08. Totally way more than I would normally spend. But, I did spend $8.99 on interior cleaning wipes for my car (BF’s had his for so long that they’ve dried out and are kind of useless now), and I bought a huge bag of cherries. I couldn’t resist. They are SO GOOD. It seems that lately, since we’ve been cooking more food at home, my grocery bills have creeped up from $35-40 to about $45-50/week. And that’s okay. We are saving money by eating at home, and we’re also meal planning … Continue reading →