Our Honeymoon

Rather than go on the exotic honeymoon that we had talked about (really $6K for a week?), a friend of ours offered us her timeshare for the week and we were more than glad to take her up on it. We ended up staying in Villa Rica, Georgia, a tiny town just outside of Atlanta.

We left Sunday about noon, and checked in just as the sun was setting over the lake – yep, that’s right our free accommodations faced the water. Then we head back out for some dinner and shopping.

Rather than rehashing everything, I’ll spare you (and keep this G-rated) by giving you bullet points.

• At O’Charley’s, I splurged on a Cotton Candy cosmo. They bring the alcohol out and pour it right over an actual piece of cotton candy! It was to die for!!

• Wally World for some grocery shopping. We picked up a couple of frozen pizzas, some cans of soup, poptarts, and popcorn

• We purchased 4 $5 movies to watch during the week.

• We also picked up a bundle of the fire starter logs – you know the ones that are way over priced. As a local you walk by them and laugh, wondering who would be so stupid/desperate to pay that much? Next time remember that some poor guy probably is buying it because the one thing that his wife requested for their honeymoon was a fire to snuggle in front of.

• Walking around the lake till we reached the hiking trail that led into the woods.

• An afternoon sitting on a rock by the lake. He took his laptop (since he’s self employed he had a few business things to see about) and I took the book I was reading.

• Dinner @ local pub. I’d been craving fish and chips for a week or so and I couldn’t have asked for any better. Since I’d had such good luck with choosing the comso earlier in the week, I decided to be adventurous try a St. Patrick’s (Jameson’s, OJ, Blue Curaco). It was yummy too!

• Consignment store shopping. I ended up getting a new pair of dress pants & a new pair of cords and Mr. Right got a dress shirt and a pair of jeans.

• Antique store shopping. I found a gray pearl necklace/earring set that I immediately fell in love with. My husband has two things he wastes money on – his nicotine addiction and me. So even though I would have very few places to wear the necklace in the course in my lifetime, he forked out the $100 because he knew it would make me happy.

• Panning for gold, and walking through the gold mining museum.

• Relaxing in the room and watching cable TV that we never see.

So why am I posting my honeymoon, where I made an impulse purchase on a probably overpriced piece of costume jewelry? Because my husband and I only spent $500 for an entire week on our honeymoon. That includes everything, room, food, gas, entertainment, new to us work clothes, and one pricy souvenir.

My point? Accept gifts from those who offer, and use them to their full advantage. When planning a vacation, its not really about the location. Its about the people who are going with you. Going to a less expensive place will allow you those little splurges that make you feel rich. Going to a more expensive place will have you watching every penny, feeling poor.

For more money-saving tips, check out Frugal Friday over at Biblical Womanhood.