Holiday booking

This morning when I checked my emails before heading to work I noticed Air New Zealand had sent me some info on some great deals they have on sale to Australia. I noted that Brisbane was from $189 and thought that looked pretty good. Mentioned to my Mum who thought it wasn't that good a deal so went online to airnewzealand.co.nz and wow did I spot a great deal. Myself and the lads to Brisbane and back for $1099. About $350 cheaper than last time I checked a few weeks ago. The boys return flights are only $99 each. I can use $237 worth of airpoints dollars so all up it will cost me $862 for the tickets. Yippee.

Now we have been saving for this holiday since we got back from the Gold Coast in March 09 so at that price we have enough saved for airfares and accommodation. The lads were given the task of saving to pay for a rental car and have managed to save about 80% of their goal so far. I have a flybuys card with enough points for a 2 day 2 park entry to Dreamworld and Whitewater World for the 3 of us so that's the first 2 theme parks sorted. Then I need to decide between 2 days at Seaworld or 1 day at Seaworld and one at Movieworld. Ah the decisions I have to make.

So I've penciled in accomodation for the Gold Coast and just checking arrangements for the Sunshine Coast and then it's all go with the booking of the airfares. Wow I cannot believe I did all that decision making in one day!

Belts will need to be tightened though to ensure we get enough spending money sorted but what better incentive can there be than an awesome family holiday? I must have suspected something was up yesterday as I baked up a storm - cupcakes, cookies and a slice all placed onto trays and frozen to be bagged free flow. No need to buy snacks for the lads for the next couple of weeks which is always a good money saver.

Oh and I forgot to mention yesterday I got fed up with looking at my money tin and wondering how much money was in it. Grrrr took to it with a can opener even though it wasn't full but would you believe my opener couldn't do it. Took the tin to work and Dad attacked it for me. Yahoo $203.30 which is enough to pay for the flights back from Brisbane for the lads. Then we did a money scrounge up at home and now have $245.70 towards the airfares. So I'll only need to use $617 from our holiday savings account.

So all in all a couple of busy days. Will take some time tomorrow to revise a holiday savings budget now I have a time frame and the costs for the flights and accommodation and see how much I need to save each week to allow for some shopping whilst away.