tmount
Administrator
I write this short post as my wonderfully patient wife and I are enjoying evening drinks at the Grand Hyatt Bali’s Grand Club. We happened to be discussing how much we spent today for some spray sunscreen, lunch (with beverages), and a pair of massages. Suffice it to say, it was well under $100, however my wife comments: “and that’s actually kind’ve high, since we didn’t buy any gift cards.”
Actually vacationing
For starters, we started ramping down our reselling and manufacturing spending down earlier this week, in anticipation of our trip, since you never want to travel with VIsa Gift Cards (VGC) sitting at home. The reselling, we ramped down less, because we can schedule/delay UPS deliveries, or as awesome reader Kent C put in the comments, you can also send them to a local UPS store
While in Bali, at least for our first 24 hours, we have actually been vacationing. In fact, I stole away to post the Weekly Roundup just after breakfast and went a solid 12 hours without doing anything else on the blog, better yet, I wasn’t even very active on Twitter! Instead we walked, got massages, napped, walked, walked some more, and generally relaxed.
But what about the opportunity cost?
This is the biggest challenge to vacationing is that there is always a deal to be had. Earlier this week was another AMEX Gift Card 2.25% shopping portal bonus, and oh yeah, $20 back from Staples when you buy $400 in VGCs. And that isn’t even considering the post-Father’s day sales occurring-which I could even leverage some online purchases for, but, again, on vacation here!
Now, I’m not advocating that you plan (or not plan) your vacation around manufacturing spending or reselling, heck, I went to see the Great Wall on Black Friday last year. Rather, I would argue purely non-mathematical response: leverage what you can when traveling–if you want to-but more than anything, make sure you enjoy your time away. Why? Because it is the very reason you are manufacturing spend to begin with!
So, as the summer travel season gets into full gear, remember, manufacturing spend is a means to an end, don’t forget to enjoy that end, after all.
Eat Drink and be Happy… Or: Stay Thirsty, my Friends. The choice is yours:
And remember: always where sunscreen
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