Saving on holiday, paying for property, my way.

Many have commented about low fares being advertised are fake. Recently, in Facebook I read a few more of such comments. Allow me to share my actual experience. Do you believe in saving up for a part of property downpayment by skipping on holidays? I don’t. I promised my wife before we got married that we would go for two vacations every year, of which one would be overseas. Fortunately, have always exceeded my promise. Okay, that overseas would include Singapore, Brunei, Phuket, Koh Samui, Bali, Jakarta etc and not just Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau etc. The former cheaper, the latter more expensive. I have visited all of these, sometimes a few times. When I first ‘captured’ my wife and we had to travel to her hometown in Sandakan, the flight tickets were always giving me headaches. They were so expensive. To and fro would cost me RM2,000. Yes!! Then, came ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’. After that, I have suddenly been able to save up quite a lot of money for…. more vacations and property downpayments.
My wife and I have taken the free flights 4-5 times, paying just the airport tax. Penang – KL. KL – Singapore. KL – Kuching. My best achievement? RM156 in total, for a trip for two, return flights of Penang – Kuching and staying 3 days and 2 nights in Tune Hotel. Yes, this is true. If you think this was previously and it’s no longer true today, well, I am going for a family trip next month to Perth. An average of RM650 / person for a return flight including meals on both ways and luggages both ways. This fare is for 5 of us. In fact, my baby daughter’s fares were the highest because there was no special price for infants. Total savings based on the usual flight ticket for 5 pax would be RM2,000 or higher.
I agree, some of us prefer to stay in 5-Star Hotels, indulge a bit and that’s totally fine. Especially if you are already earning so much that spending or not spending does not make a huge difference at all. My vision in life? Well, retire slightly earlier than the majority and do the following. Wake up one morning, remembered that it was our 4th day in our condo in Langkawi and my wife said shall we have dinner with my family in Sandakan? My answer is, sure. Let me book the flights online and we arrive in Sandakan in time for a tea break, followed by a dinner and we stay a few days in Sandakan before travelling back to Ipoh to be with my family. The week after I may be in Kuching and so on and so on…. Haha.
Savings here and there, after some time adds up to quite a bit. That’s partially how I save anyway. Will tell you about my Calvin Klein, Dockers, Raoul savings next time.
written on 11 Oct 2014
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