Morning all
good to see im not the only one freaking out..fortunately its not over the money portion, i have been penny pinching for a whole year and seeing our balance after we paid off the trip really made me happy. What i am freaking out about is that the school told me today if she misses more than 5 days we could be subjest to a penalty!!!!
Has anyone had this issue?
I had this concern last year when DD1 started kindergarten. The letter the school sent home about truancy and all of that was fairly harsh reading. That being said we had an opportunity to take a vacation for next to nothing but we would've had to take her out of school to do it. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we decided to do it. Our district has a form to fill out and while it states that it's an unexcused absence, they didn't send the truancy department after us.
More recently I've talked with other parents in our district and they said that unless it's a testing year/time then they are pretty lenient about it. Our original plan was to go for DD2's birthday this year, which is 11/11, but as that is the week before Thanksgiving and our district is out the entire week of Thanksgiving I couldn't really justify taking DD1 out of school for a week just before they would be out for a week. So DD2's birthday is on Sunday and we'll leave that following Friday after DD1 gets out of school.
Re: paying off the trip, I feel rather fortunate that we essentially had the money when we booked the trip so we paid it off immediately. When we extended the trip by a day we only had to pay an extra $89 so that was simple enough for us to pay off as well. Our spending money has been in savings and the Disney Rewards dollars also help. We're basing some of our spending/saving on our last trip where we didn't really have a plan or a budget. The only remaining thing for us is taking the dog to the vet for a checkup and shots before she's boarded. They'll do it while she's boarded but that adds another chunk onto the bill when we pick her up, so we're trying to spread it out some.
Booking ADR's prepped me for this morning's adventures. I was up at 2am local time to get new iPhones for my wife and I. Right at 2:01am I was on att.com, apple.com, etc trying to get my order. Turned out to be a good thing I was up because they sold out in an hour!
I was thinking about the tips for housekeeping and personally I don't tip, but that's largely because I don't have housekeeping come everyday. Having been a former business traveler I was ripped off more than once of belongings and now the Do Not Disturb sign hangs on the door daily. I'll call or visit the front desk for more towels, pillows or toiletries to ensure that someone isn't in my room when I'm not there. Our last trip my mom's room got cleaned on her last day while we were at the park and she nearly missed ME and her flight trying to hunt down what they did with her bag. The thing about that was that the front desk told her she could keep her bag in the room until she was ready to leave that day, as it was a very slow time of the year. Probably just a miscommunication/misunderstanding, but a hassle nonetheless. The only time I'll have housekeeping come is if I'm going to be somewhere longer than a week, then on the day I want them to come I'll take all of my things out of the room while they do their work.
I told my wife about the dining invites idea and she's liking that idea. We may add that to our daily gifts as well. The gift idea is that we'll get some cheap stuff from the dollar stores prior to coming and leave them for the girls in the room (I'm not sure how yet) and that will entice them to a) behave better, b) not beg for EVERYTHING they see and 3) be a fun and exciting thing to enhance their experience. We'll also be stocking up on glow bracelets/necklaces for the nighttime events so they'll have glow things that aren't a hundred bucks each.
My only other thing that is kind of on my mind is footwear. Knowing that we'll be walking a ton I'm debating on wearing my shape-ups, which did well for the March of Dimes walk, Las Vegas, Europe, etc or something a bit more airy and water resistant like Teva or Merrell sandals. Going to have to do some shopping and see prices and comfort.
Hope everyone has a great Friday! We're going to DISNEY!
bad planning on my part. good news is since I need the truck, I can unload it in the morning
I was looking at the bills and Im not sure(the way the dates fall) if I will be able to put much more in there. I have some bills coming up next month that I dont normally have -HOA, Water and Car tags- I feel like im gonna have a panic attack!
