The prospects for us staying under budget in April looked really good at the start of the month.
Our hotels and Airbnbs for the month were booked and with many of our stays using points, our accommodation costs were fairly low.
But then we reached Louisville.
Louisville was awesome, but one of the reasons we loved it so much was because there were so many great restaurants. And as Peter Parker’s uncle might’ve said when hungry, “With great eating comes great expense”.
Our spending in April therefore wasn’t quite as healthy as we’d been hoping, but did all that food hit both our waists and wallet too hard? Read on to find out.
Miles Driven
We began April 2019 with 112,133 miles on the clock. By the end of the month our odometer showed 114,396 miles which meant we drove 2,263 miles last month. I’d predicted in March that we’d drive 1,600 miles in April, so I was pretty far off with that guess.
Our mileage in May is definitely going to be even higher than that. In addition to driving around Kentucky for the next few weeks, we’ll be visiting Ann Arbor, Michigan for a few days and then heading east to Vermont. That’ll rack up the miles, so I suspect we’ll be closer to 3,000 miles by the end of May.
Money Spent
Like I mentioned at the start of our post, Louisville caned our budget somewhat given all the good food. Our budget is $100 per day which has to cover everything and means our total budget for April was exactly $3,000.
By the end of the month we’d spent $2,955.62, so we managed to scrape through under budget by $44.38. That was a little disappointing because at the start of the month I’d been hoping we’d be closer to $400-$500 under budget. But alas, it wasn’t to be. Still, the food in Louisville was worth it.
Somewhat strangely, the eating in portion of our spending was our highest ever. That’s weird because it didn’t feel like we ate in as much. I’ve a feeling that we might’ve bought other stuff at grocery stores that probably should’ve been allocated to household spending but which all got lumped under grocery spending.
I don’t think our budget in May will be quite as healthy as this though. In addition to the higher gas expenditure, we’ll be at the 2019 Kentucky Derby this weekend. We’re not gamblers, but we’ll still be betting on the horses and enjoying some mint juleps. Neither of those will cheap unless Shae or I discover a hidden talent (or lucky streak) for guessing which horses will win.
We’ll also be spending a couple of weeks in Lexington after that. We met a girl on a hike a couple of days ago who said she visited Lexington recently and ate her way around the city, so I’ve a feeling Lexington might turn out to be Louisville part II.
As always, here’s a breakdown of our spending from last month…
…along with a chart showing our overall spending month by month.
Points Earned
Seeing as most of our stays in April were booked with points or through Airbnb, we didn’t earn many points. Here’s a list of what we did earn:
- IHG Rewards Club – 8,315
- Hilton Honors – 13,780
- Marriott Rewards – 3,667
- World of Hyatt – 1,426
- Radisson Rewards – 500
- Choice Privileges – 1,738
- Wyndham Rewards – 0
- Hotels.com Welcome Rewards Credits – 0
- Chase Ultimate Rewards – 3,267
Points Redeemed
We used quite a few points last month for upcoming stays, so here’s a complete list of those:
- IHG Rewards Club – 0
- Hilton Honors – 20,000
- Marriott Rewards – 50,000
- World of Hyatt – 45,000
- Radisson Rewards – 90,000
- Choice Privileges – 0
- Wyndham Rewards – 0
- Hotels.com Welcome Rewards Credits – 0
- Chase Ultimate Rewards – 0
Total Points Balances
As a result of redeeming far more points than we earned, our total points balances aren’t looking quite as healthy as they were at the start of the month. Having said that, we still have more than 2 million hotel points, so it’s not looking unhealthy either!
- IHG Rewards Club – 538,932
- Hilton Honors – 579,850
- Marriott Rewards – 567,784
- World of Hyatt – 66,371
- Radisson Rewards – 231,635
- Choice Privileges – 26,026
- Wyndham Rewards – 46,600
- Hotels.com Welcome Rewards Credits – 12
- Chase Ultimate Rewards – 275,419
Here’s all that information in table form for those who prefer reading it that way:
Blog Stats
In case you’re interested in how our readership is going, here are some stats for that:
- Number of blog posts published – 19
- Page views – 21,253
Final Thoughts
It was a little disappointing only just remaining under budget during April as I’d thought at the start of last month that we’d be hundreds under. Still, that’s three out of four months so far this year where we’ve been under budget which is much better than we did after setting off on our road trip last year.
It also means we’re $814.83 under budget for the year so far, so that gives us a little leeway when there’s some kind of inevitable larger expense that crops up.
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