I wrote a while back about the hubby and I finally moving one of our international dream vacations on to the to do list. I sat down last night to go over some numbers.

For two weeks in Mexico, including a 8 day tour of 10 or so Mayan ruin sites,we'll need about:
$1300 RT airfare for two
$2500 for 8 night 9 day guided tour of Mayan ruins, for two
$1400 for extra week at beachfront cabins at Tulum ( estimating high at $200 a night)
$300 for 1 or 2 nights in a hotel in Cancun, one at the beginning and one at the end.

Total: $5500

Plus unknown:
$$ ? souvenirs
and travel to and from Cancun to Tulum (rumour has it there is a bus for 24 pesos...)
Day trip to Islas Mujeres.
Food and drinks

So far, there is $3862 in the vacation fund. Not too shabby, but still isn't enough. At least $1638 left to save, before spending money.

Here is the plan. I may have two more freelance gigs lined up for this year. The first is a two-day stint this week, which should net enough profit to cover half of the airfare. If the second project works out, it should cover the rest of the tab, and then enough to pay off more on the student loans. But if the second one doesn't work out, I plan to get on the ball and sell enough articles by the end of the year to round out the fund.

I'm also hoping to go on this trip in the off season, which should shave some of the costs off of the airfare, tour and hotels. April 2009 at the earliest.

Life is short. It's time to put fun on equal footing with saving for the future.