Mat Thompson, Author at Ditching Normal

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Tahiti for Free. Planning Process

October 21, 2015

In previous posts, Lacey and I have mentioned that we are working toward our goal of traveling to, and staying in an over-the-water bungalow in Moorea, Tahiti….for free. Yep, we have been stacking credit card points for flights and hotels for about 5 months so far to try and make this happen. Why are we going through so much trouble to get this trip for free? It’s simple. We literally would never, ever, EVER be able to afford a trip like this if we paid for it out of our own pocket. These over the water bungalows in Tahiti can cost up to $1300 per night. Tack on another 2k per person for flights and you’re looking at spending $10,000 for a 5 night stay in Moorea…and this isn’t even taking in account the cost of food (which I’ve heard is insanely expensive there) and/or the cost of excursions/entertainment. So more than likely, for 2 people, this trip could cost over $15k.

If Lacey and I are ever going to Tahiti…it HAS to be for free… or at least HIGHLY discounted.

Hilton Moorea Bungalows | DitchingNormal

Here’s where the credit card rewards points come in to play. After spending a few months learning from credit cards reward blog sites such as The Points Guy, I put together a plan to try and get Lacey and I to Tahiti for free.

First, I researched the best reviews for over-the-water bungalows in Tahiti and the hotel chains that owned these bungalows. While there are a few that have amazing reviews and pics (InterContinental Thalasso, Hilton Bora Bora Nui, The Four Seasons), we decided to go with the Hilton Moorea. We chose this one for a few different reasons.
- 1 – there are a number of Hilton Credit Cards available with solid spending bonus reward offers (aka, a lot of bonus points available to earn for Hilton)
- 2 – the Hilton Honors program partners with other non-Hilton credit cards allowing for quick/easy points transferring into your Hilton Honors account. The Virgin Atlantic, Hawaiian Airlines, and Citi ThankYou cards are a few off the top of my head.
- 3 – While Bora Bora reviews as the fanciest of the Tahitian Islands, it is also a little trickier to get to than the island of Moorea which is where we’re trying to go. We would lose at least a full day’s worth of travel time getting to Bora Bora. As you all know, paid vacation days at work are valuable and no one should waste one sitting in an airport or sleeping in a shitty airport hotel for a night while you wait for your connecting flight.
- 4 – Again, while Bora Bora is fancier, we also learned it is more secluded. Meaning that there aren’t as many other exploring options in your direct surroundings. As torturous as it sounds (sarcasm), you would be stuck in your bungalow and/or resort for pretty much every activity you wanted to do. Lacey and I want to see some local life and have the option of getting groceries from local markets, etc. Maybe do some hiking and what not.
Second, I investigated the approximate amount of points we’d need for a free night at the Hilton Moorea. You can do this by going to the Hilton Honors site and typing in your desired resort location and clicking the box that says “Use Honors Points” box before hitting search. I looked through the entire year’s worth of results to see if there were high seasons and low seasons as far as costs go. There were and there usually are at most hotels. Keep that in mind while planning but also keep in mind that the low season is the low season for a reason. Sick rhyme bro. In other words, the low season probably has shitty weather or something.
Third, I went back to the Hilton Credit Cards site and mapped out which cards would get Lacey and I to our points goal the quickest. I also investigated Hilton Honors credit card partners and found out that the Citi ThankYou Premier card transfers points into the Hilton program at a 1:2 ratio from now until the end of January, 2016. So 50k Citi ThanYou Premier points will get you 100k Hilton points. Killer timing for this particular trip.

Toward the beginning of the planning process, I ran in to some more unexpected good news. I learned that if you book 4 consecutive nights at a Hilton resort using rewards points, you receive a 5th night for free. This was super good news considering it would take us a couple of months to earn enough points for 1 night. This just shaved off a bunch of planning time.

Happy dance

More good news was when I found out that the Hilton Reserve card does not reward you with points when you hit your spending bonus….they give you 2 weekend night certificates instead. This is HUGE for the trip we are trying to make. To better explain this one I’ll tell you that most reward bonuses are around 50-75k points and they can take anywhere from 2-3 months for Lacey and I to reach with our spending habits. The bungalows we are trying to stay in will require upwards of 90k bonus points PER night. So the Hilton Reserve weekend certificates (for where we are going to use them) will be worth 180-200k points. So if you’re trying to stay at a really expensive Hilton Hotel, this is the card you need to get.

So where are Lacey and I at in the planning process? Well, our goal continues to be to earn enough points for 7 free nights in Moorea, Tahiti. As of today, we have 4 weekend night certificates and about 200k points. We need at least 200k more points before I even think about making the call and try to book anything. We already have the next 100k points in our sights with the awesome Citi ThankYou transfer promotion (mentioned above) headed our way. For the next 100k + points we’ll need after that? Who knows right now? I’m crossing my fingers there will be another promotion linked with Hilton that can get us there.

Wish us luck and best luck to you all if you’re trying to plan a similar trip!

Final note…if you’re new to this…please research best practices for signing up for and using credit cards. Educate yourself on what all effects credit scores in order to maintain a healthy one.

Peace out!

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Reviews Travel

First Day in San Francisco

September 30, 2015

Our first day in San Francisco was filled with some action packed day dates. Lacey and I hadn’t ever explored San Francisco prior to last weekend, so we were really excited to see what all of the fuss was about. San Francisco is also a particularly special place for Lacey and I because it is the city where we first met (9 years ago).

First stop – Muir National Park

This wasn’t originally on my list of places to go, but after 3 of our friends labeled it a “must see” when visiting SF, we were convinced. It took us about an hour to get to Muir from the city. When we arrived, parking was a shit show. People were parking as far as 2 miles away from the entrance to the park. When we realized this was our fate, I looked at Lacey and said “I’m not spending my whole f***ing day driving in circles for a spot, so lets just head back to the city.” As soon as I started driving away from the park, we noticed an empty parking area 2 blocks distance above the park entrance. We couldn’t spot any No Parking signs around so that’s where we left our tiny crap box rental car for a couple hours. Scored big time with that parking spot.

For the park itself, don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely beautiful and amazing. The trees were enormous (some 40ft wide) and the surrounding nature complimented the trees perfectly. That being said, I think the fact that Lacey and I grew up in Idaho and around scenery similar to this our whole lives, we were a little less amazed than some of the “city-folk” that were visiting the park that day. Still a great park, but I don’t think I’d label it as a “must see” when visiting SF.

Side note, we accidentally visited Muir National Park on National Park day…which explains the insane crowd and crazy parking situation. But!…we got in for free in honor of the holiday 🙂

Second Stop – The Cliff House (for lunch)

I found this place while Google searching “best views in SF” before our trip. We were not disappointed. The restaurant/bistro is located on the cliffs (obviously), overlooking Ocean Beach on the northwestern corner of the city. I would highly recommend checking this place out during your next visit. Most of the tables are located next to the windows where you’ll have prime views of the ocean, pedestrians, and surfers. Lacey and I enjoyed some delicious coffee drinks served by a woman who had been working at The Cliff House for over 50 years. Tons of cool history linked with this place.

The Cliff House is the white building in the top right

Third Stop – The Golden Gate Bridge

Ah, yes. The Grand Finale for Day 1 in San Francisco. After lunch, we headed straight to the bridge. We found some free parking about 3 blocks south of the bridge which also linked to a cool trail that led us down to the bridge. While I was excited to visit the bridge, I didn’t expect it to be as cool as it ended up being. First off, the bridge is beautiful in person. Pictures don’t do it justice. Secondly, you can walk or ride your bike across it where you’ll find amazing views of downtown, Alcatraz, and the rolling hills of the neighborhoods around the city. The walk across the bridge is even more exciting because it is usually windy and there is a ton of traffic buzzing by you the entire time. Gives it a little element of danger. If you’re afraid of heights, this walk will test your will a little bit too. Lacey ended up getting a little dizzy when we went. I would definitely list walking/riding across the Golden Gate bridge as a “must see”. If you go to SF, you need to go to the bridge.

Day 1 in San Francisco was awesome. Stay tuned to find out how Day 2 went. It involves arguably even better views than our first day.

Have you been to SF? Did you check out the same spots we did? Let us know what you thought!

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Lifestyle

How we ditched our bills

September 10, 2015

Three years ago, Lacey and I were sitting on a restaurant patio in downtown Boise, eating breakfast, sipping coffee, enjoying a beautiful summer morning. What started as a simple conversation on how awesome this particular moment was, turned into a bigger discussion as to why we weren’t doing things like this more often. That snowballed into the hour-ish long back and forth about what else we weren’t doing in our lives that we wished we were doing.

After finishing a stack of pancakes and 4 large cups of coffee, it all came down to this…we wanted to travel, see more live events, and be more social with our friends and family. So, ok…cool. We knew what we wanted in life (big first step). The bigger question now was, what was stopping us from living the way we wanted? Bills! That’s right. We had too many mother f***ing bills.

I’m going to tell you how we fumbled through the downsizing process, so hopefully it’s a little more efficient for you. Take 5 minutes and run through this checklist and you’ll more than likely find an area where you could save some dough.

A good starting point is to take a look at where you live. Do you need all of that house? When was the last time anyone slept in that guest room? When was the last time anyone hung out in that yard that you hate mowing and are paying out the ass to water? Lacey and I owned a 3 bedroom, 3 full bathroom (2040 sq ft) home with an upstairs bonus room, a front and back yard and a 3 car garage. Not to mention our house was a 20 minute drive from downtown Boise. And yes, you heard me right, it was JUST Lacey and I living there. Once we snapped out of the societal brainwashing idea that “this is the type of home where people our age should be living”, we were able to identify what an incredible waste of money it was. We sold that place as fast as we could and bought a 1 bedroom, 900 sq ft, condo in downtown Boise. Our monthly mortgage (including utilities) went from about $1500 a month to less than $700. Good enough right? Wrong, there was still money to be saved in other areas.

yeah, our entire condo in 1 picture. ha!

Still have a cable bill? Most people have wised up at this point with the worldwide love of Netflix taking over and all, but as of about 1 year ago, Lacey and I were still paying $120 a month for our cable bill. That was a quick fix. I called the cable company and cancelled that shit and signed us up for Netflix at $11 per month. Took 10 mins to start saving over $100 a month.

Next stop, cell phone bill. How much are you paying? How many calls do you actually get now days? It’s all texts now right? Maybe that’s just me….and the rest of the world. I was paying $93 a month to AT&T for a cell phone that I used maybe 100 minutes of talk time on per month. For 12 years I paid this ridiculous bill. I never stopped to think there might be a cheaper option. Guess what? If you only need your phone to text, talk a little bit, and to hop on social media, there are cheaper options. Virgin Mobile has unlimited talk/text plans starting at $35 a month! That’s another $60 a month to put towards traveling with Lace.

How much are you spending on food? Do you go out to eat a couple times a week? Are you getting Starbucks every morning? Do you go out drinking with friends on weekends? This is a super obvious tip, but start cooking for yourself. Start drinking your own coffee. Start pre-funking at your home before you head out on the town with friends. These small adjustments could end up saving you hundreds of dollars a month. The next time you stop at Subway for lunch, just think of how with that $9 you’re about to spend, you could have purchased a loaf of bread and a pound of sliced deli meat at the grocery store next door. Don’t get me wrong, Lacey and I still go out to eat and drink with friends often, but we typically eat at home and have a couple drinks at home before heading out. This way, we’re more than satisfied with splitting an appetizer and each having A drink at dinner rather than dropping $60 on meals and drinks. The fun part for us meeting friends out for dinner is being social, not necessarily the eating part.

How can you travel for cheaper? The answer is short and simple if you’re responsible financially and have decent credit. …travel for free with credit card reward points. Stay in hotels for free with these rewards. Get rental cars for free. The list goes on. I talk a little more about how to do this in a previous post but the main idea is that you can pay your normal monthly bills with a credit card…when you reach the spending minimum to achieve the sign up bonus for that card you will receive a bunch of points that you can exchange for free travel. This is literally the only way Lacey and I can afford to travel as often as we do. Make sure to educate yourself on how this process works before you jump in. A good starting point is ThePointsGuy.com

spend more time grocery shopping than eating out!

That’s the basics on how Lacey and I got started saving some extra cash. It’s been a long road to get to this point (with a long way to go) but so far these adjustments are helping us achieve the original 3 goals we set for our lives that summer morning eating breakfast.

This is the brief story of how we ditched our bills. If you have any additional tips or stories you’d like to share, please message us or post a comment below!

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Reviews Travel

When in Rome…during tourist season

August 29, 2015

Lacey and I visited Rome during tourist season. Eek! That being said, it was still awesome. When we hopped off our train the first day at the Roma Termani station, we were immediately faced with the challenge of busting our way through tens of thousands of people in an attempt to get over to another metro station. When we finally made it outside the Roma Termani, there were even more people flooding the streets. There had to have been close to a million people out there. This couldn’t just be the normal tourist crowd could it? Turns out the Pope was about to do a service at St. Peter’s and the whole world was going to check it out.

Lacey and I grabbed a quick slice of margherita pizza and started making our way toward the coliseum. We figured it would be a good day to do that being that it was in the opposite direction of St. Peter’s (where the millions of people were).

the sky is so beautiful there!

Lesson learned #1 in Rome. If you can pre-purchase tickets to a tourist attraction….do it. Do it now! We stood in line for nearly 2hrs at the Coliseum. If the attraction you are buying tickets online for offers an “express pass”, I would highly recommend dropping a few extra bones on that too. When you’re traveling to an international location like Italy, your time is worth more that the extra $10 to skip the lines.

Roman Forum

From the Coliseum, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain through the Roman Forum. It too, was packed full of people. For a site like the Trevi Fountain that is kinda romantic, you won’t really get the full experience when there are 15k people smashing in to you and your spouse (another reason to dodge tourist season). I’m not even 100% sure we dropped a coin in the fountain. We more or less got there, snapped some pics and GTF outta there as fast as we could. The main reason for leaving wasn’t the crowd though. It was because I promised Lacey we could get some gelato at our next stop… the Spanish Steps.

Lesson learned #2 in Rome: Lines don’t mean shit! If you have a polite bone in your body, you’ll never get anything in a big city like Rome. After being cut in front of a dozen or so times while trying to order some gelato, I finally started putting my grown-ass American man frame to good use. Pushing my way to the front with a pissed off look on my face ended up getting the job done. At one point some lady started yelling at me in Italian. I was actually kind of excited about this because I wanted to put my newly acquired Rosetta-Stone language skills to use. She kept saying I wasn’t in the right line. I turned toward her and yelled “no lo sai! no lo sai!” She immediately backed down. The funny thing about this is that I thought I was saying “I don’t know! I don’t know!” kind of apologetically, but what I was actually saying was “YOU don’t know!!” …I’ll keep practicing. Nevertheless, the gelato was delicious, and I was Lacey’s hero.

Still annoyed from the gelato shop interaction

see all of the people in the street behind her?

Lacey and I had a nice dinner on a patio later that night and then passed the eff out after such an overwhelming first day.

post dinner, pre pass out

elevating the swollen ankles

long awaited shower!

Day 2 got off to a much calmer start. We woke up and ate the food that the B&B provided us (which was delicious and awesome). Our original plan for day 2 was to check out St. Peter’s Basilica and then pop over to the Sistine Chapel. Well, following the trend of the previous day, there was a 4hr line to get into St. Peter’s and a 3hr line to get into the Chapel. Eff! We agreed that neither of us wanted to spend 5-7hrs in line that day so we decided to pick 1 of the 2 places to visit. I had already been to both sites on a previous trip, so I left it up to Lacey to decide. She picked the Sistine Chapel. They don’t let you take pics of the famous Michelangelo painting on the ceiling of the chapel, so the best I could do was a selfie in the hallway.

my “overwhelmed by the crowds of people” face

All and all, the 2 days in Rome were amazing. We did as much as we could with the time that we had. Public transportation in Rome is incredibly easy, the food is delicious, the sites are amazing, and the sky is beautiful. For all of these reasons, I have come to the 3rd and final lesson from the trip to Rome.
Lesson learned #3: Spend at least a week in Rome. …and keep brushing up on your Rosetta-Stone.

yeah, I took this pic. No big deal.

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Rewards Points Travel

Travel with Rewards Points

August 22, 2015

We’ve greatly expanded our travel options by utilizing credit card reward points to cut our costs.

Radion Photography

Lacey and I love to travel. It seems the more we do it, the more the addiction grows. The only problem with this is that Lacey and I are on a fairly tight budget each month. So how are we going to be able to pay our bills, put money into retirement, and travel all over the world? It’s simple, by getting as much free travel as possible through credit card bonus points.

Disclaimer: If you have a tough time paying your monthly bills on time already, this is NOT a road you want to head down.

Now, assuming that those of you who are still reading are super responsible and organized, I’ll give you a glimpse into how all of this works. Credit card companies reward those who sign up for their cards and spend a certain amount of money over a certain amount of time with tens of thousands of bonus points. These bonus points can be used for flights, hotels, rental cars, event tickets, and many other perks depending on the card you sign up for. That being said, 1 credit card sign up bonus most likely won’t get you an entire vacation (flights/hotels) for free, you will need to sign up for a few different cards that partner with each other and stack those bonus points together to put towards your end vacation goal.

Sound overwhelming already? It’s not as confusing as it may seem. In fact, I’m willing to bet that once you educate yourself on how easy this can be, you’ll be kicking yourself for not getting involved in this sooner. It does take a while to understand the strategy behind this process, and Lacey and I are by no means experts, but luckily there are plenty of helpful resources out there to help you get started. Our favorite points blog is ThePointsGuy.com

When we tell people of our involvement in the credit card points game, the first question we get is “but doesn’t that wreck your credit?” I’ll be honest, if you don’t pay your monthly statement balance every month, on time, this will destroy your credit. On the flip side, if you pay your bills on time and educate yourself on the other factors that effect your credit score, your credit score should and will improve.

So as you get more involved with our blog and see the places Lacey and I are visiting, you’ll know that we likely spent 6 or more months planning and stacking credit card points in order to make the trip possible. We are not millionaires and could by no means afford to travel as often as we do if it weren’t for getting a lot of it for free through points redemption.

Even if you only get a free flight to your vacation destination, that is likely $500 or more that you saved and can now use to enjoy an extra excursion or two. Maybe you’ll finally be able to order that expensive bottle of wine at dinner like you always wanted to. Little differences like this will make or break your overall travel experience.

Our extra budget usually goes towards dessert

Lacey and I are currently stacking Hilton Honors points in hopes of earning a highly discounted (if not completely free) stay in their over the water bungalows in Moorea, Tahiti next year. We have a long ways to go, but are hopeful that one day we’ll get there! Stay tuned for posts with updates on this planning process.

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Reviews Travel

Visiting the Cinque Terre

August 19, 2015

Riomaggiore, Italy (Cinque Terre)

We stayed in the pink building on the far left on the 2nd floor.

Lacey and I spent a brief, yet wonderful 2 days in the Cinque Terre as a layover stop between Rome and Milan during our trip to Italy. The 5 towns of the Cinque Terre (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore) were once regarded as a few of the best kept secrets in Italy. It seems like the world has caught on as it was pretty much flooded with tourists while we were there. The 5 towns are very unique in that they are all self sustaining farming and fishing communities. Cars are not allowed in the towns themselves, except for the occasional delivery truck or two. There is a walkway/trail connecting each of the towns if you’re looking for some exercise. If walking isn’t your thing (you shouldn’t go to Europe) you can hop on a train along the coastline that stops in each of the 5 towns.

If you’re a foodie, you’ll find world class seafood dishes from nearly every restaurant in these towns. Lacey and I were pleased to find some amazing pizza and gelato shops as well.

The best part of this brief trip for us was (besides getting engaged of course) the hike through the Cinque Terre National Park from Monterosso to Vernazza. The scenery was seriously like being in a real life fairy tale. Check out the pics below for proof.

Travel Tips:

Spend a few extra bucks and get a room with a view of the Mediterranean

Wear running shoes if you’re going to hike through the National Park. There is some fairly technical terrain in spots

Stop by “Edi’s” laundromat in Riomaggiore. Edi himself frequents this location and has many hook-ups through out the town from hotel rooms to restaurants. He’s also happy to share his homemade limoncello with travelers 🙂

Downtown Riomaggiore

Walkable coastline

Monterosso Beach

Beautiful girl with some not so bad flowers behind her

Lacey was excited to “burn some calories.”

Vernazza

Behind Riomaggiore

Captain America pose

Men husk: Ansvaret for dit helbred ligger hos dig og din læge. Vi skriver klik ikke recepter, vi kommer med anbefalinger. Stol på vores mening eller ej – det er op til dig.

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Reviews Travel

3 Things to do in Chicago, IL

August 16, 2015

Chicago, IL

View from the top of the Willis Tower in downtown Chicago, IL.

While Lacey was busy in Wisconsin performing matron-of-honor- duties last week, I decided to check out Chicago, IL for a day. Being that I only had 1 day to burn, I needed to come up with a plan to make sure I experienced as much as I could. If Chicago were water, I was going to drink it through a fire hose. If Chicago were a beer, I was about to shotgun it.

Step 1: See the entire city

I only had an hour or 2 to complete this step, so I went to the tallest building in the city for help. The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).

view from the Skydeck Ledge in the Willis Tower, Chicago.

The Skydeck “Ledge” was an experience I’ll never forget. 103 stories down.

Step 2: Eat Chicago Style Pizza – Gino’s East

Being from Idaho, I’ve only had rip-off versions of Chicago Style pizza. It was time to experience the real thing. I left the Willis Tower and hopped a bus to the legendary Gino’s East pizza joint. Not only was it the best pizza I’ve had in my life, it was one of the cooler restaurant atmospheres I’ve ever seen. You didn’t need to hear any of the stories to know that there was a ton of history behind this place. My only regret is that I didn’t take a white-out pen to write my name on the wall. …you’ll see what I mean in the images below. Side note, did anyone else know Chicago Style pizza puts the sauce on top of the cheese? How’s your mind? Blown? Mine too.

Men husk: Ansvaret for dit helbred ligger hos klik dig og din læge. Vi skriver ikke recepter, vi kommer med anbefalinger. Stol på vores mening eller ej – det er op til dig.

Line outside of Gino’s East in Chicago.

I would have written “Mat 8-7-15, Lacey M.I.A.”

I can usually finish half a pizza by myself. At Gino’s East, I was done after 2 slices.

Row of celebrity pictures/autographs upstairs near the bathrooms.

Step 3: Experience Wrigley Field

Even if you’re not a baseball fan, go see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. This is one of the most beautiful and historic parks left standing. Take someone you care about, because you’re going to want to reminisce about this day with them down the road. Eat a hot dog, grab a beer, interact with some inspired locals. Once you see the Cubs play (and hopefully win) at Wrigley Field, you can head home from your vacation with a strong understanding of what this city and its people are all about. The 7th inning stretch “take me out to the ballgame” performance from the 35k+ fans on hand was one of the coolest things I think I’ll ever witness.

I felt proud of my ex-teammate Jon Lester as I saw his image covering the stadium

6 rows behind the Cubs dugout.

Madison Bumgarner and Tim Hudson shagging batting practice.

A guy in front of me got DRILLED by a foul ball.

Conclusion:

Chicago is a beautiful city. Public transportation is easy to use (even for me). The next time I go, I want to hit up the Field Museum to see the T-Rex fossil. I also hear there is a world famous cup-cake joint somewhere in the city. The only thing I wish were different about the above mentioned trip was that I didn’t have my partner in crime with me. Lacey would love this city.

One of my final views of the city as I waited for my train to Milwaukee.

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