Well, let’s find out how much money I blew for this 7 day, 8 night trip to Honolulu, Hawaii.

I brought $360 in cash with me along with my credit cards. My goal was to spend only $1,350 in total during this trip. Here’s what I can sort out. (Red ones are credit card charges)

  • $4.32 - “Breakfast” at Burger King at LAX (argh)
  • $2.40 - Two 1.5 liter water bottles at ABC Store
  • $6.65 - “Breakfast” for two at McDonald’s next to hotel.
  • $10.00 - Tried a “loco moco” for lunch. It’s so-so.
  • $26.46 - Curry House in Honolulu, dinner for four
  • $20.00 - Shrimp cocktail & garlic shrimp from shrimp farm
  • $21.89 - Wal-Mart, groceries (snacks/sandwich) to save moola.
  • $19.85 - Gas for rental Car ($2.40/gallon for 87 octane)
  • $80.04 - Cheesecake Factory, dinner for four
  • $13.49 - Pick an oyster/pearl, gift
  • $22.00 - Kayak rental for a double-seat kayak, split for two
  • $56.79 - Duke’s Canoe Club, lunch buffet for four
  • $10.00 - M’s Korean BBQ, dinner for one (pretty darn good)
  • $36.00 - Horizons, show at Polynesian Cultural Center
  • $57.10 - Car rental for four days, split between 4 people
  • $55.72 - Misc hotel charges, in-room safe and 4 day parking

I came back with $169 in cash, so I’ve spent $191 in cash. Total charge on credit card is $238.61 while flight + hotel was $867.87.

Total spent: $1297.48

Not too bad. At least it’s below my set limit. Lots of other expenses aren’t listed above, they’re mostly on food and activities that I don’t have a receip for. I really should have wrote down daily expenses, but I was busy being on vacation. I was given cash for many of the credit card charges listed above,so I’ve actually spent more cash than $191, but for simplicity I calculated expenses this way.

Setting a vacation budget is definitely tricky. I didn’t want to blow my entire savings account, but I was also on vacation and wanted to enjoy myself. I think I did okay overall, but I’m pretty sure there were lots of things I didn’t need to buy or spend money on. I’ll write more about vacation spending another time, I think that’s enough of that for now :)