Frugal Travel

How to create a Frequent Flyer Points Machine.

The tools you need to automatically earn 2% or 2X points on nearly every dollar you spend, creating a perpetual flow of frequent flyer points.

Most airline frequent flyer programs have become a joke. When I started travel hacking years ago, you could get a decent domestic ticket for 25,000 points and get tickets to the Caribbean and Mexico for around 35,000 points. No more. Sure you might be able to find one of those 25,000 point tickets they promote between two Rust Belt cities with a 5 AM departure and a three hour layover. Forget about flying anywhere near the holidays and get ready to hear them laugh if you’re looking to cash in points for a family of four directly with the airline, to let’s say the Caribbean, Europe, or even Florida. The airlines seem proud of the fact that they’ve become so superefficient through mergers and online ticketing algorithms that they only need to cough up a few regular seats per plane for frequent flyers, unless you’re willing to pay the premium, double sometimes triple points (then the seats will appear). I plan over six months out and I still can’t track decent ones down.

Unless you are flying alone, dealing with airlines to use your points is a waste of time. If you do get lucky and find a seat you can use points for, some airlines like British Airways will hit you with a $500+ “fuel surcharge” on top of the points you’re coughing up. On more than one occasion that surcharge to the UK or EU was more than the entire cost of the ticket from another discount airline like Norwegian Air or WOW airlines. Check out their $199 fares to Europe.

There is a solution.

I’ve been able to travel with our family of four once, sometimes, twice per year using high 2% reward credit cards. And yes, we were all on the same flight departing from and arriving to the airport we wanted. To do this we created a frequent flyer points machine using two cards from Chase, one business, one personal and an American Express card from Fidelity. [Read more…] about How to create a Frequent Flyer Points Machine.

See It All. Adventures in Thailand with a backpack and an iPhone.

03/15 by The Frug 1 Comment

My Longboat Captain and First mate.

I was hanging out on Khao San Road enjoying my last beer in Thailand. It’d been a whirlwind 12 day trip, exhausting, but in a good way. I was speaking with a couple from Australia, who joked, in a friendly way, that I’d seen more in two weeks and they’d seen in three months.

For a minute they must have been thinking “over scheduled American can’t relax”. Seeing more with less time was my plan all along. I met more than one person who was visiting for 3 to 6 months. With SuperK and kids back home, I did not have that luxury this trip.

I did, however, find that having a rough outline of a schedule, and using mobile apps, I actually ended up having more free time than I’d planned on. There’s a lot written about travel hacking and grabbing flights and hotels at the lowest price. There’s not as much about hacking your trip once you arrive.

For me, the planning process is part of the whole journey. Just 3 or 4 years ago, you’d have to carry around a thick travel book and clumsy maps and do your best at navigating the chaos of a city like Bangkok. This is not just about tourist attractions, In fact, mobile apps allow you to find the best restaurants, bars, hiking trails, and off the beaten path destinations.

Here’s a list of the apps I used for my Thailand visit, as well as recent family trips. All of these apps are multi-platform and sync across my desktop, tablet and mobile device. [Read more…] about See It All. Adventures in Thailand with a backpack and an iPhone.

The $300 Vacation Home

12/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Shack Builder Is Part of a Movement.

By Brad Beckstrom

Derek Diedricksen, or “Deek” for short, doesn’t fit the mold of someone who would be sought out to lecture at MIT. He’s not a famous physicist or a Nobel Laureate.

He builds tiny houses which he likes to call “relax shacks.” His yard is filled with these shacks in various stages of development. He also collects all types of salvage, often from the side of the road and trash dumps, to give his his small structures a one-of-a-kind appearance.

Looking at his backyard you might think, ”I’m glad this guy’s not my neighbor.” As a turns out, the neighbors love what he does and even let him build some structures on their land as well. In fact, people come from all over to purchase these shacks as fast as he can build them.

Shelter as Art

The Lunar Lander

If you look closely, you’ll see that each one of these shacks is really a piece of art. A piece of art you can sleep in. Deek spends a lot of time creating these structures in wild pen and ink drawings and then brings them to life using innovative, low-cost building techniques.

The results of his efforts become summer cabins, artist studios, home offices, lakeside retreats. Deek has years worth of designs he hasn’t built yet. He’s been doing some very cool hands-on, relax-shacks workshops up and down the East Coast. At this workshop, a small group (limited to 20 attendees) can actually bring one of his designs to life. He teaches people how to use hand tools, framing techniques, window repair, and salvage construction.

Burning Man or MIT

Is your wallet hurting your health?

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

“The best way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket”

– Will Rogers

This is excellent advice. However, my wallet is sitting out in front of me on my desk because my chiropractor told me it’s throwing my back out. Here’s what’s happening: Sitting on my not-so thick wallet is not only twisting my spine but it’s also compressing a large nerve that extends through the buttock and down my left leg. Ouch!

You see, my not-so thick wallet has gotten too thick with membership cards, business cards, healthcare cards, credit cards, debit cards, access cards, and even some cash once a while. I clean it out every week but it’s still too thick.

At the chiropractor, I open my wallet looking for my healthcare membership card and my HSA (Health savings account) debit card to pay my chiropractor to solve the problem. They also need to make a photocopy of each of said cards and my driver’s license – for the third time.

There are quite a few problems with men’s and women’s wallets.

The wallets are designed to hold a lot of stuff, inefficiently, making them thick and bulky. (see some new options below)
For men, we spend too much time sitting on them throwing out our backs and compressing large nerves.
For women, (based on a lifetime of observation in retail checkout lines lines and also being married) Women spend too much time rooting for their wallet through large purses with entirely too much stuff in them. Once the wallets are found in the large purse, the rooting begins again in the large wallet.
This problem increases for both sexes with age. Most young guys and gals tend to travel lighter. Mature adults and professionals of some sort seem to accumulate all kinds of crap in their wallets.
Old men and old ladies are off the charts keeping entire decades of information in their wallets. For a while, my mom had my birth certificate in her wallet, 20 years after I was living on my own.
If you lose said monster wallet, your whole month is pretty much messed up. Credit could be damaged, shit goes wrong. Yep, you forgot about that folded up check you had in there.
Speaking of losing wallets, if you travel frequently you will eventually be pickpocketed if you keep your wallet in your back pocket or in a purse. Best to carry something in your front pocket. In parts of Europe and South America pickpocketing has been elevated to an art.

Waterfront Frugal Living

09/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

A quick guide to living on the water for less.

I visited Baltimore last weekend and went for an early walk through Fell’s Point and Canton. Both neighborhoods are on the water and have a great maritime history. Just a week before, the city celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Star-Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry just across Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The two neighborhoods are part of a vibrant diverse waterfront community thriving with tourism, small businesses, local restaurants, coffee shops, and pubs. I walked along the waterfront promenade towards Canton, checking out one of the largest marinas in the area. The promenade was great for a walk, right on the water with plenty to see, smell and hear.

Well Hello Houseboat [Read more…] about Waterfront Frugal Living

Mix it up. Jumpstart your mind and body by mixing up daily routines and exploring randomness.

09/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Have you ever heard the story about brushing your teeth with your other (non-dominant) hand to stimulate the creative side of your brain? Well, I can tell you that this works. I came up with this idea about (mixing it up) while actually (mixing it up) and brushing my teeth with my right hand.

Actually, I do this all the time because if you brush your teeth with the same hand every time you can miss some spots. You’ll find that your non-dominant hand will brush in different areas and patterns so you’re not only stimulating your brain, you’re also benefiting your teeth and gums.

Okay, I’m done talking about teeth and gums so you can keep reading. [Read more…] about Mix it up. Jumpstart your mind and body by mixing up daily routines and exploring randomness.