Surviving an International Trip with Teenagers

 Last summer we decided to adventure to Europe and take the KIDS with us. 😮  We love to travel and have taken our kids on many vacations, but never overseas.  Not only for cost reasons, but we didn't want to undertake the challenge of corralling little kids in so many unknown areas.  Now that our boys are teenagers and "mostly" manageable, we decided to give it a go.

I don't do anything, especially vacation, without researching and planning it to death.  My brain doesn't let me be spontaneous, much to my husbands dismay.  For the amount of money I knew we would spend, I wanted to make sure we made the most of our time.  We booked our flight almost a year out to ensure we got a decent price and had room to change if needed.  Airline tickets are just expensive!

We had lots of discussions about all the different activities in all the different areas and tried to take into account what each family member wanted to see and do.  Ultimately we landed on half our time in London and half the time in Paris.  Since there is a highspeed train that travels between the two cities, it made it so easy to split our vacation into two destinations.   Now we just needed to pick activities and make a budget.  What I learned when researching activities is that many of the tickets needed to be purchased in advance, especially when traveling at peak season, while other tickets can only be booked a week or two out.  

As I do, I made a spreadsheet to start tracking what needed to be booked and what money needed to be saved.  As the prices crept further and further up, we starting ruling things out and narrowing down the things that were priority.  We decided on using public transportation to get around each city instead of renting a car and trying to navigate.  I was nervous about this, but after all was said and done, I can honestly say it wasn't bad at all.  London's underground trains are super easy to use and can get you just about anywhere you want to go pretty cheap.  I would recommend buying the underground train cards (oyster pass) ahead of time.  You can purchase the cards online and have them mailed to you, then you  preload them and are ready to start navigating the city as soon as you get there.  Paris was a little trickier, not only because of the language barrier, but because the options for train tickets and payment methods weren't as straight forward as London.  Once we figured it out though, it was easy to navigate.  I won't mention the time my oldest son got stuck on the wrong side of the turnstile from us because his card didn't work to get him through and he was freaking out because the attendant didn't speak English.  Obviously we didn't leave him.  College in Paris would have been a tad expensive.

Below is the spreadsheet I created with the amounts I estimated based on research and the actual amounts we paid.  The activities we planned and the ones we actually did plus all the extras that we didn't account for, which all in all didn't end up being too bad.  The hotel prices are for 2 adjoining rooms at each location.  We don't share one bathroom very well.  

I think the key to our survival when traveling with two teenage boys was ensuring they knew what to expect.  Lots of walking and some historic "boring" stuff to see.  To my surprise, they were so enthralled with being in London and Paris, that they complained very little about the walking and as long as each day included something they were interested in, they didn't mind the boring stuff Mom and Dad wanted to do.  They actually enjoyed most of it.  

We did end up doing most of the "Other possible activities" in London and a couple in Paris.  I wanted to leave some free time because I knew we would find new things to do that I hadn't found while researching.  We did see London Bridge, London Eye, and Westminster Abbey, we just didn't pay for the tickets for the actual tours.  We also saw Buckingham Palace, but as I learned while researching, they only allow tours certain times of the year, which was not when we were there.  We, of course, saw the Eiffel Tower.  I wasn't able to get tickets ahead of time because I missed the window to buy them and the line to buy them on site was insanely long.  We opted to just walk around on the ground and take pictures.

I was able to pick a very nice "reasonable" hotel in London that was very close to an underground train station.  We chose the Waterloo area based on reviews and proximity to things we wanted to see.  The hotel in Paris was also nice, but a bit further outside the main area than I would have liked.  It was about a 20 minute train ride to each of the activities, but the area we were in was pleasant, close to the station, and had places to eat and shop.   We stopped at the mini grocery stores in both locations each evening to get drinks and sweets.  Both the hotels included breakfast, so that was helpful with food costs.  Our hotel also had a microwave and by the time we had walked around all day, we were fine to just chill in the room and eat microwave food for dinner several evenings.  

I think our favorite activities were as follows:

    Evan (17 year old)-The Warner Brothers studio tour.  If you are a Harry Potter fan, this is a must see!

    Joey (15 year old)- His was a toss up between The Warner Bros Studio Tour and Disneyland Paris. This Disney wasn't as large as Disney World in Orlando, but still very fun!

  

Mike (Husband)- Stonehenge.  We did a tour that went to Stonehenge and Windsor Castle.  Stonehenge was so fascinating.  You can't get super close to it, but we were all impressed.  He also enjoyed Les Invalides, which is where Napoleon's tomb is kept.  That was very interesting.  Who knew he had such a large casket for such a small person.

 

I have a really hard time saying what my favorite was because we saw so many fabulous places, but if I had to narrow it down, I would say for London it was Windsor.  Not just the castle, which was amazing, but the whole area.  The tour that included a stop at Stonehenge also included a tour of Windsor Castle.  I had no idea that the area surrounding the castle was a super cute little town.  We were allotted an hour after we got to Windsor to walk around and get food before we went into the actual castle and then left to go back immediately after.  I really wish we would have had more time in the town.  I enjoyed the bus tour, but I think next time I would choose to drive to Windsor so we could spend the day.  

My favorite for Paris was the Paris Catacombs. This was an activity that we booked several weeks in advance, which I'm glad we did because they only take small groups down at a time and there was quite a long line of people waiting to get tickets.

This is not a type of vacation we would choose to do every year or even every couple years, obviously because of the cost, but also because the planning was quite time consuming.  I am super glad we did it though and would definitely recommend this itinerary to anyone wanting to venture to Europe.  We saw so much and were able to book most of it ourself!

Surviving your Bills with a Budget

 I have spent a lot of time creating and revamping a monthly budget that works for my family and is easily adaptable as bills and income change.  We all know a living budget tends to be fluid and can change yearly or much more often.  I love excel due to the ability to embed formulas, so that when one line item needs to be adjusted, the rest of the sheet is automatically updated.  For those that don't have excel, you can still keep a basic budget in a word or google document and adjust it manually as amounts change.  

The important thing when planning out your budget is to leave enough after each pay period to make it to the next pay period while accounting for all bills, but also for additions like gas money for vehicles and grocery money.  Don't just account for bills.  Be realistic about the money you actually spend.  If you eat out a lot, make a line item for it.  If you pay for daycare or give your teenagers money for sports or fun with their friends, make a line item for it.  If you travel or give money to charity, make a line item.  You may need to adjust your due dates on certain bills to balance out what you spend each pay period or set money aside to have enough for the next pay period.  Most utilities and credit cards will allow you to adjust your due date.  If your budget allows, you can make an additional payment to get ahead and then you can pay on a date that works for you each month following.

Below is an example of a basic budget that can be adapted to your household.  This is a great first step in organizing your finances and discovering where you spend your money each month.  

Once you have your bills and regular payments figured out, you can see what's left and then start tracking where the rest of your income is being spent.