Planning

Since my boyfriend and I are splitting the cost of this trip, I'm keeping a spreadsheet of everything I spend money on. I'm also using this spreadsheet to keep track of things we want to do and places we want to eat. It's easy to get overwhelmed when you search "restaurants to eat at in Paris", so whenever I see something that stands out, I add it to my list. When it comes to this trip I have a serious case of FOMO, so I don't want to get there and not have an idea of where to go (other than the big touristy things), and then regret not going somewhere later!

That said, here's my current spreadsheet:

Expenses

This column is for the stuff that we'll be splitting, and it's a good way for me to track costs. I'll be using this spreadsheet after we get back to see how much we spent on everything, so the rest of the categories will be filled in later. I think these are all pretty self-explanatory. The links for hotel and insurance will take me directly to the confirmation pages for both of those, which I was unable to do with the airfare tickets (I tried, but AA makes you search every time). You can see at the bottom I have a running total of what I've spent so far.

The total is a little inaccurate because of the $60 for our phone plan. It's $10/day only if you use data or text/call while you're in a foreign country. I'm going off the assumption that we'll only be using one of our phones with data while we're there (the other one will be kept on airplane mode while there's no wifi). It will be added to our phone bill, which we split anyway, but I didn't want to forget it as a trip expense. This amount could go up if we accidentally use both phones internationally on any of the days, or it could go down if we go some days without using data at all.

I'll also need to check back after to make sure I have the correct amounts for what the airline and hotel charged me. We could (read: will probably) end up with extra fees for both of those.

To Prepare

This one is for things we need to take care of before we leave. I'm mostly using this list so I don't forget certain things, like checking how much my bank charges my cards for foreign transactions.

To Buy

Here's a list of supplies/expenses that my boyfriend and I are paying for separately. The only thing I've purchased already is my passport, but I'll obviously add more totals as I buy things. This list is also helping me make sure I buy all the products I'll need before we leave. If I end up spending money on anything else while we're there, I can also add that to this list (although I think most miscellaneous items will fall under "souvenirs"). 

To Do

This obviously is a list of things I've thought of for us to do while we're there. We definitely won't be getting to everything on here, but it's at least a place for me to add things that look interesting so I don't forget about them. Then we'll go back and decide what we actually want to try to do later.

To Eat

My last category is just a list of places I've seen recommended for getting food in Paris. There are so many restaurants and cafes and shops that it would be impossible for me to pick where we'll actually end up eating during our six days in Paris (and I wouldn't even want to), but this is at least a good starting point. Anywhere I see online that has good reviews, is recommended as "the best" for something, or just looks like a cool eating experience I'll add to this list. That way we'll have some places to keep in mind to hit up while we're there, but still plenty of opportunities to just wander around and pick somewhere at random. I also have descriptions for this one because otherwise I'll never remember why I added each of these.

Keep in mind that I'm trying to save money as much as I can, so my list is going to be affordable places with good reviews or places we can go for street food and ingredients to prepare for ourselves. I'm not keeping a list of really high-end restaurants that are "a must-see" in Paris, because we're not trying to get fancy with it.

Airfare

Unless you go crazy with your sleeping situation, airfare will likely be your biggest expense when traveling abroad. If you read my introductory post, you'll know that my trip was somewhat on a whim. I had been tossing around the idea of taking a trip to France, but I wasn't seriously considering it until the morning I bought my tickets. So how did I plan?

I signed up for Scott's Cheap Flights.

Basically the people who work for this service keep an eye out for tickets that are cheaper than average, and when they see a good deal, they send out an email about it. So I was getting emails from them maybe every couple days. This mostly works for people who don't have strict plans for a vacation already, because if you do then you likely bought your plane tickets first. But I knew that I wanted to travel some day and I love a good deal, so I thought it would be fun just to see what's out there. I actually got an email from them one morning that there was a big sale for European flights, and that was the morning I decided to buy my tickets.

I headed over to Google Flights.

I used the price graph and put in that I was looking for 7 days, and then scrolled through the dates to see which one had the lowest minimum price. I wanted to leave sometime in early-mid September, but that still gave me a lot of flexibility for my dates. I found the dates with the lowest price around that time, and then picked one that looked good. Monday, September 11 ended up being my target departure date, and since I wanted to be there for a week my return date was Monday, September 18.

I searched for those dates on my credit card rewards website.

Luckily, the prices I found matched what I had seen on Google. I chose 2 round trip adult tickets and used all my rewards points to take a portion off the bill. I didn't open my credit card specifically to buy plane tickets, it was just something I had. Since it rewards me with 2x points on gas and groceries, I always used it when I did my grocery shopping and then paid it off right when I got home. I also happened to open my card when my bank had just released them, so they were offering a special where you got 10,000 bonus reward points for spending a certain amount within the first few months. Overall I had about 23,000 rewards points saved up over a year, almost half of which were a bonus from my bank, and it took a couple hundred dollars off my ticket price.

Here's the breakdown of my tickets:

Ticket 1
Round trip for 1 adult redeeming 23,200 rewards points: $176.43

Ticket 2
Round trip for 1 adult redeeming 0 rewards points: $466.43

Total: $642.86

A couple days later, I had the nasty surprise of going to American Airline's website to look at my reservation and seeing a total price of $932.86. I saw the fine print that the cost of my tickets wasn't including fees from the airline, but I had no idea it would be a 50% increase in ticket price. Considering the fact that normally 1 round trip ticket to Paris can be $800-$1000 or more, and I got 2 for that price, I think I did pretty well. But I was still completely shocked when I saw that number. Now I know, and you do too. Learn from my mistakes.



^{*Note: I do not get any compensation from the services discussed in this, or any other, post. I am not affiliated with them whatsoever, I'm merely sharing my experiences and the tools I used.}

Background

When I was in 5th grade my elementary school offered a selection of after-school foreign language classes. My friends signed up to take French, and I wanted to join them. I had never really thought about learning another language, but I knew that my last name was French and I knew that I wanted to do what my friends were doing. My parents didn't give me the money to sign up for the classes, but my 10-year-old self was determined not to be left out. I begged my friends to teach me what they learned. I borrowed their worksheets and studied them during recess. I learned to count to 10, recite the alphabet, and say "hello". Those classes were short-lived, but they set me up for lifelong love of anything French.

In 6th grade we were all required to take a world cultures class. We had three sections to teach us the basics of French, Spanish, and German. The year after, we were allowed to pick our own language. I don't need to say which one my friends and I went with. Although I was never so ambitious as my friends, I never took advanced classes or learned an instrument or did any of the other things you're supposed to do to get into a good college, from then on we always had French together.

We were like those kids who get uncomfortably obsessed with Japan, only we chose to love a European country, so it was a little more socially acceptable. We spoke French to each other during lunch. We invented fake verbs to conjugate according to French standards. We had French-themed dinner parties in the winter and French picnics in the spring. We watched French movies and listened to French music and ate French food. There was a lot that I didn't have in common with my friends, but I always knew I'd be with them for at least one hour during the school day while we learned about the difference between passé composé and passé simple.

Suffice it to say, one of my biggest dreams growing up was to visit France. I may have forgotten a lot of my French vocabulary over the years since graduating high school, and I never thought that a European vacation could really be possible, but that ember never burned out. Now, 14 years after that first kernel of worldly curiosity buried itself in my mind, those dreams will be coming true. I decided that there's no better time than the present, that I have to stop putting it off, and I spontaneously bought two round trip plane tickets one morning before work. In early September I will be visiting Paris for a week with my boyfriend.

It's only been about a week since I began planning, but I've already realized that this is a much bigger undertaking than I expected. I've decided to keep a blog of my trip, and the planning it entails, not only for posterity but to hopefully help others who are following the same dream as me.


À bientôt!