money

On Location: Hawaii

By: leelefever on January 3, 2006 - 11:22am
Our time so far in Hawaii has been marked by relaxation, exercise and food, lots of food.  Sachi's Mom is a wizard in the kitchen and there is always some wonderful smell wafting across our noses. 
 
All this food represents a bit of a conundrum for us. We're heading for places where people wear little clothes and we'll be emulating the locals I'm sure. While neither of us have problems with weight, I'm personally weighing more than I ever have at the moment and would prefer to start the trip on a less giggly foot.  We've heard conflicting reports about how travel affects weight.
 
Another conundrum regards being in Hawaii, but not taking advantage of the islands as most people would.  For instance, we're on Oahu, where Honolulu is located. We would tell people to really experience Hawaii, go to an outer island like Kauai. Yet, here we are for 7 days.  We looked seriously at going deep sea fishing which would have cost about $400 for two people. But we chose not to go.
 
Why? It's all about opportunity costs.  Hawaii will always be here for us, it's comparatively easy. Islands off the coast of Malaysia are not so easy, so we'll trade Hawaiian islands for Malaysian ones.  The same is true for fishing- we'll trade deep sea fishing in Hawaii for doing it in New Zealand. Each dollar we spend in America is a dollar we could spend in a place we may never visit again. It helps too that our dollar may buy more.
 
We're also saying goodbye to the last bits of Americana.  There can't be a better example than this, which we found on a walk around the neighborhood:
 

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Every Penny Counts, Literally

By: leelefever on November 28, 2005 - 1:26pm

Last night we marked a few more things off the to-do list and one of which was counting an old stash of spare change. It always amazes me how quickly miscellaneous coinage can build up over time.

Once we were done, we had about $120 in spare change, plus casino chips, foreign currency and a driving range token.   
Do you know what $120 can buy in India or Thailand? 

 Of course, we didn't waste money with Coinstar, those machines in grocery stores that count the money and take a %.  It took us about 30 minutes to package all the coins in the little sleeves.  Every little bit counts when you live the monetorium.


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