In preparing for our trip to San Diego this July, I decided to take our 06 Honda Odyssey for tire rotations. Hold and behold, the guy came back and told me "by law they can't rotate the tires, because the rear tires are really bad". So I was pretty shocked because it only had 43K miles on it. These tires are rated around 60K miles. But admittedly though, I haven't really maintained the tires properly (i.e., not rotating every 7500 miles) like I'm suppose to. So i guess, I deserved it. Anyway, they give me an estimate cost of around $655.00 with lifetime free tire rotations. It was a bit high, so I went to Costco and their estimate was $30.00 lower $626.00 this includes $60 discounts.
So my wife and I discussed it on how to pay for it. We had few important parameters.
First, we didn't want to use our CC to pay for it.
Secondly, we didn't want to use our EF either to make up the difference since vacation is not considered emergency.
Thirdly, if we go over the our budget we pay using our Debit cards ONLY.
Fourthly, we didn't want to spend more than $1800 for the whole trip.
Finally, we'll pay using our $1800 stimulus check.
Knowing this, it will take some compromising, nice hotels and all the amenities, perhaps eliminating our trip to Santa Barbara altogether. I already cancelled our original hotel reservations booked online which cost around $700.00. We booked instead something more affordable and to stay within budget. That saved us few hundred bucks. Here's the new breakdown of our budget:
$1800.00 Stimulus check
- $ 588.00 Hotels/San Diego/Santa Barbara
- $ 242.00 Gas (based on total 1150 miles)
- $ 626.00 New tires
- $ 344.00 Entrance fee SeaWorld/Zoo/food/gift
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0
My Union is giving us discounts for SeaWorld and Zoo tickets @ $35.00 per ticket X 8 = $280.00 which gives us $64.00 remaining for food. I don't think that will work for us. We'll probably will be eliminating our two nights stay in Santa Barbara which we'll save us $208.00. We might end up stopping by instead for a day.
We think this is workable. What do you guys think?
4 New Tires!
May 26th, 2008 at 03:49 am
May 26th, 2008 at 01:24 pm 1211808293
May 26th, 2008 at 01:54 pm 1211810089
Here in FL as a resident we get discounts to the major parks check and see if it is offered in CA it maybe a little less than what the union is giving you if not you can see if they'll beat the price if you buy directly from them. I agree with koppur the hotel seems a little high some times if you search online and called the hotels directly they'll have better rates than online. Disneysteve had given us this site vrbo.com you can probably get a condo for what you are paying for the hotel, and that way you can pack and cook your own food. Good luck
May 26th, 2008 at 03:10 pm 1211814648
The alignment was off in the back and the tires was being worn out from the inside thread. That's probably due to high loads that we carried in the past. With my Van, the shop said "I might have to rotate my tires every 5K miles to make things worn out evenly" and alignment every 15K.
Unfortunately there are no other discounts I could find lower than what our Union offers. But that's better than paying $59 adult per ticket and $49 for kids less than 10 years old.
May 26th, 2008 at 05:06 pm 1211821594