I'm SO tired of talking about money, Christine - updated

There has been a request to paint the whole picture so people can save the appropriate amount for OKI. Not a bad request at all! Here are my best approximations, but as we know from the house payments, sometimes an approximation isn’t as close as we’d like.

House	Car Rental	Airfare	Groceries
$ 349.41	$ 44.00	$ 188.00	$ 30.00	$ 611.41

We estimate that the total cost, including flights, car rental, and house rental will be around $611 per person, plus gifts and seafood. This is just an estimation, so don’t hold this as Bible truth or carve it into your arm, or something. Not that you do that, of course.

Freak.

AIRFARE: I’ve been watching the ticket prices since August, and they haven’t really fluctuated at all. It’s been staying just under $200. Right now, it’s $188, taxes included. That’s something that we’ll each purchase on our own as we want to. The flight on United leaves MCI at 7:15am, and arrives at ILM (Wilmington) at 12:09pm.

CAR RENTAL: Car rental prices also haven’t really moved since August. We’ll rent one car, and it’ll be $170 for the rental, including tax. That breaks down to $34 per person, plus $10 per person for gas. In the past (last year excluded), car and gas money has been due the day of the trip. We’re going to do it that way this year, to avoid anyone getting cheated out of money (Erin). I’ll just put the car deposit on my credit card (I promise Erin, this year I understand the whole deposit thing!!), and when we return the car I will use the cash everyone gave me on the 28^th to pay the bill. If we use less than $50 in gas, I’ll give you the cash back at the end.

MISCELLANEOUS: I am having a hard time estimating how much we spent on groceries the last few years. I know that we have to purchase all of the paper goods, like toilet paper and paper towels, all of the spices and condiments, etc. in addition to the food. I don’t remember it being a lot of money, especially since we tend to buy the cheapy brands (since it just don’t matter!). So…I guess I’d estimate that it’d be somewhere between $1 and $1,000. I’m thinking it may have been around $30 a person last year. As far as gifts, that’s personal discretion.
Also, if you love seafood, most people went to the fish market every day and bought fresh seafood. So keep that in mind as another possible expense.

I know Christine will be spending a lot on gifts for me!

If you have any questions, let me know blah blah bliddy blah.

-Jennifer L. Meyer
Senior Accounting Executive
OKI 4 Vacation, Inc.

2nd Payment Update

Ok, kiddies. The 2nd payment of $1234.40 is due the FIRST WEEK IN JUNE so be sure to get your payments to us, by then. I have included a breakdown of what is owed and by whom. Please note that this was a real pain in the butt and needless to say I'm not in the mood for your crap if you don't like the way it looks or whatever. The numbers are right, and everything is kosher so don't worry.

Click here to view the payment breakdown

You'll notice that even though our TOTAL paid each is the same, that Payment #2 totals are different for Jen and myself. That is because we paid the reservation fees on the two houses we had reserved back in the day when we started this whole adventure planning session. So we included that in the total, and made sure that everybody pays the same amount.

You'll also notice that Jen and I are paying an extra 3 cents. That is because for SOME REASON BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION the totals weren't adding up and I so I just said eff it, and gave myself and Jen the extra $0.03 and called it a day. So….shuddup.

I do feel the need to apologize to everyone, though. This is a unique year...the taxes and fees were much higher than in the past, so I was off by about $30-50 when I estimated everyone's payments in the beginning. I estimated everyone paying $300-320 total, and it's ending up to be $350. I also promised a lower second payment, which didn't happen because OIA changed their policies. See, normally they made us pay all the extra rentals and ALL the fees with the first payment. This year, the extra rentals went on the second payment and the fees were split evenly between the two payments.

So, sorry that the 2nd payment isn't what you might have been expecting to pay. All I can say is…OIA can't do math, and we can't do much about it. But please know that we are not happy either and so your frustration is shared. The total amount is the same, but the fees are higher and their payment schedule is lame (in that the two payments aren't equal halves).

ANYHOO…the 2nd payment due is $184.41 per person ($368.82 per couple) that is due to Jen and myself NO LATER than the FIRST week in JUNE. Did you hear that, Dave? First week in June. Write it down, take a picture...whatever it takes to remember. lol

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Reservation fee: $28.25
Payment #1: $1155.00
Payment #2: $1234.40
Reservation fee #2: $28.25
TOTAL: $2445.90
Total per person: $349.41

Total due for Payment #2 (per person): $184.41

Thanks all! Looking forward to OKI and our vacation! Only 182 days left! Wooooooo!

First Payment is Away!!

Well, we were able to find a suitable bottle, shove some money into it, and throw it far into the ocean in the hopes that it will reach its target at a reasonable time. With any luck, it will wash up on the shores of Oak Island in time for OIA to make our house rental official.

Soon it will be ours! Oh, yes. It will be ours.

The first payment of $1155 was mailed Express Overnight Mail this morning, so Oak Island Accomodations should be getting it sometime tomorrow, assuming Mr. Murphy doesn't tag along for the ride.

The second payment will be due about 2 months before our check-in date, so we're looking at having the payment to OIA by the first week in June.


So...for those of you who waited until the last possible minute to send in your payment...this is your official notice that Payment #2 will be due THE FIRST WEEK IN JUNE 2007. I'm not going to name names here, but Dave if you wait until the last minute again, I might have to beat you to death with your own feet.

That being said, it's great that we have our first payment in, and this means that the house is officially ours!!!! I know you're all excited like I am, I can feel it.


Can you feel it? It's getting closer with everyday! Check back here for updates and our OKI Countdown Clock!

-Eric & Jen