Our Biggest Travel Expense Is Back Home

Our Biggest Travel Expense

I’ve spent years fine-tuning how I zero out most all of our travel expenses.  As we grew tired of vacationing at that rate, I optimized even more to align with updated goals.  Our redemption strategy evolved to how I could use rewards to augment our everyday lives unrelated to travel.  This involved cashing out a variety of rewards currencies, something we still do to this day.  But when it comes to getting out and about, our biggest travel expense is always back home.  I figured I’m overdue reflecting on these two beautiful creatures and how they intersect with our travel goals.

Dealing with Our Biggest Travel Expense

First One, Then Another

Things were different back in Spring 2021; perhaps you remember.  My family and I were and are only occasional travelers during our current life stage.  Travel augments our lives, but we aren’t defined by it.  And back then, we had zero interest in doing so.  Maybe you know where this is going.

We adopted our first dog just over five years ago, a gorgeous beagle-pit bull mix, from a pound about an hour away.  He was relatively plug-and-play, coming  house- and crate-trained.  The four of us immediately fell in love with the two year old.

Things went so swimmingly that about a year and a half later, we doubled down.  This time, we were smitten by a Cairn-Jack Russell mix.  We tested the prospective little brother with our first boy at a close-by SPCA, and they got along great from the get-go.  The spunky little guy proceeded to coax a volume from our beagle-pit we didn’t know existed.  It’s a beautiful racket.  Our neighbors somewhat agree.

Add In Travel

Before adopting them, my wife immediately went to the everyday aspects of the two dogs.  I reflexively went to how this would impact our travel goals.  Once we got traveling again, I knew it would still be relatively infrequent.  To this day, our family only takes two “big trips” – what we define as five or so nights – annually.  And some years, we don’t even take that many.

Naturally, I’ve held very low expectations for combining the dogs and travel.  My wife and I like the idea of traveling with our dogs, but not the reality.  It’s simply not practical for even the modest travel goals we’d like to accomplish with our two young humans.  Making our decision easier, we also knew the temperament of our dogs wasn’t exactly conducive to how we wanted to travel.

So we decided to look at boarding options.

The Right Situation

We visited multiple dog boarders of various styles.  Some were, um, very laid back, while others were a bit more regimented.  We also use a trusted neighbor so we can keep our dogs at home while we’re on shorter trips.  For the longer trips, we’ve gotten comfortable leaving them with our veterinarian who also has a boarding capability.  For where we live, it’s certainly not the cheapest option, but it’s reasonable enough.  Paying for a place we trust and are comfortable with is invaluable.

But when taking into account the daily rate plus grooming on the tail-end (get it?), those five to seven night stays are a substantial cost.  What makes it stick out even more is that the rest of the vacation is closer to “free” than that boarding figure.

How We “Cover” This With Rewards

We’re generally not interested in compromising our boarding situation by trying trying an option which may be cheaper or “free” when covered with a particular points methods.  Rather, we’ve taken a simpler approach.  We “cover” dog boarding and bathing with cash back rewards.  This has been straightforward and compatible with what we already do, since, again, we’ve been cashing out bank points for many years.  Still, I can’t exactly call the stay “free.”  That’s because if I hadn’t used that cash for the dog stay, it would’ve been available for something else.  Regardless, I rationalize this type of “redemption” for our biggest travel expense.

But for an upcoming trip this month, I’ll be trying something new.  The Chase Sapphire Reserve has a “pet supply stores and veterinary services” Pay Yourself Back category this quarter where I can obtain 1.25 cents per point value on redemptions for these purchases.  We’ll see if our dogs’ stay triggers this; otherwise, it’s back to the grocery store for more PYB.

Conclusion

Of course, if dog boarding and grooming is our biggest travel expense, that’s a good problem.  That means our family trips are overwhelmingly covered by points and miles.  Plus, this arrangement is the only current way we can have particular experiences without our dogs.  We may get to a point where travel with our dogs takes priority, but we’re not there yet.  Kudos to all of you who travel with your pets!

What have been your preferred methods to discount pet boarding and grooming?