Vacation Spending: Lake Willoughby, Vermont

Last weekend, Mr. Dink and I took a much needed mini vacation! We’re nearing the end of summer here in Vermont, and until last weekend, no vacations had been had so far this summer in our household. We’re all about spending intentionally over here, and so today I’m sharing all of our spending details from our weekend trip to Lake Willoughby, Vermont. And if you ever find yourself in that area, you’ll even find some recommendations sprinkled throughout this post!

Why Lake Willoughby

Lake Willoughby is a VERY special place for me. Like, it’s one of my favorite places of all time. I grew up going “up” to Lake Willoughby from my small hometown in New Hampshire with my best girlfriend who I’ve known since we were 2 years old (we’re just over a month apart in age). Her family owned a cabin (we called it the “Sugar Shack”) with another family. It had no running water or electricity. We would have to sweep many a mouse poop from the floors and off of the mattresses when we arrived. It wasn’t on the lake. But we LOVED going to that camp. It was up in the woods, with total privacy, and not another neighbor in site. And it had the most glorious back deck that, as long as it wasn’t raining, we spent ALL our time on.

My friend’s family has since sold said cabin, but she continues to go up to Lake Willoughby every summer with her husband and kids. She has two 10-year-old twin boys, and up until the COVID pandemic went and changed all of our lives, I saw them A LOT, including meeting up with them at Lake Willoughby every summer.

In the past few years, for many reasons, it’s become less and less easy for me to get to Lake Willoughby to spend time with them. There was one year we didn’t go because we had just had a house fire. One year, their stay didn’t overlap with a weekend, and I didn’t want to take the time off of work. They didn’t go another year. Then, COVID happened, and before the vaccines were around and available, I just went up for the day so I could see them outside and socially distanced.

So, when my friend told me this year that they were going, and that it overlapped with a weekend, I knew immediately that I wanted to make this happen. Plus, I had added a new “friends and family” category to my goals that I set for the year, and this aligned perfectly. Add to that the fact that I have really been embracing intentional spending this year, and there was no question that I would spend the money on this getaway.

In the past, I had always relied on my friend to let me stay with her or to get some of her family friends to let me stay with them. I knew this year I didn’t want that (I’m a tried and true adult now after all, right??). Plus, I wanted Mr. Dink to come with me! Due to all the craziness of the past few years, Mr. Dink had never gone with me on a visit to Lake Willoughby, and I really wanted him to come experience a place that meant so much to me (he’d never been before). All I had to do was tell him it was important to me and that I would do all the planning, and he was completely on board.

Why just one weekend

There are a few reasons we only went to Lake Willoughby for one weekend versus an elongated stay.

The main reason we chose a long weekend has to do with our vacation time. Mr. Dink works for himself, and so whenever he takes a day off of work, it means no income for him. For me, who still works a 9-5, my paid vacation time is precious.

Mr. Dink and I love living in Vermont year-round, but especially in the summertime. We also don’t really love air travel (and especially now with COVID), and since a majority of folks seem to travel in the summer, likely due to kids being off school, we choose to stick around close to home during the summer and take our vacation around our birthdays (February and May) and in the fall, when kids are back to school.

Because of that, especially for me, my paid days off are limited in the summer. I’ve either used much of them already or I’m stockpiling them for later in the year. However, a day off here and there seems perfectly reasonable (and doesn’t completely derail Mr. Dink’s schedule).

I actually wasn’t even going to take Friday off for this trip. I figured we were traveling within the state (although it’s still a 2.5-hour drive), we could get there late and eat dinner out on the way, and still have it be a fabulous vacation. However, I ended up working on a really stressful project the 2 weeks leading up to our trip, and at the thoughtful suggestion of my accountability partner (she’s truly the best), decided to take the first of my 3 allotted personal days on Friday to 1) celebrate being done with a horribly stressful project and 2) extend our trip by a bit.

I am SO GLAD I made this decision, as I feel it changed the whole trajectory of the weekend. The simple addition of one extra day took it from a good trip to a great trip.

The second reason we chose just a weekend for this particular vacation may not be very glamorous but is the truth, so I’ll share it. I love my friend dearly, but her family can be a lot! Mr. Dink and I feel that one long weekend is a perfect amount of time to spend with these friends. All friends are different, and this just happens to be our preferred time to spend with these specific ones. Coupled with the vacation time reason, we felt great about this decision.

What we spent

Between this being our one main splurge of the summer and me getting better about intentional spending, or letting go of guilty feelings around spending on things that align with my values, we did not give ourselves a budget for this trip and decided to spend (for the most part) to our hearts’ desires.

We spent a total of $597.44 on this weekend trip. Read on to see the breakdown!

Where we stayed

We spent $310.97 on this AirBnB for the two of us for two nights.

When my friend told us that they were going to Lake Willoughby this year, and what the dates would be, I immediately got on AirBnB to see what was available. To my surprise, I found a private room with a KING BED. This is a big point of contention for us when we travel. Mr. Dink and I sleep in a king bed at home, and we both highly priotize good sleep. When we go on vacation without a king-size bed, we find we don’t sleep very well, and so it’s always a bonus when we can sleep in a king bed on vacation.

The room had good reviews, and it was less than a mile from where my friend was staying, so we booked it immediately.

Aside from a check-in snafu (which got resolved but resulted in us waiting 45 minutes to be able to get into our room), I would absolutely recommend staying here if you ever find yourself in Lake Willoughby and in need of a room. It had everything we needed and wanted (private entrance, bathroom, mini fridge). As a bonus, it was right above the Willoughby Lake store, which served breakfast, lunch, and dinner; had an ice cream window (with some really delicious ice cream); AND had an outdoor bar (for the win).

We typically like to get an AirBnB with at least a kitchenette so that we can at the very least cook breakfast where we’re staying, but being right above the store, the short length of our stay, and us not being on a budget more than made up for the lack of a kitchen/kitchenette.

What we ate

We spent a total of $221.34 on food for the weekend.

Friday evening, on our way to Lake Willoughby, we stopped in St. Johnsbury and ate at Kingdom Table. We spent $99.05 on dinner (including tip and alcohol). We highly recommend this place if you’re ever in the area! We had been one time on our way to New Hampshire to see family and absolutely loved it then. We were hesitant to go this time because we had read some recent bad reviews, but they were mostly about the service being exceptionally slow, and we decided that this is a common issue right now that we experience whenever go out due to staff shortages. However, since we were in no rush to get to Lake Willoughby on Friday evening, we were happy and willing to give it another try, even if the service ended up being slow. We’re so glad we did! The service was great when we went. If you go, make sure to get the parmesan truffle fries if that’s your thing: they are the best I’ve ever had!

Saturday morning, we decided to get breakfast sandwiches at the store below our AirBnB. They were delicious, and we spent $12.90.

For lunch, after we did a little light hiking (I’m limited on what I can hike right now due to a knee issue, but if you’re a hiker and ever want recommendations for the Lake Willoughby area, don’t hesitate to reach out to me, as I’ve been hiking there for years!), we decided to eat at the outdoor bar connected to the store. It did not disappoint! We spent $34 on lunch, and that included tip and a Conehead beer made by Zero Gravity Brewing for Mr. Dink (one of our favorites).

Of course, we just HAD to try the ice cream after lunch. We spent $7.60, which included a small mud pie in a dish for me. As someone who orders ice cream out infrequently but typically gets a maple soft serve (called a creemee in Vermont) if ordering in the summertime, hard ice cream was a real treat, and it was fabulous!

On Saturday evening, our friends paid for everyone’s pizza from Parker Pie (it was delicious). And Sunday, on our way home, we stopped at Lost Nation Brewing for lunch, which we had also been to one time before, and spent $67.79. This time was even better than the first! They have completely redone their outdoor area. It felt super safe and cozy, and the food was fabulous! Highly recommend if you’re in the area and like beer and good food.

What else we spent

Rounding out the total, we also spent $33.13 at the liquor store on the way to our AirBnB (Mr. Dink likes to treat himself to a special bottle of bourbon on vacation, and I “splurged” on a small Bota Box, my now-new-favorite thing for travelling; I am STILL drinking it this week, and a Mai Tai in a bottle: first time trying it, loved it, and I got to share it with my friend sitting around the campfire, win win!).

We ended up needing to buy some Advil from the store for a pesky headache, and we decided on a $7 bottle that I could leave in my car for future trips where we have inevitably forgotten the Advil (again).

We also have to factor in gas to our spending total! We used a half a tank of gas, which in my 2013 Subaru Crosstrek is about $25 with current prices.

Takeaways from this trip

In case you haven’t noticed or you’re new to my blog, I love to reflect on things. I’ve noticed two main thoughts that keep swirling around in my brain since we’ve gotten home from this trip that I’d like to share in closing.

Vacations should be taken and planned for

Honestly, I couldn’t believe how much fun Mr. Dink and I had on such a short vacation. I think most of it had to do with 2 things: 1) my being willing to spend money without guilt and 2) planning.

Because I had intentionally put “meaningful time spent with friends and family” on my list of goals for the year, when it was time to make a decision on whether to go on this trip or not, I didn’t hesitate.

I also did a lot more planning than I usually do. I typically procrastinate on planning, to the point where options then become limited (especially on where to stay). Once I knew we’d be taking the trip, I immediately started planning. And I was also intentional about my planning! I knew we’d really enjoy ourselves if we got our own place, with our own space, and had some time to do a few things on our own in addition to seeing my friend and her kids. Since they were going from Saturday-Saturday, I booked a place for me and Mr. Dink from Friday-Sunday, and we took the day off Friday so we could make it a long weekend.

A change is a-coming

We got home from this trip a little later than we had planned on Sunday. Typically, we like to get home by lunchtime on Sunday to have enough time to mentally and physically prepare ourselves for the week ahead. But one of the twins begged us to stay a little longer so that we could go to a natural rock slide (who can say no to that??), and we wanted to stop and get lunch on the way home, so we didn’t get home until around 3 pm or so.

I had to go to the grocery store to get groceries for the week, do laundry, and take care of some other chores. I didn’t mind, because I was in SUCH a great mood from the weekend, and Mr. Dink and I reminisced and reflected all evening on how much fun we had. The ONLY thought that kept creeping in to my mind and putting a small damper on my fun was thinking about having to work the next morning.

As I’ve said in other posts, I don’t mind my job, as I’ve found a relatively good fit that works for me in the 9-5 setting. I get paid well, I have limited stress, and I like my boss.

At the same time, I am well aware of the financial goals I have set for myself. I am currently Coast Financial Independence (FI), meaning that if I didn’t save another penny for retirement, I’d still be able to retire comfortably at traditional retirement age.

But I don’t want to wait until traditional retirement age to retire, so my current plan is to get to Flamingo FI (half my FI number), and then go down to part time or start freelancing (if my employer doesn’t go for part time).

I became acutely aware of how close I am after this vacation. I want more time in my weeks and years than what traditional employment gives me to have these experiences, to spend more time with my friends and family while I’m young and healthy.

As happens often, this vacation made me wonder if I might want to up my timeline. Do I really need to wait until I reach Flamingo FI to downshift a bit? These are the questions I ask myself all the time, made more apparent by a fabulous mini getaway.

To me, though, this is the best part about living a slow FI path. Being on this financial journey gives me options. F-You money gives you options. And it’s up to us to decide what works for us and when. And we can change our minds! I know I do just about every day 🙂

How’s the end of your summer going? I’d love to hear from you!