Prep for being out of town for 3 1/2 months

We did a lot of things in prep for this trip.  One of the areas of prep was planning to be away from our home for an extended period of time.  So here are a few of the things we did to make sure everything was taken care of with the house and with our lives in general.

With the house, we have our nephew Brett MacLearnsberry looking after the house on a weekly basis, watering the plants, feeding the birds, general care for the house and the yard.  I know, we don’t have to feed the birds while we’re gone, but Krissie wanted to feed them through the winter (and that way they will already be there when we return, they won’t have to “rediscover” our feeders).  Our way of giving back to nature’s little ones while we are out.  We drained and turned off the hot tub outside, but we couldn’t figure out a way to easily drain the pond and waterfall without the pipes potentially freezing, so it will stay on while we are away (and Brett will keep it maintained).  Also, our four surrounding neighbors will be keeping an eye on the house for us while we are away, so we have neighborhood watch patrol.  There will be various times where Brandon, Jacqueline, the Newcombs and the MacLearnsberrys will be staying at the house while we are away as well.  A mini “staycation” for them.  We did empty and turn off the refrigerator, freezer and wine refrigerator in the garage, but kept the refrigerator on in the house.  We were able to put Comcast cable on hold while we are out, so it will be only $10/month for Internet and phone.  We turned off cable TV almost a year ago now and have not missed it.  We didn’t watch that much TV anyway and anything we want to watch now we can get on the Internet.  By putting a hold on our Internet and phone accounts, I can keep my comcast.net e-mail account (and can access it remotely during our trip) and we can keep our home phone number.  The phone will ring straight to voicemail and I will be able to retrieve voicemail remote via e-mail (Comcast has a new service that translates voicemails into an e-mail, pretty slick).

Mail delivery is a bit more difficult.  The US Postal Service only allows holding mail for 30 days at a time, so I completed the initial mail hold, but Brett will have to do it three more times before we return and collecting the mail at the end of each hold date.

Coco will be staying with Krissie’s sister, Kadi MacLearnsberry and their family (and their Samoyed, Aniki, who watches out for Coco).  She’s already in a bit of a panic over our pending departure ever since the suitcases have appeared.  She knows it’s not long before we’re off again.  Bruce MacLearnsberry recently saw Coco at one of our Friday night dinner gatherings and said to her: “Don’t worry, Coco, you’ll be home soon.”  At this point, Coco is probably wondering which home is her real home, since she’s spending so much time at the MacLearnsberry home while we are away.  I wonder how she will react when we return from this trip.

Almost all of our billing is on autopay, so the bills should be covered while we are out.  A few of the providers do not have an autopay option, so we either paid in advance (with our marina) or canceled the service (garbage pickup) or will be paying remote (propane for heating).

Our insurance company allows us to “garage” our vehicles, so we basically turn off everything except comprehensive coverage while we are out.

We already filed for the automatic extension for our taxes, so we will be doing that when we return.

It’s amazing how many bills we have accumulated in our lives and interesting to look at what it costs to essentially “run” a household and what can be turned off when you are gone.  Now I’m beginning to understand the comments of a couple of the experienced world cruisers who said that their expenses while away were essentially the same as at home.  Yes, the cruise cost itself is an additional expense, but once that is paid, all meals and entertainment onboard are essentially covered.  So while at home there would be expenses for food, utilities, vehicles, entertainment, etc., there are none of those expenses while onboard.  There are expenses for the tours taken at the various ports, yet those expenses are roughly comparable to the ongoing expenses while at home.  Nope, this cruise is not an effort to save money on our part (although the cruise itself was a super deal, we were able to get it at 50% off pricing), but I am now beginning to understand the part about the reduced expenses while on the cruise.  I know how much we set aside each month for ongoing expenses and have estimated our expenses may actually be slightly less while onboard.

Hmmm…one other thought on the expenses that I hadn’t considered until now.  We only have two suitcases and they will be pretty full, so we really can’t buy any more clothes.  So that means that Krissie won’t be able to shoe shop or clothes shop for 3½ months?  This may end up being an even better deal than I thought!

That said, Krissie basically views our vacations as one long shopping excursion and she always finds a way to fit another item (or two or three…) into her suitcase.