Where we started

I’m trying to teach my kids, it’s okay to make mistakes. That’s where the real growth happens. I’m learning how to as an adult. Perfectionist me, would have never started this blog because I would be too involved in the details and final outcome. Instead of, just starting the blog. Just start earning the points. Just start planning the trip…

My husband is very skeptical, and points were very overwhelming. Last year we started with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless which has an annual fee of $95. I just wanted to jump in and start.

In a year we stayed 5 nights in Omaha, Nebraska, a few nights in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a 2 night staycation in a local suburb for their pool. We chose options driveable and close to us. We still currently have 90,000 points for some of our trips this upcoming year. We plan to drive to 30A this summer. We will use some points for hotel stays along our drive. We will also be going back to milwuakee for a weekend and possibly Mall of America. Those are just our summer plans. These trips will all be using our boundless points in about a year and a half. We put all our expenses on this card for the year. Like, grocery shopping, gas, preschool etc.

We also opened a Capitol One Venture card with the promo of 75,000 points and $250 credit travel voucher. I already used to the $250 voucher for a flight to Nashville for a bachelorette party and we still have the 85,000 points to use.

Once we completed the promo bonus on the Capitol One Venture Card, we moved on to the great promo for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. We are switching all our expenses to this card. After we spend $5k on this card we will get 100,000 points.

Already some mistakes I have learned that we made, was probably the Marriott Bonvoy card. Once our annual fee comes back around, I will downgrade this card and try out a Hyatt or Hilton card. My husband and I also made each other authorized users on all of these three cards. In the future we would not do this, so we can use our referal link with each other and receive the sign on bonuses again!