We had a great April and spent 10 days in Maui for the kids Spring Break. This is our first time visiting Maui and second time visiting Hawaii. Last year, we spent 10 days in Oahu. This time, we split our stay between Wailea and Kaanapali. Our airfares and hotels were all paid using points. Hawaii is EXPENSIVE with all caps and we saved a ton by using points. Our first hotel were going $800/ night while our 2nd hotel was at $1500/night. It makes more sense to pay our rental car from Costco and save our points for a more higher redemption rate.
This was also the first time that I travelled with a ton of food restrictions. I didn’t want to cancel this trip because of that. I just really planned ahead. Our first hotel, the Residence Inn in Wailea had a kitchenette and grills. We hit up Costco and Safeway to get groceries and ate all our food there. This hotel also have free breakfast and the boys and Mr. MMD were able to have it, while I ate my packed pork patties with sauerkraut and rice. The grounds of this hotel was really nice. MBP played basketball everyday. There was also a little put put and of course the pool. We spent our days going to Wailea beach in the morning and spent our afternoons in the hotel and enjoyed their amenities. We also did a couple of hikes and visited some waterfalls.
Our next hotel was on the other side of the island. I originally booked a room at Hyatt Regency but realized that the hotel doesn’t even provide a microwave. I cancelled the room three days before (I mean we were already in Maui at this time) and upgraded us to a 2 bedroom villa at the Hyatt Vacation Club. This place is swanky! The appliances on this villa cost quite a bit more than ours. it was beachfront with 6 different pools. We enjoyed this stay. AHP is already asking to come back and told me that next time we should stay longer in the second hotel.
Overall, this trip cost us $1,784.79. Our biggest single expense was our car rental, but groceries was also expensive. I mean, we paid $17 for a cantaloupe!! And you think that fruits should be very cheap in Hawaii, right. They actually import majority of their food. It is unfortunate since the islands used to be self sufficient. I think the locals grow their foods and the imports are mainly for the tourists like us!
We stayed at home after Spring Break and got busy with Easter. We went to our local high school again for their annual Easter Egg hunt and we also had one here at home and at my parents house. We went to MBP’s friends birthday parties and enjoyed our garden with a great weather back home.
For our expenses, we spent $9,874. Another expensive month for us. Let us take a look.
Property Tax – $3,771.6
We paid half of our property tax in April. This is only half and our house is the smallest house in the cul-de-sac. Washington State actually has one of the lowest property tax rate, but it is base on the value of your property and our property is probably on a $650k+ range. Again, that is the lowest in the cul-de-sac.
Groceries – $1,498
This grocery is high because this includes our food from Hawaii. We spent $623.87 in groceries, which includes a visit to Costco, Whole Foods and Safeway (2x). This is high considering we were only there for 10 days. There were some food that we donated to the food pantry on our way out. The rest are groceries here mainly from Costco and WINCO. I was also able to go to Trader Joes and got a lot of organic spaghetti because it is the one that the boys like. I’ve been wanting to increase my probiotic intake too and experimented on making some coconut yogurt. I discovered a coconut yogurt that I like but it is $9.99 per 8oz bottle. I just can’t imagine eating 4oz of that everyday. Anyway, I was not successful with it, but I also started making my own sauerkraut. I have another 2 weeks of fermentation for my next batch. MBP and I have been eating sauerkraut from Wildbrine that I get from Costco. This is the real fermented kraut and it is only $8.99 for a 50oz jar. It lasts us about a week and a half to two weeks. it is not as costly as coconut yogurt but I can only really get it at Costco and sometimes they change inventory and stop carrying them. Anyway, I’ll let you know once it is fermented. Crossing my fingers that I don’t get sick from it.
Travel – $813
This includes our car rental, parking and luggage fee. Parking in Maui is also pretty steep but we’d rather have a car since it gave us more flexibility to travel in the island.
Home Maintenance – $471
The spring on our garage broke. Mr. MMD said that he heard a snap in the garage and then suddenly we can’t open or close the garage door. We were able to call some one to repair it the next day. Funny enough that the guy fixing our door plays hockey in the same league as Mr. MMD.
Utilities – $468
Whoa – this is high. All our bills were paid this month which includes water, sewer, garbage, electric and gas. Our electric and gas was pretty high and everyone on our neighborhood complain about it with some neighbors paying $600+++. Apparently PSE raised the gas rate. Good thing that we switched our heating and range/oven to electric, so ours is still just $258.
General Merchandise – $433
Catch all from everything else. Probably an interesting thing piece of equipment we bought is a Vitamix. We bought it from Costco a couple of months ago for $399.99. This time it was on sale for $299.99. They can’t give me price adjustment anymore since it is past 30 days, so I returned it instead and bought anther one on the sale price. Costco will take everything back within a year so it is interesting that they don’t just do price adjustment. I did got the price adjustment for a portable Ninja blender that I used in Hawaii. I bought it for $79.99 for a 2 pack and it is now $59.99. I only needed one so I sold the other one to my neighbor for $25. Mr. MMD also bought some new hockey gears and I bought some seeds and 100 sweet potato slips. I planted 50 of them and I’m hoping that it gets warm enough here so we can actually get some yield.
Education – $382
This is tuition for AHP and $26 for MBP’s class field trip. I’m going to chaperone him and his classmates.
Gym – $320
We continue to pay for our YMCA membership and Mr. MMD’s hockey league.
Restaurants – $273
These are all from Hawaii. We ate out for lunch twice and went for ice cream or cookies after dinner in our hotel. I wished I can spend more here and visit a local restaurants more, but it just doesn’t make sense with all my food restrictions. I had a really good poke but didn’t feel well a couple of hours after. Nothing wrong with the poke, I just have sensitivity to eggs and I asked for an aioli which is a mayo based which is an egg. Oh well.
Pets/ Pet Care – $242
This is food and medication for our 10 year old Corgi.
Healthcare/Medical – $231.27
Our healthcare insurance was $92.9 for myself and Mr. MMD. MBP has a $20 monthly premium now too, based on our annual income of $78,000. We will probably spend more than $78k given our current spending. I also paid $50 for my dental copay and the rest are for labs and dr. visits copay. I went to see an ENT for my ear ache. I want to get it checked before our flight to Hawaii to make sure my ear drums are fine. Apparently it is still just the TMJ manifesting as an ear ache because it is so close together.
Clothing / Shoes – $204.39
Mr. MMD bought pants from the GAP for $94.57 and some hockey gear. His pants are starting to torn apart. I also bought some shorts from Costco for $10 and a couple of bathing suit from Marshalls.
Home Improvement – $193
Some trip to Home Depot and Ikea. Mr. MMD built raised beds for our garden. We keep adding more and I’m really enjoying the garden.
Gas – $178
This includes a tank of gas in Maui for $41.46. We are spending more in gas since I go to the gym almost every weekday and Mr. MMD drives to the city to play hockey.
Entertainment – $126
MBP’s PTA has their annual fundraising event to the Rainers Game. I bought 4 tickets for $20 each plus fees. We also paid to visit Iao Valley State Monument in Maui for $31.78 and we spent $8.30 to rent Space Jam 1 and 2 since MBP really wants to finish watching Space Jam 1 in Maui. He was watching it on the plane but wasn’t able to finish it. We then watched the 2nd one back home and it was horrible!
Kids Activities- $90
Soccer fees for AHP through our local YMCA.
HOA – $88
Dues and Subscription – $27.71
This is 2 months subscription for HBO Max and a month of Prime Subscription. Mr. MMD already canceled our HBO Max subscription.
Mobile phone – $25.34
We only used 1gb of data this month.
Gifts – $19.47
MBP and AHP were invited by a Campfire buddy to a pool party. The kids had a blast.
Auto – $10
I put money on our good to go pass.