A Life Changing Vacation
Two working moms escape for a long weekend and return happier, more patient parents.
In between volunteering at the preschool, the two began fantasizing about a weekend trip to the tropics. The only catch was paying for it while still having money left over for bills. Then Shine saw an ad in the Seattle newspaper for cheap packages to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. "Alaska Airlines was offering vacations for $450 for airfare and hotel," she says. "That was a deal from Seattle." So what if they had to travel during hurricane season? "We're Seattle-ites," says Shine. "We didn't care. It was still better there in October than it was here."
It was spring when Shine sleuthed the affordable fares, and soon the two were concocting ways to save for a trip the following fall. Linde calculated that by bringing a homemade lunch to work instead of buying hospital cafeteria food three days a week, she'd be able to save without taking away from the family budget. Shine planned to use her waitress tip money to pay for family expenses and save her waitress paycheck, which at the time—ten years ago—was about $2.75 an hour, for Mexico. It took six months, but by October the two had what they needed.
