The price we pay in an LDR

[Jazi]

My SO and I are planning for me to make the grand journey to the UK early June for our next trip. This means I will be flying into the European summer meaning big bucks on flights..

I mean, I KNEW it would cost this much when we started thinking about it but when i'm actually about to hand the money over I always worry about spending so much JUST to be able to see him. I feel like "how can I justify spending X amount of money on this?! WE could be saving this money!" It feels so ridiculous having to spend so much money to even see my boyfriend which is such a simple thing in a lot of cases.. I feel like we should skip a trip or put it off for another 3 months.. even though I know we can afford it but it does make finances tighter than they would be if we didn't pay for all these trips.

On the other hand though.. I LOVE seeing him! it's what I work for and look forward to all the time. It's what motivates me to get through.

JUST THE MONEY UGH.

Anyway, just needed to get that out.. feel free to share your own frustrations on this

[lucybelle]

I'm a thrifty mo fo. Instead of turning on my heat in the USA, I boiled pots of water and put them around the apartment.

One of the only things I'm okay paying for is flights. I LOVE vacations and this vacation is extra special because you're going to see your SO. Don't freak out, ENJOY it!

[Jazi]

I'm a thrifty mo fo. Instead of turning on my heat in the USA, I boiled pots of water and put them around the apartment.

This did make me smirk. I could picture you sitting in a tiny apartment with pots and pans all over sitting in the dark to save power/money for your flights lol.

[lucybelle]

This did make me smirk. I could picture you sitting in a tiny apartment with pots and pans all over sitting in the dark to save power/money for your flights lol.

You've got the right picture

[ChibiFelicia]

Flying to the uk this summer is gonna be soo expensive (what with the olympics going on). I know the july tickets have been jacked up iunno about june (well i ahvent extensively researched it but yeah.) My man was planning on coming over in the summer but i told him not to and jsut wait cause it'll be expensive (more so than normal).

[BlackRoseOpal]

Yea I understand. I have a job and he doesn't (his ludicrously difficult college takes up too much time) I think he might get a job for the summer, but that still makes it hard for him to come down. Since I'm the one with the money, I might come up and visit him.

[Biddlybiddlybombop]

You're Melbourne - UK, I'm UK - Perth, and boy do I feel you. I'm flying out to Perth on 5th June, and yes, it's bloody expensive.
It's our third visit, and you literally have to plan months in advance to get good deals. heads up for next time, it IS significantly more expensive because you're booking it just a month in advance - I learnt that from my first trip to Oz. Every day/week you wait when it comes to a flight that long is more expensive. It's easy to want to hold on to your money, but the earlier you decide and book, the more of your money you'll be able to hold onto in the long run.
Nice thing you'll find about UK compared to Oz though is that pretty much everything is cheaper here.

[Manoek]

Definitely know how you feel.. Amsterdam - Salt Lake City -__- also going in June

[lala]

aaah I totally understand that. My SO wanted to come to Europe this summer but can't because he got a new job. So the only possibility to see eachother is me going there.. I'm a fulltime student and saved my money the whole year. I just went out to a club twice for 9 months and also didn't do much with friends.. I gave up on lot of things (eg. shopping) just to see him
He told me that he will pay for my ticket but I won't let him to pay the full price.. the half would be ok

can't he help you with the money thing?

[Hololz]

Just booked my flight home to the UK in late July. Got the cheapest I could, which means a stop over in iceland, but it was £400 from NYC to Heathrow one way, not bad considering the olympics is going to put the price of flights into europe up hugely!! I'm having to leave a few days earlier than I wanted to, but it means I saved £100-£200. I used Opodo, STA or Expedia to search, but opodo gave me the cheaper flights. Also, flying from new york, rather than the airport in my city saved me LOADS of money... I just have to get the bus to new york, then somehow get to the airport from the city (Still cheaper than flying from my city).

[Jazi]

well, I'm Already feeling better seeing that you all share my pain lol.

@Chibi I'm perposefully avoiding being there when the actual Olympics are happening. it starts in late july and I'm planning to be well out of the UK by mid july so that does help a little with the price.. Flying into the European summer is just expensive anyway!

@biddly Oh my gosh, I love finding people who are in such crazy similar circumstances as we are, it's so nice to feel you're not the only ones! About the booking in advance thing.. Well, we *try* to do that.. we just aren't very good at it lol. A month out from our intended trip date seems to always be the "crunch time" when we buy the tickets. We also can't seem to wrap our brains around more than 4 months in the future (with hardly concrete plans at that!). I do love the UK for it's prices (for most things anyway.. Public transport not so much.) The fact that I'm not working when I'm over there kind of counter-acts the cheap prices though. But it is so worth it to lose a few weeks of income for a longer trip, usually 5 week trips when I visit him.

@lala We already do share the burden of the cost. He usually Paypal's me some money to contribute so I still have a little savings. Plus he does earn more than I do. I totally feel you on the 'not going anywhere/doing anything to save money' me and my SO both are very conscious of not spending money if we don't NEED to. Both of our money goes into necessity, flights/our visits and a tiny bit of savings.

---------- Post added at 01:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 AM ----------

Just booked my flight home to the UK in late July. Got the cheapest I could, which means a stop over in iceland, but it was £400 from NYC to Heathrow one way, not bad considering the olympics is going to put the price of flights into europe up hugely!! I'm having to leave a few days earlier than I wanted to, but it means I saved £100-£200. I used Opodo, STA or Expedia to search, but opodo gave me the cheaper flights. Also, flying from new york, rather than the airport in my city saved me LOADS of money... I just have to get the bus to new york, then somehow get to the airport from the city (Still cheaper than flying from my city).

I have used Expedia to search for flights in the past.. I wonder though how can it be so cheap in some cases? what is the catch? I don't know if I trust it lol. I've always booked directly with the airline. Also yeah, having more stop overs can help with the price but it is a 23hour flight already with the most direct way you can go. I'm not sure how much it is worth saving a few hundred to double my flight time.. so far I've always chosen to go more direct than flying for an extra day but I do question it.

[LoveJ]

I booked a flight to a city 5 hours away from my SO to save a few hundred dollars on flights. In hindsight, knowing the headache it turned out to be, I think I would have just spent the money on the flight to where he is. We got stuck in traffic a lot on the drive back to the airport and what should have been 5 hours ended up being something like 8 or 9 so our entire last day was spent in the car being choked over traffic and it taking so long.

The good thing about our situations is that the more we travel the better we get at learning how to do it in the least expensive ways possible. Booking flights a week before the visit = BAAAAAD idea. Booking flights to an airport 5 hours away = BAAAAAD idea. Sucking it up, paying a little bit extra but booking ahead of time to save a bit = Good. Very good.

[redapple]

The things we do for love... I've been looking at flights recently and even months in advance it's going to be around £700, eek! Not sure on the exchange rate for the Americans out there but I'd guess almost $900. And it means taking time off work so double whammy! As I keep saying trust him to have to move the other side of the world, couldn't be in Europe or something could it! Xx

[efish1042]

I feel so lucky that our LDR has not left us pockets to let. His grandfather gave him a wonderful gift two Christmases ago of getting him a pay-at-the-pump card that he would pay off for him. So my SO doesn't pay for gas unless he can't find an Exxon. I've only gone to him a few times and always with others that were going anyway. Except for the one time I flew, but that was a gift from my parents for my birthday. So yeah... I feel lucky. 3 years of LDR and we haven't spent too much on travel and we will be ending it soon!

[lonelyinlove]

I understand exactly what you mean. Sometimes I think we could be saving all this money that we spend on visiting to help closing the distance, but I honestly don't think that I could deal with not being able to see him for such a long time....

So it's worth it....