The Great Galapagos Contest and Challenge
Published July 4th, 2008Okay friends, it’s finally here…the Great Galapagos Contest and Challenge! I won’t bore you by droning on, I’ve done this post FAQ-style so you can just read the parts you want…like how to enter the contest!
What is the Great Galapagos Contest and Challenge?
It’s a combination of a fabulous contest for my readers, and my own personal finance challenge to see if my husband and I can earn the remaining money we need to save for our trip to the Galapagos Islands before the payment deadline 6 weeks from now.
Why the contest and the challenge at the same time?
I wanted to get to know more of the readers, and increase participation via a contest. Contests are fun and exciting!
I also wanted to put our goal out here in cyberspace, to really keep us motivated to do the hard work necessary to earn the extra money for what’s sure to be the trip of a lifetime.
Both events happened to overlap over the summer, so I just decided to make one big extravaganza out of the whole thing to keep it fun, and keep myself and my husband motivated!
What about the contest part for the readers of Value For Your Life?
Well, the prizes are 10 Amazon.com gift cards for $25 each. You can enter the contest in 3 different ways:
- Make a comment on any post between now and August 15th, 2008
- Subscribe to this site via email (all existing email subscribers automatically get one entry each right off the bat)
- Email me the correct answer to the weekly Galapagos Islands trivia question (see the Official Contest Page)
Feel free to enter as many times as you like via any combination of the ways described above. The winners will be announced and contacted via email on August 16th, 2008!
What about the personal finance challenge?
We’ve wanted to go to the Galapagos Islands (off the coast of Ecuador) for many years now. It’s one of the last world heritage sites left on earth where the land is unspoiled, and the animals genuinely have no fear, coming near you and allowing you to observe their everyday experience. This is a trip we’d originally planned to do in our retirement given the huge cost, and time required to do the tour properly–but then a few things changed drastically in our family. We decided that we want to do this trip before retirement, while we’re still young and healthy, since we don’t know what the future may hold for us or the protected Galapagos islands 25 years from now when we retire.
We got a great deal on this trip, saving close to $4000 by booking very early and paying for the trip in US dollars (we really lucked out since the Canadian and US dollars are so close to par nowadays).
Now for the challenge…we agreed that we would not go into debt to go on this trip, and that it would not interfere with our current aggressive debt repayment plan…so we needed to find a way to motivate ourselves to earn the remaining $9500 for this trip over the next 6 weeks!
Can you do it?
Hell yes!
Are you crazy?
Maybe a little 
Why didn’t you save more for this trip earlier in the year?
We didn’t save more sooner because some other things came up (as they always do), and we wanted to keep our debt repayment plan as the #1 priority. We knew that we’d have much more free time in the summer to earn the extra money.
How do you plan to earn $9500 in 6 weeks?
Well, my husband is a teacher, which means he has the summer off. He also used to race mountain bikes and was a bike mechanic for many years as he helped put himself through college and then university. His summer business is doing bike tune-ups in our small town that has no bike store or mechanic within a 40 minute radius. We’ve run a couple of ads in the local paper and he can already barely keep up with the demand!
I’m doing my part by taking on a part-time job doing a couple of extra 12-16 hour shifts a month at a nearby emergency clinic.
How Do I Track Your Challenge Progress?
You can check out the handy pie chart near the top of the sidebar.
Any more questions?
Feel free to email Amanda at valueforyourlife@gmail.com
Value For Your Life is in the news…check out the official press release!
enizete on July 8, 2008
good luck for your challenge
enizete on July 8, 2008
Curious why you have not accumulated frequent flyer airmiles online,making that trip off the coast of South America simply being charged as taxes and fees.
Our family accumulates frequent flyer airmiles online and earns atleast 40,000 miles yearly not even flying and is far enough earned for those vacations.
For anyone in USA this particular offer is very good.
Offer is only for NW accounts that have their frequent flyer account information listed as in USA.
Access Northwest airlines promotion,registering your NW ff account number beforehand,then performing the offers,but especially performing their instant win game.
Each day you enter the instant win game you are provided five points. Look on far right side of page for points conversion ratio.
Cost for merely pre-registering in advance then playing instant win game is nothing.
Points converted to NW airmiles,priceless.
http://www.nwa.com/offers/milestogo/?intomni=tc.milestogoV3.hpsub
Amanda Milne on July 8, 2008
Enizete: Thanks for taking the time to comment, to answer your questions
1) We are Canadians
2) Not quite so simple–we are going on a completely inclusive guided cruisetour through Ecuador and the Galapagos. I’m pretty happy to have saved so much on a rare excursion that sells out close to a year before even sailing.
If you choose to use airmiles as your rewards system of choice for everything, then I think that’s wonderful!
Amanda