As a reminder, we’re trying to pay off our mortgage and take our family on a 27-day Europe trip with just t-shirt sales in what we call the Great Banks Merch Challenge.
I’ll be providing quarterly updates. This one is 2018 Q2 update:
The Current Merch Challenge Numbers
Final Trip Costs: Reminder that this was a 4-week, 27-night trip through NYC (2 nights), England and Wales (16 nights), Norway (5 nights) and Iceland (4 nights) for 5 humans! It was absolutely spectacular and the best use of money ever.
- Flights: $2,035.48 – This amount includes :
- Flight from Anchorage to NYC for a day before flying to England (we used Alaska miles for this leg + $28 in fees)
- Flight from NYC to London (we used AA miles for this leg + $28 in fees)
- Flight from England to Norway (paid Cash, SAS airlines – $355.63 for all 5 tickets)
- Flight from Norway to Iceland (free layover for 4 days) to Alaska (paid cash – $2,123.85 for all 5 tickets)
- – $500 – from our sign-up bonus on the Barclay Arrival+ card. Yay for a $500 discount!
- Lodging: $2,859.50 – All lodging:
- 3 nights in London, England – $677.01
- 1 night just outside Reykjavik, Iceland – $250.49
- 3 nights on the Golden Circle in Iceland – $681.03
- $1000 worth of discounted AirBNB gift cards we’ve used to purchase lodging in England and Norway – $910
- 2 nights in Bergen, Norway – $340.97
- Transportation: $1,712.29
- Norway Car Rental: $294.26
- UK Car Rental: $364.71
- Iceland Car Rental: $307.35
- Airport Shuttle from Newark – $48
- Airport Shuttle to Bergen – $26.35
- Bergen Funicular – $36.39
- Public Transportation Costs – $229.18
- All petrol – $359.72
- All parking – $46.33
- Stuff: $1,487.17 – The gear (which we won’t have to purchase again for the next big trip!) plus the souvenirs:
- Passport fees for the 3 kids – $315
- Global Entry for all of us – Free (thanks Amex Platinum card!)
- Travelable booster seats for all 3 kids (their normal ones are way too bulky to travel with but we wanted to be safe/legal) – $103.97
- Travel Backpacks for the girls (Lui will use his small school backpack) – $204.30
- GPS with all Europe maps (which we will use for all future Europe trips) – $149.90
- Souvenirs (including an Icelandic sweater for me, a sweater for Mr. T and a jacket for me from the Dale of Norway factory store, a few Christmas gifts, a retro Iceland winter hat for Mr. T, a few new outfits for me and the kids from England, and the kids’ souvenirs) – $714
- Experiences: $1,468.95
- Empire State Building – $70
- Tickets to see Matilda the musical in London – $348.15
- Tickets to the Harry Potter Film Studio outside London – $183.73
- Westminster Abbey Tickets – $62.63
- UK Family National Trust 14-day Touring Pass – $104.79
- London Eye – $160.72
- Tower of London – $99.95
- Wales Castle Explorer Family Pass – $60.07
- York Minster – $29.64
- Borgund Stave Church, Norway – $34.99
- Oslo Passes – $260.18
- Kerið Crater Entrance – $7.30
- Geothermal Rye Bread Experience – $41.28
- Public Toilets in Iceland – $5.52
- Food: $849.47 – We bought mostly groceries, but did eat out occasionally. We were also spoiled by my parents for a week when we stayed with them (thanks mum and dad!).
- New York: $171.25
- UK: $390.98
- Norway: $96.58
- Iceland: $152.65
- IcelandAir Airplane food: $38.01
TOTAL SPENT: $10,412.86
Thoughts: We went to 3 of the most expensive countries in Europe and stayed there a month! We weren’t attempting to be super frugal about this trip, but we cut costs where we could and really enjoyed it. I felt like I was living my best life traveling and teaching my kids during this past month. It was absolutely amazing.
Mortgage Costs:
For Merch to cover the rest of our mortgage, we’re including any payments we make above our minimum monthly payments. So, these costs are the extra payments we made starting with the November mortgage payment:
- $2,100 (November)
- $1,700 (December)
- $1,500 (January)
- $0 (February)
- $100 (March) – hopefully sales will pick up again soon so we can start shoveling money toward the mortgage!
- $0 (April)
- $0 (May)
- $0 (June)
TOTAL EXTRA PUT TOWARD MORTGAGE: $5,400
Current Merch Earnings (earnings are 2 months behind as that’s when we get and report the money):
- June: $7.07
- July: $218.24
- August: $810.78
- September: $1,065.67
- October: $3,352.58
- November: $1,837.50
- December: $2,627.96
- January: $1,076.85
- February: $695.83
- March: $783.40
- April: $852.67
- May: $854.17
- TOTAL: $14,182.72
minus our total mortgage payments and total trip costs of $15,812.86
Merch Challenge Totals: -$1,630.14
Verdict so far: Still Positive
I’m actually pretty thrilled that the entire trip has been covered with just t-shirt sales! How exciting is that?!
Now, we’ve got 6 months left of t-shirt sales to cover about $23,600 of the mortgage (about $22,000 left on it plus another $1,630.14 that we’ve already paid toward the mortgage listed above). We may or may not be able to earn $23,600 in 6 months with t-shirts alone (last year, we earned about $9,900 in the same 6 months).
However, we are getting a little help from the state of Alaska. Our PFD amount has been decided for 2019 and we’ll each be getting $1,600 (a total of $8,000). Now, we tithe our PFDs as we do with all our income, so after tithing, we’ll conservatively say we can put $7,000 of the PFD toward our mortgage. $23,600-$7,000=$16,600.
AND keep in mind that our regular mortgage payments alone will bring our mortgage balance down to about $18,000 by the end of the year. $18,000+$1,630-$7,000=$12,630! TOTALLY DOABLE (maybe. i start second guessing every time i declare something like that!) Do you think we can do it?
