Hawaii or Bust!

I'm a bit of a travel freak.  Ok, so most of the time I just dream about it.  However, over the past few years I've learned a trick or two.  I have discovered how to fly free and stay cheap.  I mostly go to Florida.  I have a weakness for a certain mouse.  We were there two years ago and are headed back in May.  Knowing how to fly free really makes traveling with a family of five affordable. 

Now I have my mind set on a new adventure.  I want to take my family to Hawaii.  I live in New England and the avarage plane ticket is about $1000.  I am going to need to use every trick in the book to earn enough miles to fly free for this one.

I figure I need to earn 250,000 miles to make the trip.  I plan to travel by February of 2015.  I need to have the miles in place about one year in advance, so I basically have two years to earn the miles.  My goal is 300 miles per day.  I basically don't fly (well not flights I pay for, anyway), so I'll have to earn my miles in other ways. 

Today I earned 890.

This was through my normal shopping at Target and lunch out.  I put all my purchases on my points earning credit card. I also bought a subscription to Goals on Track (much more on that in another post).  My significant purchase was a $90 textbook from Barnes and Noble.  I have a credit card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards.  I went through the Ultimate rewards portal to Barnes and Noble and earned 7 bonus points per dollar spent on top of the point per dollar I earned for using my chase card.  That purchase will give me a sweet 728 points!  SWEET!  I also have a toolbar from Hawaiian Airlines that gives me points for searches and that racked me up another 20 points.

I'm going to share every trick with you, so keep coming back!