An update on my sisters "offer"

This post has been included in this weeks edition of the Total Money Blog Carnival, hosted by Money Beagle. Please head over and check out the other entries! 

If you haven’t been following the comments from “Another offer I’m not sure what to do with,” an update is definitely in order. (and thank you guys for all the advice!!!). My sister suggested that my fiancé and I pay around $100 (after the 50% off discount from a "groupon" like site) for a nice night out on a cruise ship for a 3 hour tour of Dana Point harbor with a nice buffet dinner, drinks, and music to dance to…  I was almost sold… especially since my sister told me that my mom, her boyfriend, my sister, and her fiancé were all planning on buying tickets and we have been left out of a lot of “family gatherings” since our engagement.  


Our only debate was if we could justify the expense because we are trying to save money for a honeymoon and for our emergency fund. Since my fiancé has been unable to find a job out here since he moved from Utah, saving money for us has become a priority... so much so that for this year until our emergency fund has 6 months of expenses, I won’t be tossing any money towards my Roth IRA (something I’ve maxed out the past 4 years or so).


So I was kind of stuck on what to do… As some of you noted, my fiancé and I missed out on the “wine and dine” phase of our relationship since we dated long distance... and since living in the same town we have been very diligent in our monthly budget and could really deserve a nice night out… Others pointed out that with the wedding, a still unplanned honeymoon, and the desire to fund the emergency fund, we should decline the offer and take that money towards our honeymoon…


To get a better perspective, I asked my sister to send me the link so I could take a look at it myself  and get a better idea of what it was all about… and I’m glad I did. She sent me the link (very hesitantly I might add…) and when I read the words in the description, I knew why she was holding back:


Why go to another club on land, when you can party at sea? We're not talking stuffy dinner cruises with guys that look like the monopoly man. Try a luxury yacht, P. Diddy-style…Welcome to SoCal’s ultimate party on the water…

"Which is far from the description of a nice romantic evening on a luxury yacht I received from my sister… so I went even further and looked at the original site, not just the deal site, to get more information and found the description for the same “package” a little skewed… The dinner was now called an “appetizer buffet” and there were more mentions of “authentic Los Angeles party atmosphere” and "cash bar on yacht."

This seems like more of a bachelorette get away instead of a nice romantic evening with my fiancé and family… Especially when a nice meal out for us costs us Half of what the 2 vouchers would, and my fiancé doesn't drink...


Looks like I just saved $100.00 and learned a valuable lesson... If it sounds to good to be true, take the time to do the work because it probably is.