What I spend money on when I'm on vacation

I've been OOO from Consumer Misbehavior for the last two weeks, so let's talk about what I spend on vacation and whether I'm saving money in the process.

I spent the last two weeks on vacation in Colorado for a friend’s wedding and a group ski trip. This year, the tour covered Denver, Colorado Springs, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, and Keystone.

Like many of us, sometimes when I’m on vacation, I feel like spending money doesn’t really count as spending money. It’s “fun money” or “a little treat” 800 times over and over.

My Consumer Misbehavior brain also goes on vacation, but it never totally shuts off. Here’s what I spent the most money on in Colorado, and here’s what the Consumer Misbehavior brain had to say about it.

Ski passes, lift tickets, and rental ski gear

Ski passes vs. lift tickets:

I’m not proud of how much I spent per day skiing. If I had gotten an Epic Pass early on, it would’ve been about $700 for basically unlimited days to ski. Instead, I ended up spending over $1,000 on lift tickets.

This isn’t a flex; it was a test. I couldn’t ski last in 2023 because of ACL surgery, so this year, I didn’t get an Epic or Ikon pass because I …