Monday, November 28, 2016

Last Week's Thrifty Moves


We finally got to go on a real vacation!  I'll be talking about that more tomorrow, and although we weren’t at home we still managed to be thrifty.

For instance, Sunday morning, at the hotel, I trimmed my bangs.  I've needed to trim them for several weeks, however finding the time to squeeze this little chore in just didn't seem to happen.  While packing for our trip I grabbed my scissors and tossed them in my toiletry bag.  Having them trimmed is a great relief.  I look much better and they aren't in my eyes anymore.



I had booked our hotel stays back in August and made sure they were ones that included breakfast in the morning.  Our first stay was at a Quality Inn and they provide a nice breakfast for their guests.  It was surprisingly good too.

I took our small slow cooker with us and reheated spaghetti I brought along for our supper the night before.  I'm not one that can handle a steady diet of eating out so I needed to sprinkle in a few home cooked meals wherever I could.


These mess kits from our Go Bags were so awesome to have with us

I also packed a box full of snacks, most of them purchased at the dollar store, for the trip down.  We put a frozen fruit juice bottle in the cooler to chill drinks we brought from home as well.

Monday evening we used coupons my aunt had to go out for hamburgers.


Tuesday we dined in.  My aunt made frozen pizzas and a big salad.  She doesn't cook, she heats up frozen things in the oven.  Now that she is retired she has no desire to cook anymore.  I think I will always enjoy cooking.  That is my hope, anyway.

Wednesday I treated all of us to lunch out.  Not so thrifty but much less expensive than dinner would have been.


Thursday was Thanksgiving and we were treated to dinner out at Black Angus.  The prime rib was fantastic.


We went to the public library twice to use their free WiFi while we were gone so I could pay a couple bills, check my bank statement and answer emails.  My oldest needed to do homework on her laptop also so that worked out pretty well since the library is close to my aunt's house.

We went to the dollar store to re-stock snacks for the drive home.


Friday we stayed in another hotel on the way home.  It too included breakfast in the morning, which we took full advantage of Saturday before we packed up to make the rest of our drive home.

After checking into the hotel on Friday we went to the grocery store and I picked up a sandwich at the deli, a couple cans of soup, and some fresh watermelon for our supper.  I heated the soup in our slow cooker while we all took turns showering.  By the time we were ready to eat the soup was hot and dinner was served.


Whenever we drove anywhere I used the Eco mode on our car which allowed us to get some pretty decent gas mileage on the car.  38 mpg is nothing to sneeze at and it really helped us keep the fuel expense low.  I spent just over half what I had budgeted on fuel.

How was your thrifty week?



14 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a wonderful vacation. . I am not a fan of eating every meal out either. I have never thought about packing our crock pot. Thank you for the tip.
    Kathi in Florida

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We did have a really nice time Kathi. Next time you travel take your crock pot. You won't be sorry! :)

      Delete
  2. I'm proud of you for sticking to a frugal budget while on vacation! We too try to pick hotels that have a free breakfast offered and take snacks with us. I have also been known to stop at Winco and pick up a few sandwiches or even refrigerated entrees from their deli and heat those in the microwave back at the hotel for dinner. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Debbie! Those breakfasts saved us about $30 spent on eating out. We ate breakfast the morning we left Phoenix and it was $28 before the tip. And we drank water. Crazy, huh?

      Delete
  3. Nice to have a vacation and stay on or below budget! Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So glad you girls got to enjoy a nice vacation together! It looks like you had a wonderful time! Great job on being thrifty even while vacationing! When we took a trip to Wisconsin early last year we did a lot of the things you did so we weren't eating out all the time. We cooked meals the night before we hit the road to reheat at the hotel (I believe spaghetti and meatballs was one of our meals!) I had called ahead and asked if the rooms had a fridge, coffeemaker, and a microwave in it. Of course the room did have the fridge and the coffeemaker, but I was told that there was a microwave in the lobby we could use, but we brought ours from home so we could just plug it in our hotel room to use for our meals. When we got there we found that they had placed a microwave in our room, free of charge, just because I had asked about it- I thought that was very nice of them to do for us. I also asked if the hotel served a continental breakfast and we were ecstatic to find that they served a delicious feast every morning. We would eat the breakfast later in the morning and fill up so much that we didn't even bother to get lunch most days cause we were still so full from breakfast! :)
    Next time I may take a page from your book and bring the crock pot with us- that is a great idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Dawn! Somehow it does not surprise me in the least that you and I travel this way.;) We found that breakfast and a snack later in the day kept us just fine until supper each night as well. Those breakfasts are surprisingly filling. We averaged one meal out per day.

      Delete
  5. I have seen little crock pots in thirty stores. I'm going to get one and shamelessly copy you. Many a time I've gone without a decent meal while away from home - great idea. Glad you had a lovely break and kept it frugal. Rose (UK)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sweet little pot has saved me a heap. I bought mine new on sale for $8.99 so it has more than paid for itself. If you can snag one second hand so much the better!

      Delete
  6. Thrifty vacations, especially ones that come under budget, are the best! I, too, usually take food with me when I travel by car, along with my rice cooker! The last time my daughter and I stayed at a motel, 2 1/2 years ago, we had flown out, and I didn't take a lot of food (we packed very lightly and had only carry-on luggage). But the motel included a full breakfast and there was a fridge and microwave in the room, plus coffee maker. I bought a $5 pizza for dinner the first night, daughter and I had half of it then, kept the other half in the fridge and warmed it up for our dinner the next night.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pizza is a good idea and the rice cooker is smart too. Funny thing, my daughters think the free breakfast is more important than a pool.

      Delete

Your kind comments are always appreciated. I love hearing from you.

**Note: Comment Moderation has been turned on due to spam.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...