Travel can be super expensive and since we are a single income
family it can be difficult sometimes to do much traveling unless we plan ahead
and save up our pennies. I try to plan a
trip for us every other year. Sometimes
they are small trips and sometimes they are bigger like the one we just
had. But no matter what, we all agree
that they are loads of fun!
Fun is what a vacation should be all about. Not stressing out about how much it costs or
even worse, how we'll pay for it once it is over. I'm not about that at all. Our latest adventure was relatively stress
free due to the fact that most of it was paid for well ahead of time.
 |
| Our makeshift kitchen at one of the hotels |
I booked this trip last fall. After several years of
saving I had the money set aside to take my girls to Disneyland. I shopped around for hotel rates and best
prices and was surprised to find I'd actually saved up more than I needed. In doing so it allowed me to book a full week
vacation, nine days to be exact.
 |
| Grilled cheese sandwich anyone? |
I used Get Away Today Vacations
to book the Disneyland vacation portion of our trip and AARP to handle the rest
of our hotel accommodations because I get a good discount with them. I used my credit card to make the
reservations and earn the rewards points, then transferred the money from
savings to pay off the bill when it came due the following month. It felt really good to know this vacation was
pretty much paid for at this point.
 |
| Cooking at the hotel saved us a ton of $$ |
In the months to come I set aside spending money, saved all of my
loose change and planned, planned, planned.
I made lists of things to bring with us including food, condiments and
spices, dishes, an electric kettle and skillet, our Brita water pitcher,
refillable water bottles, backpacks to carry our stuff, etc.
 |
| My bunless angus burger |
We packed a large cooler with ice and food from home that we
already had. The meats were frozen to prolong
them. Each day we fixed breakfast and
coffee in our hotel room, filled our water bottles with filtered water from our
Brita pitcher and packed snacks to take with us everywhere we went.
 |
| A few souvenirs |
I did have some money budgeted for dining out and we used that
carefully for a couple dinners and a few breakfasts. We also made a trip midway through to the
grocery store for fresh produce and a few extra items.
 |
| This is what it is all about - BIG smiles! |
We all had a set amount of money in our wallets for non essential
spending and were very happy to find we still had some leftover when we got
home. I'm using mine to start funding
our next vacation!
I paid for all of our fuel with my credit card as well as dining
out in order to earn the rewards points.
I'll pay that bill off next month when it comes due. I'll be putting those rewards points to good
use too.
 |
| The girls wearing their clearance shirts from Wal-Mart |
I knew we would all want to be dressed for success when we were at
Disneyland so I picked us each up a
Mickey Mouse shirt from the clearance rack at Wal-Mart last winter. I also found Disney ziploc bags at Dollar
Tree for packing our snacks in. Instead
of $35 for a T-shirt purchased at the park I got the girls each one for $2 and
mine was $5. I found myself another
T-shirt at Kohls for $9.99 that is red, white and blue so it will pull double
duty for the 4th of July.
 |
| Dinner out one evening |
Eating out was going to be our biggest expenditure and we easily
nipped it by preparing most of our own meals, packing snacks and bottled water
and not purchasing much at the parks or other destination spots. That left us with plenty of $$ for fuel in
the car and extra spending money for small souvenir purchases. It worked out perfectly!
Love this! Do you mind me asking how long you saved up for it? we want to take a big trip but like you on one salary is hard. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI saved for three years. I did all kinds of little things like dumping my change into a jar, setting aside small amounts, adding unexpected $$ we acquired to the "Disney Fund". I ended up saving more than we needed so we were amazed when we counted it all up.
DeleteGreat job and amazing planning!
ReplyDeleteThank Brooke. I love planning stuff like this.
DeleteI am in awe of your organizational skills. You should run for public office - you could probably teach a lot of people a thing or two!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! LOL Thank you for that :0)
DeleteWell done! I'm a budget traveller too, though my trips are just for me. I put most purchases on my credit card (and pay it off each month) as I get Airmiles - these have been used for car rentals, hotels, and flights. I prepay as much as I can so there isn't a big surprise at the end of the trip. And I'm cautious about what I spend while I'm away. I don't generally buy souvenirs - they mean nothing to anyone but me and I don't need the dust collectors.
ReplyDeleteInquiring minds (or at least mine) wants to know, what's the next trip going to be? Half the fun is researching and planning!
I want to go somewhere tropical I think, not sure. I've got a zillion ideas rattling around in my head though.
DeleteSo wonderful that you shared your trip adventures with us...including pictures. Disney is always fun and a great mental break from the stress of daily living. So glad that everyone was healthy enough to go, you had safe travels and everything paid for...that is a GOOD vacation....Lilly
ReplyDeleteI completely agree Lilly. It was exactly what we all needed. :0)
DeleteOh, you and your girls look like you had a blast! Vacations are one thing that I feel justified when I splurge on. But, when you are frugal, splurging takes on a different meaning, doesn't it? When we travelled,our major expenses were airfare (if we weren't using a pass) and accommodations. When the we started having kids, I figured if I was going to go on a vacation, with the trouble of planning, packing, travelling, and herding the littles, it better be a vacation. As the kids hit a certain age, though, "vacations" became anything but. I would return more exhausted than before I left, angry that we spent the money for me to have a dreadful time. Travelling with children is not the same as travelling with young adults. As such, I refused to go on any family trips, leas of all to the in-laws. Later, when the youngest was 4, we bought our home in the Panhandle. Overall, not frugal, but much nicer than having to hotel hop, and cram us all in two rooms. And, frankly, before kids we went a lot of places, (Costa Rica, Barbados, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, to name a few) and a few places after kids. Florida's Emerald Coast is the nicest of them. My kids certainly get along with one another far better than any of my siblings and I did growing up, but they we are a family of people, (save DH) who really value personal space. Realizing and accepting that certainly saved us a lot of cash as well as angst!
ReplyDeleteI find as I get older I'd rather splurge for a hotel rather than stay with family. I like my time with family and away from them too, if that makes sense. I agree that having the girls older now packing and the vacation itself is much less work for me and the oldest did some of the driving too. I haven't been a passenger on a road trip in soooooo long. It was really nice.
DeleteYour hotel 'kitchen' is pure genius! Definitely something we'll keep in mind next time we go on a longer vacation.
ReplyDeleteI almost always do this when we are gone for any length of time. So nice to have a home cooked meal after a hard day of vacationing. :)
DeleteBest Brita Water Pitcher
ReplyDelete