This really doesn’t have anything to do with my home-transformation progress, it’s regarding one of my other issues – being a cheapskate.
I was just over at Lifeasmom.com, and she posted some great advice on saving money on vacations. I thought I’d share my best family-vacation-money-saving idea at her Frugal Friday blog carnival.
A few years ago, we went to a conference with my husband. A week at a hotel, swimming all day, sounded great.
Except that since hubby would be in meetings all day, I didn’t want it to count as our family vacation, and I didn’t want to spend much money on it. In fact, it was my goal to not spend ANY money on it. I wanted to use only the money given us for my husband’s travel and eating expenses.
For a family of 5 (though one of them was only 2 at the time).
We were going to a metropolitan area, and so I looked up “kids eat free” restaurants. I found a good list, and every night of our trip was covered.
We brought sandwich stuff for lunches, and bagels for breakfasts. We went on picnics or ate at the pool most days. Then, for our evening meal, we set out to find these restaurants that I had researched beforehand. It was so fun, and the restaurants were very nice, sit-down places. Most were local joints and one even had a clown entertaining on their “kids-eat-free” night. Some restaurants let you get two free kids meals per adult, but if it was only one per adult, we had the three kids share two meals (not possible anymore).
With my husband and I eating frugally ourselves, and generally ordering water, we were able to accomplish my goal of not spending any of our own money on the trip.
When we were planning our real vacation later that summer, my husband asked if I had looked up the kids-eat-free restaurants yet. Now it’s standard operating procedure for our vacations.
Last summer, we found a fantastic “local-flavor” restaurant that we never would have tried otherwise. If you don’t know where to eat in a new town anyway, why not try the ones where you can save a significant amount of money?
Go check out other money-saving ideas at Frugal Friday.
WE have done similar by looking up the "kids eat free" places until this year when my kids maxed out on age 🙁 However, whenever we travel, I do not book a room unless breakfast is served I may have to pay a few $ more(usually no more than $10) but at least that way we do not have to also search for then pay for breakfast. (I mean breakfast, not thoses silly little pastries in a bag thingys)
Smart thinking!!! Vacay on the company now I really love that!!
Enjoy this as much as you can, while you can. I have a 14 year old son, 5'9", 145 lbs. He now eats the amount of 2 adults. Every 3 hours. Our 9 year old doesn't eat off the child menu anymore, either because it isn't enough food. And she is tiny for her age. It was only yesterday that we enjoyed kids eat free restaurants. Now we amuse ourselves by being transfixed by the amount of food our teenage boy consumes. Treasure each moment with your little ones. It goes by too fast!
my plan is to always stay at a place with a kitchen! feeding 7 of us on vacation costs thousands, otherwise!!!
We discovered that getting dinner at the deli counter of local supermarkets helped save money. It cost more than cooking at home, but a lot less than eating out. If your hotel room has a microwave you can pick up frozen dinners, letting everyone choose their own. The kids see this all a treat since they don’t get these at home.