Vacation on a Budget

     Oh my goodness, we are so excited to take our vacation this year!  We have not taken a vacation in two years and we all needed it!  Taking four children, no matter how old they are, on a vacation can seem very daunting.  Not only is it more difficult to find hotel rooms that accommodate your large family, but activities and food with a large family can be very expensive.  Luckily, we have a plan.
     First and foremost, we usually find a room with a kitchenette or full kitchen in it.  The challenge this year...there are no rooms like that available where we are going. (insert frown face here!)  We are not letting that get us down!  Our hotel has a completely free, hot, continental breakfast everyday.  There, one meal down, two more to go...for lunch we are packing plenty of bread, peanut butter & Jelly, and cold cuts.  We also have a ton of snack items that we are taking along from Go Go squeezes to peanuts.  So that just leaves dinner.  Eating out to dinner every night is not something that I am looking forward to, I mean, I am trying to feed our family of six on just $75/week, but I just know that next week it is not an option, we have to eat out.  Here is what I don't want...McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. But with a large family, I am realistic...I know that we will be that a few times while on the trip.  My budget for our meals is $40.00 a day.  That is roughly $6.00 per person, that doesn't seem like much but with a three year old who can usually share with one of us, it is completely doable.  Most of the time, TJ and I order water.  That is the key to keeping your bill as low as you can.  We order water for the kids as well, then if their meal comes with a drink, we try to get them milk or some other low sugar option.  
     Secondly we planned a very simple and easy going trip to the beach.  We are not interested in spending a lot of money on useless gift shop items, so shopping is not on the list at all.  We planned to go to the beach, play in the sand, and then head back to the hotel for the pool.  My kids are used to vacationing this way so they don't complain.  We do not do expensive amusement parks or other attractions because that is outside of our budget, so we look for free activities for the kids like playgrounds, museums, etc.  
     Lastly, we take a vacation to relax and unwind, so it was important to us that we didn't rush around, we simply went to the beach.   
     On vacation we tried to be careful, but we did go over budget.  We averaged about $50.00/ day.  That adds up!  We were gone for 7 nights and spent over $325 on just food for the week!  On the bright side, our room was only $605.00 for the week, gas was a little less than $250.00, and odds and ends for the trip were about $200.00.  Therefore, our trip in total was about $1300.00.  That sounds like a lot of money and when you live on one income it is, but since we didn't vacation last year at all and we are a family of six, vacationing for 8 days for $220/ person is really very reasonable.  
     When you are vacationing, you can keep your costs low by planning everything out.  Again, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  Carefully look for activities that are free or cost next to nothing.  Set the tone for the trip so that your children understand how things are going to go right from the start.  Then go and relax, enjoy your children/ family and have a great time!  

Daddy and kids enjoying the hotel pool!