Trifter

 Over the past few years our family has enjoyed mini vacations. These can be done a very tight budget. Below are some of the costs saving ideas we have implemented into our mini vacations.

Having teenagers can be an asset to your cost cutting vacation plan. Both of our daughter’s first public jobs were at a nationally known hotel. They worked in the restaurant. Even though it was part time and most of the time one day a week they still received employee discount.

How much the discount is varies but from our example this past year; we reserved a $120.00 a night room for $39.00 a night. Plus we chose not to stay on the beach; it only took us a fifteen minute drive to the beach we liked.

Being self employed and in the construction field this year has been very tight, so taking time off is something I can not do much of when work is available. We planed our trip where we left on Thursday after work and arrived back home Monday night. This allowed me a 4 day trip, putting the weekend in the middle. We arrived at the hotel about 4am and the clerk did not charge us for Thursday night. We ended up staying 4days and 3 nights for the cost of one night at regular price.

We took most of our food with us and then bought a few groceries after arrived. We kept drinks and snacks in the car so we would not have to make unnecessary pit stops. We also made sure the hotel had continental breakfast. We ate our suppers and a few lunches in the room before going out. We planed for one real nice meal out.

Walking the river walk and enjoying a historic downtown didn’t cost anything but the gas to town. Found out about some favorite teen film sites in the city we visited. We were blessed with the walking tour papers and went on our own to visit the sites. The only thing I paid for that we did not have planned was a tour on a battleship. I just had to go being a WW2 nut.

All and all our mini vacation from southeast Tennessee to the beach in North Carolina cost us around $600.00 in total cost. Of course we do have a wonderful ’05 Toyota Corolla that gets us real close to 37mpg on the hwy (with the a/c on)

Mini vacations can be fun and can create great family memories without breaking the bank. It takes some planning and creativity; like getting your teen a job at a hotel.