Mommy Octopus

Taking a vacation with the family doesn’t have to break your bank.  There are many ways to take a wonderful trip and still stay within the budget.  Here are some ideas that my family has found helpful.

When planning a trip, first choose your destination.  It helps if you are flexible on dates or locations.  You can look online for free travel brochures.

Hotels:

Once you have an idea where you’d like to visit, go to Groupon and signup for that city’s deals.  We were recently able to get many deals for our trip to Savannah such as discount photography, half off smoothies, discounts to Paula Deen’s Store, and more.  I’ve also seen most of the cities offer some sort of hotel deal.  You also can use this to find great deals on restaurants and other attractions in your destination area.  There is even an entire Groupon Getaways section.  Browse through that and see all the places you could visit on a discount!  These deals change weekly, so check back often.

Another place to check out for hotel deals is Priceline.com.  This can help you find good rates without having to call a million different hotels.  If you do decide to book through Priceline.com, be sure and click through Ebates so you can earn cashback on your trip.

Consider staying at a cabin in a State Park.  We have done this many times when we travel.  It’s cheaper plus they usually have good playgrounds for the kids to unwind.

Dining:

Now that you’ve figured out where you will be staying, time to think about the next necessity- Food!  This doesn’t have to be much of a worry if you plan in advance.  Our family typically brings our food along with us, allowing to dine out maybe once or twice on a vacation.  It’s much cheaper for us since our kids are very hearty eaters.  Some ways to frugally dine out while traveling is to take along gift certificates.  You can purchase some from Restaurant.com or also from Groupon.  Also consider doing a search for daily deals in that city.  There are TONS of daily deal sites where you can purchase deals.  Also, I frequently talk on my blog about joining survey sites and Swagbucks.  That’s where these sites will come in handy!  On some of them, you have the option to cash out for a prepaid visa card or for gift cards to restaurants such as Long Horn, Chili’s, and Macaroni Grill to name a few.  A few weeks before you take your trip, cash out so you receive your prize in time.

Attractions:

I mentioned using Groupon above, but there are also other ways to save on attractions during your vacation.  Before you leave home, do a search for coupons, discount codes, etc on the attractions that you plan to visit.  Check out their facebook page to see if they are running any promotions.  Call and ask them if they have any coupons out and how you can obtain one.  You may be surprised at all the options out there to make your visit cheaper.

 

These are just some ideas that I thought up about how we make our vacations more affordable.  Do you have any ideas that I’ve missed?  Leave a comment and tell me what your tips are for dealing with vacations on a budget.

For this weekend’s Boredom Buster, be sure and check out Craftsy, where you can download free patterns and find other goodies!

Craftsy is the fastest growing online community for Crafters – with over 500,000 monthly unique visitors, having just launched in May 2011. This rapid growth results from two primary offerings which Craftsy users love:

• Terrific online classes from amazing instructors for beginning, intermediate and advanced quilters, knitters, crocheters, sewists, jewelry makers, and other crafters.
• Astonishingly good deals on crafting supplies: organic yarn, lovely fabrics and fat quarters from top designers, high quality needles, etc…

If you love Crafts, be sure and sign up for Craftsy for some amazing Daily Deals.  You never know what incredible deals you will find!  I found an entire section of FREE patterns, including the one pictured below.  Can’t wait to make some new things!

We got back from Savannah/Tybee Island late last night after spending 2 nights there. We had a great time visiting the beach on Tybee Island, touring downtown Savannah, eating at the Crab Shack, and visiting Fort Pulaski!

We wrangled alligators

Shot cannons

And just had a couple days of fun and cuteness.

A great trip and thanks to everyone that told us to visit the Crab Shack.  Such a neat place!    I’m playing “catch-up” now and hopefully will be caught up by the end of the weekend.  Hope ya’ll have a good one!

Today is Cinco De Mayo. What better way to celebrate than with a Cinco De Mayo Feista!  Here are some fun ways to make this an awesome day:

First up, you have to have FOOD!  I’m talking homemade salsa and chips, chicken enchiladas, Sopapillas for dessert, and whatever else you want to come up with.

You can make your own piñata and stuff full of goodies or make your own maracas for some musical fun.  There are a number of coloring pages to print as well.

Are you doing anything special today?

 

It’s getting hot out there, time to make a cool snack.  This ice cream recipe is fun and easy.  Get the kids to help and you can all be eating a tasty homemade treat in just about 5 minutes!

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup salt (Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is ok too)
• Ice cubes (you’ll need enough to fill the gallon-size bag about half full)
• 1 pint-size Ziplock bag
• 1 gallon-size Ziplock bag

First, combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.

Next, place the salt and the ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag.

Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (this takes about 5 minutes). Keep feeling the small bag to determine when it’s done.

Finally, take the smaller bag out of the larger one and add any add-ins you want (think chocolate chips, M&M’s, fruit).

You can use all kinds of flavors and add-ins to make each batch different!

Enjoy!

I was looking for some handwriting practice for my son and cursive practice for my daughter and came across a neat site called HandwritingWorksheets.com.  I gave it a whirl and now have bookmarked this site.  I can type in their name or whatever I want them to practice writing and it automatically generates a worksheet.  Super cool!  You can choose between Print, D’Nealian, or Cursive writing styles.  Thought I’d share this neat time saver website with ya’ll.  Go check it out!

For Tasty Tuesday this week, I’m bringing back an oldie but a goodie that I posted this fall since I’m making these today!  In the spring/summer months, it gets really hectic around here with so much to do and so much sunshine to enjoy.  I take a day and make enough biscuits to put away for a while in the freezer. It helps prevent waste and overeating as well by just pulling out the number I need.  Here’s how to make your own freezer biscuits:

First, gather the following ingredients:

• 5 cups self rising flour
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup butter or shortening
• 1 3/4 cup buttermilk or milk

Add everything into the bowl and stir well until the dough has formed.  If it seems too sticky, add in a little extra flour as needed.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch and use a cup or a cookie cutter to form the biscuits.

Place the biscuits on a pan.  It’s okay to have them super close together since they will not be rising.  If you have more than one layer, be sure and place wax paper in between the layers so they do not stick together.

Immediately put the biscuits into the freezer, making sure that they stay flat.

After a few hours when they are frozen, remove them from the pan and place in a freezer safe bag and return the bag of biscuits to the freezer.

Pull biscuits from bag as needed and bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Yum!  Give it a try and see what you think!