Traveling on a Budget: How do YOU do it?!?
I've heard from many people that the best time to travel is when you're broke. While I agree to some extent, this isn't entirely possible when traveling with a family. Most of the people that have given me this advice generally do not have children. @jasonrussell and I have traveled with our daughters to the best of our ability. But when disposable income is minimal, traveling is a tricky subject!
A quick selfie of our family when we first arrived in Colorado Springs, CO in 2016
So, for those of you that are frequent travelers, I am very interested in your methods!
I grew up in a very large, and very poor family. I do feel that it's worth mentioning that we were only poor in terms of money; When it comes to love, we are the richest family in the world. [Extra cheese fully intentional].
Photo from my grandmother from where we grew up in rural Missouri. There's a baby @pratleyatef on our dad's lap, and @ashleyhogan holding a baby doll :) That's me on the far left with the sweet rose t-shirt and the killer perm ;)
Anyway.... when I was growing up, traveling wasn't an option. My parents were blue collar workers and they simply could not afford the time or money to take our large family of eight to do much outside of our local areas. This is where our love for hiking, swimming, floating, fishing and camping around our hometown developed. But that's another story for another time.
As a young girl, I was fascinated with history and geography. I wanted to be a paleontologist and travel, study, and uncover the mysteries of the world! I remember my dad telling me, "Kid, you've got a bad case of wanderlust." I didn't know what that meant until he defined it, but now that word crosses my mind almost daily.
image source http://fernweh.in/portfolio/thewanderlust-poem/
We live in an absolutely beautiful area of the United States and we explore all of the surrounding natural treasures here as often as we can! But we have an insatiable hunger to see more of the country and the world! We have had the opportunity to experience a slice of it thanks to our incredible network of family and friends.
We have been able to take our girls to see the ocean and the mountains and so many things in between! That's a big deal for a lower class family from the Midwest USA on a budget!
In 2012, we traveled to Cocoa Beach, Florida, because our friends Brian and Kali welcomed us into their home. Our mutual friend Katie worked at DisneyWorld at the time, and got us 2 free tickets!!! That was a huge money-saver and we had an incredible experience with our girlies!
In 2016, we went to Colorado Springs and explored the town and surrounding landmarks thanks to my coworker/boss that let us stay in his apartment for free because he heard me swoon and dream about the mountains for years.
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Last March, we visited my older brother and his amazing girlfriend in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where they fed us, gave us a place to stay, and showed us the local sites, beaches and cultures. Not to mention the their wonderful company and conversation!
Also, this past year, an elderly couple gave us their 1976 pop-up camper! My husband has done a lot of computer/ electronic repairs over the years for them, and they were so kind to give a us a token of their appreciation. We were thrilled and so very thankful! We have taken our kids on so many fun camping trips at our local river this past year.
She's a beauty, isn't she??? ;)
Had it not been for these amazing and generous people, we never would have had these opportunities and these memories.
So whilst on these much-appreciated adventures away from home, we made some important financial decisions. We drove in my tiny, gas-efficient car, packed like sardines. We ate our meals out of a cooler, packed with ice and cheap meals. We drove as long and as far as we safely could to keep cheap motel stays to a minimum. In lieu of enjoying the local cuisine and spending loads of money, we basically "picniced" our way through traveling. (However, we did splurge on a couple tasty meals!!)
Our youngest daughter, as we were filling our bellies with cheap sandwiches and snacks in the parking lot before we took the trip up the mountain to Pike's Peak
We are in incredibly grateful for these travel experiences, but now we are excited for more! If you have any tips or helpful hints, please do share. We absolutely can't wait to plan our next adventure and possibly try something we haven't done yet as a family: flying! Realistically, it must be done on a budget, so I would love to hear any suggestions and about experiences you have had with traveling frugally!
One of our stops on the Georgia/Tennessee border one our way home from South Carolina
Thanks for reading!
I think I might have something for you. Maybe it wouldn't be for your first next trip as I really don't have a single clue what exactly does it mean for you and your family "done on a budget" (please, don't get me wrong), but a word flying! you've mentioned at the end triggered my imagination.
So, my suggestion and idea definitively are connected with flying and even not with some short flying but the overseas one. Therefore, if you ever considered traveling to Europe (although I'm aware you might be more interested in some more popular destinations like Paris, London, Venice, Rome, etc.) I would like to suggest my homeland Croatia (a small pearl among other European countries).
And if that might be so, here it is where I can jump in with another suggestion and proposal. If you ever choose to visit Croatia, I would like to invite you to visit Zagreb (capital city of Croatia). It's over 900 years old beautiful medieval city with a lot of history and many interesting sights to see.
In that case and regarding my proposal, what I can offer you at this moment is a free one week (7 days/nights) stay in one of our apartments in Zagreb, for your family (you, your husband and your two daughters) without any strings attached except informing me about it in advance so we can check the free dates and reserve it for you, as we are regularly renting them for tourists and travelers. And it doesn't matter at which time of the year it would be, as Zagreb has its charming specifics during the whole year, at all four seasons, and no matter if it would be in a month or two or next year.
@ana-maria, that absolutely sounds like a dream come true! When I say "on a budget", I mean, that we don't have much money to devote to traveling so we have to save and spend wisely and we only take one big trip every year or two. We have never flown with our children within our own country, so traveling abroad would an absolutely incredible experience.
I have actually followed several users from Croatia and read about it and seen the beautiful photos. While the popular tourist destinations always seem appealing, we love to explore the lesser seen areas! Plus, we are photographers that love to photograph landscapes and historic sites!!
I appreciate your response and your incredibly generous offer! Please don't think rude of me, but I do have to be a bit skeptical at such a bighearted and charitable offer. Plus, as a mother, I am very protective of my girls so I definitely like to do my research! (I see that you are a mother too, so I'm sure you understand!!! 😊)
Again, I thank you for your kindness and your generous offer and I would love to get in touch about a possible trip to your country!
Yeah, I know it may sound a little suspicious. To be honest, didn't even think about it when I was writing it. I also know it's not a very common thing, but it's me. If I feel I can do something - I do it. If I feel that I can't - I don't do it.
However, you may contact me on Steemit.chat (I'm using the same username as here) or on Discord (where you would find me as Ana-Maria#2621), so we can talk further.
I told my husband that my heart skipped a beat when I read your reply earlier! I have always dreamed of traveling and like I said, it would be a dream come true to travel overseas with my family!
Sorry for my skepticism; I was raised to disbelieve things that sounded too good to be true lol. You seem like an incredibly kind and generous person! I'm new to Discord and chat but I will be in touch. (I'll have to look at my world clock and see when would be a good time) Thank again @ana-maria! Im seriously very touched by your kindness to a complete stranger. I'm following you now and hope to be in touch soon :)
beautiful family , friend :-) I congratulate you, good stories in the family, greetings
Thanks for looking and commenting @ luiszuritam!
We usually try to do everything as cheap as possible and I also HAVE to save before we go. Like you said we have kids so it's a must to know if you're going to have dinner or a place to sleep. I do look forward to just taking off one day after the kids are grown and traveling wherever we please! Nice post! Love the old pic by the way! 😂
Definitely! Saving is a must! We usually take our vacations around February or March with our tax return, but we have to spend carefully because that's also the one time of year that we spend money on car/house repairs, catching up on bills, etc. But traveling is so important to us, so I want to do it as often as we possibly can!!! We also plan on selling the house and buying an RV when the girls graduate high school.
(And that old picture cracks me up :D)
Sounds like a great idea! Haha! And yeah, or tax return never spreads that far either... Ha!
When my kids were growing up we didn't travel very far or for very long. For us the problem was as much our animals as it was money. It's hardto find someone to feed your critters for a week while you're gone, especially when you have chickens, rabbits, and other critters.
I can imagine! We're really lucky to have family close by that would stop to feed our dogs and chickens (when we had chickens). Now, when we go out, @hethur240 is always kind enough to doggy-sit for us! ;)
@melodyrussell Thank you for your work, I invite you to evaluate my work.
I can assure you, nobody would do that if you keep posting comments like that!
Hey I am right there with you! If you should find some helpful hints, let me know! I wish that we could take the kids a bit farther than we have, but saving that extra buck almost seems impossible! Sometimes we're like screw it, let's just do it and we'll figure the money part out later. And we always have the wonderful memories, but then it almost always bites us in the ass! Haha
Oh, and by the way, the girls look so tiny in some of those pictures! Tell them that's enough growing up now ;).
I totally get that! Our spontaneity has gotten us in trouble before. Like, "Hey, let's go do something awesome! Who cares about money, let's just have a good time!" Then we get back, like, "Shit. Now we're broke." lol.
And it was crazy going through some of those old photos. I can't believe how fast my babies are growing!!! :(
Haha, glad we aren't the only ones :)
Also, this is kind of going to a money saving part, have you guys ever considered getting your meat from a butcher? The past few tax times that is what Bryan and I have done. It costs a pretty penny upfront, but it seems to save us through out the rest of the year.
We did that one year and it was such a huge money saver! You're right though; it's all about having the money upfront. We should definitely check into that this year!
How do you get your girls to eat road snacks? My son would rather starve than eat something I brought from home!! haha I love that you wrote this, We would not go on vacation if it wasn't for the mother-in-law taking us along, or the good friends that let us crash their homes while we tour. You said it best, it's hard to budget travel. I always think, it'll only take $100 for gas there and back and we can just eat at so and so house. then we wind up spending money on emergency car parts and random medicines and all the sudden our trip wasn't under the $300 mark anymore!!
We're pretty lucky in the food department as far as the girls go. They're not picky at all and I'm so proud of them for that!!! But, coming from our small town, all of those big "fancy" restaurants are super tempting, and they do beg us to dine out or stop for special snacks. Sometimes we indulge ;)
We learned the hard way about leaving some "cushion room" with money when traveling. When we went to Memphis in May, we had only made it to Poplar Bluff when Jason's water pump blew! We had to spend money on a tow truck, parts and repair, and labor before we even got to Memphis!
You are lucky!! Those girls are the best kids!! Happy smiling polite and genuine!
Ah the water pump is one of the worst one, no amount of peeing in the radiator will help! Seems like everytime we wander from our little town, we wind up with undiagnosable car troubles. wind up having to call in favors from friend's and their husbands (@hethur240). Thankful again for the mother in law, she gave us her old van when she upgraded so we wont have to worry immediately about car problems on our next trip!
My husband and I once went to a time share presentation knowing we were not going to buy to get a free weekend at one of their resorts then while there we sat through another one to get two free tickets to Dixie Stamped and two free tickets to Ripley's Believe it or not Museum. We needed a vacation but didn't have much more money than the gas money so that is how we swung it, did those two things free and did a lot of hiking the the mountains.
Hmm... Ripley's and Dixie Stampede sounds a lot like Branson! ;) Although I''m sure they have other locations. I completely agree with you - we visit as many of the free attractions, parks, etc as we can. And love go go hiking, so that's usually free. Thanks for your response @tecnosgirl! :)
That time it was Branson but we have done it in Pigeon Forge too