This past month we went on a family vacation using a very strict budget. In order to save we bought several food items for the trip before we left. This was to help us cut cost on getting food while on the road or during the week.
When we arrived, we had a full kitchen in our resort so my family went grocery shopping and stocked up for the week. We had great money saving intentions in mind; however, once we got toward the middle of the week we realized quickly that we had overbought. Many of the items we had purchased needed to be used before we left.
We learned that if we do this again, we will buy just a few items to get us through the 1st part of the week and go back to the grocery store if needed later on. I guess when you come from a family of women who do not care to cook plus being on vacation? Well, you see where I’m going with this.
I had good intentions of cooking, but then when I looked out my window I saw a pool, snack shop and restaurant. The motivation left me, and I realized I’m on vacation. This had to mean I was on vacationing from cooking too!
My question to you is how do you save on vacations? Do you pack your own lunches? Switch off cooking duties with others? Stock up on coupons?
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Comments & Reviews
Yes, we’ve done all that before as well. We always pack snacks for the car-they’re usually healthier & cheaper, and we cut out extra time stopping.
And we’ve also bought groceries when we’ve had a full kitchen. I still think it’s the way to go in the long run. Otherwise we end up feeling gross from overload on restaurant and/or fast food, and we can spend that money doing something fun (w/three kids, the total on a fast food bill can get up there.)
Now that we’ve done it a few times, we’ve also curbed how much we buy. We plan on a few bought dinners… depending on our budget, it’s usually a “fancy” or expensive dinner or two, with another less expensive dinner out (fast food.) And then the rest we eat fast kitchen food: frozen pizzas, sandwiches, macc/cheese– kid friendly stuff that’s also easy for us to prep. And tho I’m usually handling the food prep, typically the hubby/kids will take a night, so between the dinners out & them cooking once, I get quite a few nights off from cooking.
I’m with you, when I’m on vacation, I want a break from cooking too! And I don’t think it hurts anyone to eat a little weirdly for a week!!
We always bring a bag full of non persiables and then hit the grocery store when we get there. We typically stay at Homewood Suites which is a location that offers a complimentary hot breakfast buffet so that is savings number one. We always pack lunches when we go to theme parks and bring our own kid friendly snacks. Ice cream in our hotel freezer always makes my kiddos happy. Other than that, we plan on eating out at dinner and enjoying a few treats along the way and coming home feeling like we did everything we could not to overspend on overpriced basic food.