As summer approaches, many of us are looking forward to some sun and warm weather, some outdoor time and longer days. With summer comes summer vacation too! But with these hard economic times, many families have had to drastically scale-back on their summer plans. Check out these money saving tips for your vacation:
1. Start collecting "snack" foods a few months ahead of time. Be sure to use coupons and sales and buy only what is on sale. If you can accumulate enough "free" or very cheap snacks, you will save a bundle of money while on vacation. Car trips, hungry kids and convenience stores equal budget blowing snacks.
2. Bring re-usable water bottles. Buying a gallon of drinking water to refill bottles is a lot cheaper than buying individual water bottles.
3. Bringing a cooler is obvious (preserving left-overs from meals, stopping by the grocery store instead of a restaurant), but instead of buying a bag of ice, take a gallon (smaller container for smaller coolers) of drinking water and freeze it. It will keep your cooler contents cold for a long time and when it melts, you have clean drinking water. It's also a lot less messy than dealing with loose melted ice in your cooler.
4. Check out freebie and sample sites several months before your planned vacation. There are a lot of trail size items that can be gotten for free, such as shampoo, deodorant and even sample size of snacks.
5. If you are going to buy travel size items, remember that there are a lot of coupons that can be used on trail size items that will yield a free item.
6. Consider buying an Entertainment book for your destination location.
7. Do your research. Sign-up for email clubs for museums and restaurants at your destination. Keep in mind that most establishments offer a "Freebie" or discount just for signing-up, but most of these coupons have a two week shelf life, so don't sign-up for these offers too far in advance.
8. Bring "disposable" toys with you. It's important to have a free quality, favorite toys so that your child has something loved and familiar. But it's also important to have "new" toys that will help hold their interest. Collect free stickers every time you go to the bank and keep a stash for your travel time. Save the crayons you are given at restaurants because the small packages are great for travel. Print individual coloring sheets (bring a clipboard) for your child to color. Head to the dollar store and pick-up a few items. Having new items that are not too expensive (less worrisome if they get lost) is a lifesaver when vacationing with kids.
9. Long car rides can make everyone a little antsy. Keep these fun items in your glove box for quick fun at a rest stop: Beach ball, jump rope, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles.
10. Everyone wants to bring home a souvenir from their vacation, but as we are all too well aware, these souvenirs are not cheap. And when you have multiple children, this can be very damaging to a budget. Here are a few ideas of cheap (and free) souvenirs: collect coasters from all the restaurants you eat at, postcards, free travel brochures (they usually have professional pictures of the area, as well as good information that can be used as an educational tool), rocks from every stop (bring a sharpie marker to write the location the rock was collected), photos (give each child an old digital camera and allow them to take their own pics) and pens (collected from various locations such as hotels and restaurants).
11. If you are given extra napkins at your meal, put them in your pocket or purse. These will definitely come in handy and may eliminate the need to buy paper towel.
12. Magazines are great traveling companions. Everyone can take turns reading them and when done, you can always toss them in a recycling bin. Not only are they cheap (and often free) but disposable (making room for things you pick-up along the way).
13. Bring your coupons. You will no doubt need to make a trip or two to the grocery or drug store. It's always wise to have your coupons handy! And don't forget to buy a local Sunday paper!
14. Head to your local library before you leave. Most local libraries have a wonderful collection of DVDs, music CDs and stories on tape (or CD). A stack of new books, CDs and DVDs can pass a lot of time! And most libraries allow you to renew online if you happen to be taking an extended vacation.
15. Homemade treats always make trips more fun! There is something special about having a HOMEmade treat that warms your heart while you are away. Cookies and bars travel well, and remember to make a yummy coffee cake for breakfast. You will save yourself a lot of hassle trying to find breakfast in the AM if you already have it made, cut and buttered!
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