My March goal was to start blogging more often, but it was Spring Break for my kids and we were on vacation, so I'm having bit of a slow start. I'm here now, though! And I'm sunkissed and relaxed from a fun filled trip to Universal Studios Orlando, Florida. You know, I was born in central Florida and I spent a good portion of my life there, before I ran away with a boy fresh out of marine corps boot camp, so it might come to some surprise when I say this was my first trip to Universal Studios! GASP!
I come from a family of Disney Junkies. My aunts and uncles worked at Disney. My mama was obsessed with the mouse and any chance we got we went to Magic Kingdom. My mama and I recently sat down and counted my old Disney tickets and concluded that I have been to Disney World over a hundred times. Keep in mind though, I had relatives who worked there and I did a little singing in the parks as a teenager, too.
But we never went to Universal!!!!
I have another confession.
I love Harry Potter. I don't just sort of like it. I LOVE IT! My oldest son, Skywalker, is obsessed with it! Everything has always been about Harry Potter with him. When he was younger he didn't want to cut his hair,because in the first Harry Potter book, Harry didn't want his hair cut either. Now that he has aged some, (he's 9!!!!!) he has stepped away from his love for the Gryffindor hero and joined the slyhterin house, where Severus Snape has become his idol.
Going to Universal Studios this year for Spring Break was kind of a no brainer. We had to go! But in a family our size and only one income, vacations like Universal can put a damper on the bank account. People have been asking me lately (politely, of course)how we afford to take vacations a few times a year, especially to places like Universal or Disney and today, I'm going to share my secrets with you!!!!
First, we plan ahead. We decide months in advance what we are doing and when. This gives us time to watch for specials on hotel prices and attractions and to put some money away.
We buy gift cards. When you take a trip to your grocery store or to Walmart, throw in a $25 or $50 visa gift card or buy one add money each time you go, if that type of card has that option. $25- $50 added to a grocery bill every other week is easy for us. Our groceries are typically pretty expensive and adding in $25 doesn't make a huge difference, but after 7 months of $25 every other week is $350. You can also look for deals, which brings me to my next tip...
We take advantage of restaurants gift card specials. Throughout the year, around certain holidays, some food places will offer special on their gift cards. When this happens we BUY THEM. Chain restaurants are just about everywhere and we can use those Olive Garden and Chili's gift cards while on vacation... heck even the fast food ones while traveling.
Save up gas points. I'm not going to get really into this one, since we do not utilize it while we travel, but some grocery stores offer gas points per purchases in their store. You can save these up to help with gas, or use them for gas prior to your trip and save the money that you would have put in your tank for your trip.
We use ebates. It can be a bit difficult to get into the habit at first, but if you are like us and shop online a lot, you HAVE to HAVE an ebates account. You earn money for shopping online at stores you would typically shop online at! All you do differently is go to the ebates website first and ebates will send you checks or gift cards as you earn money. I earn quite a bit each month here, because like I said we shop online A LOT! You can use the link below to sign up, which again I HIGHLY recommend!
Food is probably the biggest expense when we travel, so we try to eat light throughout the day and then have one big meal. I always set a budget of keeping food expenses under $60 a day and with gift cards and eating light, except for the one meal, we almost always accomplish this. (I say almost, because sometimes I just get a craving for ice cream)
With souvenirs, we ask our kids to think practical. Before they buy a shirt that says Dollywood on it just because everyone in the park is wearing it, we ask them to really think about how often they will wear it back home. At Universal this past week, yea we spent a lot on souvenirs, but they were practical. We got Harry Potter cups and a blanket. I needed a new throw blanket for over my couch anyway and we always need new cups.
Utilize Groupon! This kind of goes with my first tip about searching for specials. When it comes to food and attractions, sometimes even hotels, you can get AMAZING deals by looking on groupon first. I highly, highly recommend looking around on the site when planning your trip.
And my last tip about saving money for a vacation is to start using swagbucks as your search engine. I started using this in 2010 instead of google and I have earned over $200 in gift cards. It doesn't seem like much, but considering I'm just surfing the web and earning gift cards, I think it's pretty groovy. And if you are someone who does a lot of web browsing then I'm sure you will earn more, more quickly. You earn points for searching for things. It's not always quick and you don't always earn points, but when you do earn some you save them up and then trade them for gift cards. You can get visa cards, gas cards, food gift cards... the options are limitless. If you use the internet, you should be using swagbucks instead of google. You earn money for searching the internet. It really doesn't get any cooler than that. I included a link to swagbucks below. You won't be sorry. I promise!
It's not about how much money you spend, but about being a family. Fancy restaurants and 5 star hotels mean nothing if you aren't having fun. If you are too stressed about the money that you can't enjoy your vacation, what kind of vacation is that. I don't think it matters where you take your kids on vacation or how much you spend on them. It matters that YOU are with them and that they see you are having fun.
We don't necessarily go to places like Universal to spend money. We do these type of things, so that for a little while we can be "normal." For a few days we don't have to worry about doctors or a bad prognosis. We go on trips like this, because we know life is short. We know that any day our children can lose the ability to do these kind of things together. It's not about spending money. We budget for these things. We save and we plan. We don't do them because we have the money. We find the money because we want to do them. We want to make memories. I want my kids to look back on these days and remember that they were together. We were together. And for a little while, for a few days out of every year, we don't have to feel confined or different.
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