by Dian 8 Comments

How to Vacation Inexpensively!

We’ve talked about Staycationing before.  A lot of people are choosing to do that and it’s  great idea, we rarely get to see the things in the areas we live in!

I also know that I always thought it was too expensive to travel and go on vacation with the family.  But, I recently found out how inexpensive traveling can be.  A couple of years ago we took a trip from Dallas thru Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania!  Here’s how we did it:

I told you about our trip to the Pocono Mountains.  We left Dallas on a Thursday and my goal was to do it as inexpensively as possible.

So, I found a website called My Gas Buddy and I entered my destination and what kind of car I would be driving in the Trip Cost Calculator and it gave me a turn by turn printable map with which gas stations to fill up at along the way and how much the gas was at those stations, as well as how much to put in at each one and how much we would save using those directions!  I loved it!

So, we set out with that map in hand, my entertainment book, a portable printer I got on Amazon with my Swagbucks, and $250 in Restaurant certificates ( I paid $20 total for those)!  (Restaurant.com now has an app for my phone, so I don’t even have to carry my portable printer anymore!)

We were able to find restaurants along the way and use out Restaurant gift certificates and get great deals!  We found a great little place in Little Rock, Arkansas where we got barbecue and for the 3 of us with drinks and full meals, we paid $6 total!!

We used the hotel discounts in the Entertainment Book to get great deals.  We found a Days Inn in Nashville, TN and called the number in the book and they got us the room for $50 and we signed up for a 1 month trial in a program they offered and it cost $1, but we get $40 back in rebates!

We stopped for gas at a Shell station and my husband noticed a sign reminding him to use our gas discount thru our Kroger fuel rewards!  So, on top of the deal the Gas Buddy found for us, we got an additional $0.10 off per gallon!

The night before we left, I realized looking at the map that we were passing by two friend’s homes – perfectly spaced for our trip!  On the way to the Reviewer’s Retreat we stayed at one friends home and she provided dinner for us and on the way back we again stayed with her and she fed us dinner and breakfast!  Then, we stayed with another friend!

We saved so much money that we were able to stop off an extra day and spend time in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN – beautiful!!  If you ever get a chance to go, do it!  I love it there – my Dad took me as a kid and it is so much fun!

So, don’t feel like you can’t take a vacation, just plan it out and take advantage of all of the resources available to you!  Don’t forget Groupon, too, they are great when planning a trip!