Tuesday, June 24, 2014

{Days 10 - 14} An Unexpected Budget Vacation

We were blessed by my parents and brother and sister-in-law sharing several nights of lodging with us in the mountains on the spur of the moment. We stayed at a nice condo and enjoyed the lovely parks in the area and the pool. The kids and I went without Daddy as he was busy with work and used the quiet evenings to get lots of school work done for his current classes. We kept expenses low by only eating out 2 meals, once on the way there and once on the way home, so the main cost was an extra tank of gas to get there and back. I brought food from our pantry and fridge and we ate okay while keeping meal prep relatively easy. This trip was not without stress (mine), but I hope the memories made will be good ones.

Frugal activity on the day we left was gluing a drawer our boys had broken.

15 years ago my husband and I stood on this bridge for a picture on our honeymoon. Life sure has changed!

Expenses:
Beau Jo's Pizza - $39.77 (meal, tax, tip, with AAA discount) We really like this pizza so we think it is a worthy splurge.
City Market - $20.59 - Needed groceries and vacation treats. I let each of the kids choose a treat or two up to $1.50/child. In a large family, we just don't do this, which made it all the more exciting this time.
IKEA cafeteria - $21.50
IKEA - $6.37 for 3 baskets from the As Is section