Vacationing, kind of

I'm on vacation for a few more days.  Actually, I'm visiting my mom out east.  I'll be blogging when I get home. I miss my family and home and am ready to get back home and cook regular meals. 

In my down time this week I have been working on a new household schedule for when I begin caring for my grandson 4 days a week beginning next week.  I know I will only be able to get household chores done during naptime.  However my walking time should increase as he loves to be in his stroller going on walks.  It's a pleasant and happy trade off.

Staycation and a Great Buy

Instead of taking a vacation, we are staying close to home this year and working on some projects. Honestly I just didn't want to go to the trouble of figuring where we would like to go, make reservations, do the drive thing and all that goes with it. Yes, many people would love to get away on a vacation but this year it just seemed like a hassle. I just wanted us to stay home and do some projects and relax. Also, I didn't want to spend the money. 

Today we did some work outside in 100 degree heat index. Funny thing is that since the wind was blowing hard, it was hot but didn't really seem to bother us.

We have money set aside in a home repair fund and we spent around $175 today on patio stones, gravel and such to repair the foundation around our shed. Our dogs love to dig under the shed and we had enough of it. So we spent some dough and we are half way through with this project. It makes the shed look like it has a little patio in the front of it. More pictures to follow. Let's just say that it makes everything in the yard look better. 

On the way home from Wal-mart we drove by a second hand store. I drive by this store all the time but have never stopped to look at what they had to sell. Today I stopped and bought these:

The yellow chair is a stool that has steps that you pull out to use as a step stool. The design is yellow cracked ice and it was made in 1956 per the stamp underneath the chair. The two dinette chairs have a gray cracked ice design. And...... the cost??? A total of $11 for the three of them. I have priced these brand new and the dinette chairs would cost $249 and the stool would cost around $50. There is minimal wear on the three of these.

Here is a link to the post I made about my kitchen inspiration pieces and you can see a picture of the dinette table. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning now as I am so thrilled with this purchase. I didn't think I would be able to find these items in such good shape and at a low price. It just goes to show you that there are bargains to be found out there and that it does pay to stop by some stores that you have never shopped before. I will definitely be going back to browse at this store for any other items I may need for our home.  
  

I'm Back.

I’m back…. After a couple of days to get organized, declutter and take a break from blogging, we headed on our vacation to Washington, D.C. It’s not the kind of thing you want to announce to people over the internet that you are leaving town for vacation so I needed to keep it to myself.

I did have a few days before we left to walk through the house and make a list of what I wanted and needed to accomplish over the remainder of the year. It’s a long list but it is full of more projects that I want to do versus those that I have to do. I was also able to get more sewing done.

Our trip to Washington, D.C. was a graduation present for our son who will be in college in the fall majoring in journalism and American government. My husband had set aside some money 3 years ago for just this trip. The unique thing is that he didn’t tell me. He wanted it to be a surprise. And as long as money secrets have to do with fun stuff like this, I’m okay with it.

The money he set aside didn’t pay for the entire trip; it just paid for the hotel in D.C. and the hotel stay on the way there and on the return trip. The total hotel expense for the entire trip was $2,050. Yes, that’s right – over $2,000. On the drive we stayed at very inexpensive hotels for those overnight stays, but D.C. is a different story. Hotel accommodations are very expensive and we had two requests: 1. We wanted to be able to walk to all of the sites or be near the Metro (train) as we knew that we didn’t want to have to drive our car around D.C. 2. We wanted to have breakfast included with the hotel.

We paid $259 per night to stay at the Homewood Suites 5 blocks from the White House. We parked our car in the hotel parking lot and walked everywhere. The hotel provided a full breakfast and when I say full we are talking about eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, biscuits, waffles, yogurt, cereal and hash browns. Then to our surprise they also provided dinner from 5:00 to 7:00 each evening.

When we were checking prices on hotels in D.C. even those in the suburbs were very high and they included a continental breakfast. Staying at the Homewood Suites where we enjoyed a suite with a small living room with pull out sofa sleeper, kitchen, bedroom with king sized bed and bath and with the benefit of those two added meals along with being able to walk everywhere, saved us more money than if we would have stayed at a cheaper hotel in the suburbs.

We budgeted $400 in gasoline and $300 for food (I packed food for travelling and we ate at the hotel and purchased other food as needed such as lunch, ice cream and other treats). As to souvenirs I wanted to pick up some pictorial books on the Capitol and White House. I priced these in D.C. and then went on line to check the prices of the same book, but only used, on Amazon. At the stores in D.C. each were priced at around $20 each. On Amazon, used, they were around 25 cents plus shipping.

This was a special vacation trip. It was one of those once in a long time, save up, go all out and stay at a special hotel trips.

Now it is back to scrimping every penny and save as much money as possible. We need a new roof. Yep, we took money and spent it on hotel accommodations for a trip that we probably should have used to put towards a new roof. Perhaps it was irresponsible with our money, but I don’t think so.

We are now home and it is back to hanging clothes up on the line, mending clothes, baking bread, painting and patching and cutting back on anything and everything to save money. I will never regret the trip to D.C. Every time I want to purchase something and have to say no to myself, I will pick up my cell phone and look at the pictures we took in D.C. It was oh so worth it.

Tomorrow we will begin the Tightwad Gazette III.

Our vacation

I spent this weekend "getting my bearings" after being gone for a week on vacation.  We were all pretty tired by the time we got home on Friday evening. 

On our first day of vacation we got up early and we were on the road by 6:15 a.m.  We drove 780 miles from our home in Iowa to my hometown in Western New York.  I packed ham and turkey sandwiches made on freshly baked buns.  We also had plenty of snacks such as chips, crackers, cookies, apples, Twizzlers and Tootsie Roll pops.  We also had bottles of water.  We did stop for breakfast that first day and then from there on out until reaching our destination in New York we ate as we were hungry and stopped only for gas or bathroom breaks. 

After a couple of days in New York we spent three days in Ohio visiting the Football Hall of Fame, McKinley Presidential Museum and tomb, First Ladies Museum, President Hayes Presidential Museum and tomb and President Harding's home.  Yes, we love history and of course my DH and DS love sports.  So, we mix the two up on vacations.

We stayed in hotels our entire vacation - 6 nights  - and for the first time, we received AARP discounts.  We stayed at Comfort Inns and spent a few nights at a Hampton Inn.  The Hampton Inn gave us such a great deal as it ended up being the cheapest hotel for us to stay at in my hometown.  Okay, I'm only 51 and my DH is only 52 but if they are going to allow us to be members of AARP at our ages, I will take the benefits.  All the hotels offered free breakfast.  When booking hotels we look at the price and then we double check to see if breakfast is included.  For breakfast we had quite a variety of foods to choose from each day - eggs, omelets, french toast sticks, waffles, donuts, bagels, muffins, fresh cut up fruit, sausage and gravey with biscuits and more. 

We ate in restaurants except for one meal that my mom cooked for us.  I noticed some major differences from prior vacations.  1.  Each hotel that we stayed at was not full, not even close.  Because of this they offered quite a few discounts from their normal fees.  2.  The restaurants that we ate at all had specials more than ever before. 

The economy has hit the hotel and restaurant industry pretty hard and we were the benefits of quite a few discounts.  The bottom line is that it still cost money.  We were careful how we spent the money that we had set aside for our vacation. 

All in all we had a great time, stayed within our budget and I only spent $8.00 on myself for the entire trip, which is unheard of.  I bought an Ohio State spoon - okay, it's kind of kitchy but I do collect them.  I also bought a book for $2.00 that had pictures of the President McKinley museum.  I mainly bought it because they had quite a few displays on Victorian living and I want to duplicate some things in my own home.

We came back with a lot of memories including laughing and teasing each other a lot during our travelling.  I do not remember one moment that we got upset with each other.  We had a great time.

This was the first vacation that I didn't have to come home to a job outside of the home.  Usually as we are driving home I start to think about all the work that is on my desk that I will be facing the following Monday.  Not so, this time, it was only a lot of laundry.

Back from Vacation

We have been on vacation for a week and it was great to get home last night.  We drove to New York to visit my mother and then we spent some time in Ohio going to the Football Hall of Fame.  I do not like football at all, but when you have boys you tend to put up with sports. After we left the Football Hall of Fame I told my DS and DH that I felt that if there was a craft museum somewhere they should spend an afternoon going through it with me. 

We love history and it seems that we tend to put sports and history together.  While in Ohio we went to  President McKinley's museum and library, President Hayes' museum and library and then to President Harding's home.  We really enjoyed it and learned a lot about some presidents that don't get a lot of pages in the history books.  We also went to the First Ladies Museum.

I'll post more later but am glad to get home and cook our own food after eating out for a week.  Yes, eating out does got old after a while.

Planning a Vacation

No matter what our financial situation has been throughout our married life, we have always taken a vacation.  Vacations have ranged from driving to visit family throughout the U.S., to tent camping at a state park and cooking our meals at a campsite, to driving to a vacation spot and staying at hotels and eating every meal at a restaurant.  Of course, each vacation was planned on what we could afford to spend at the time.

What have I learned?  It is important to get away for a week as a family.  The memories of those vacations are priceless and when I look at the pictures from all of those vacations, I have never been sorry that we spent the money and went. 

We have never taken a vacation that we couldn't afford.  One time we only had around $300 for a vacation.  That was the year we bought a cheap tent and went camping for a few days with some family members.  We shared in the cooking and honestly we had a great time.  I had never tent camped before I met my husband but when our kids were young it was a way for us to take a vacation without spending a lot of money.

This year we will spend part of our vacation visiting my mother.  It is a 14 hour drive (stops included) to drive straight from our house in Iowa to my mom's home in Western New York.  We have been driving straight through for several years and spend the time watching the scenery and talking or reading books while travelling.  It isn't for everyone, but it works for us. 

My mom lives in a very small apartment in a senior citizen's apartment building. We cannot stay there so we will once again be staying in a hotel. No matter who you book through, it costs money to stay in a hotel.  Unfortunately my home town is a tourist town so hotels aren't cheap, especially during the busy summer season.  We do a lot of price checking, comparing and we usually get a pretty good deal.  We always book a room at a hotel that has a continental breakfast and a microwave and fridge in the room.  These are almost becoming standard now.

On our way back to Iowa we will spend a day or two in Ohio going to the Football Hall of Fame and a few presidential historic sites.  Again, there will be two more nights of lodging.

When I was employed we would generally budget $1,500 to $1,800 for vacation.  For some people that is not a lot of money, but for us that was more than enough.  This would include about 6 nights of lodging, all meals being eaten in restaurants, admission fees to any attractions, souvenirs, gasoline and anything else that would be related to a vacation.

This year I will be packing food so that we can stop at rest stops and have a picnic.  When we are in New York we will take my mom out for a special meal but will cook the rest of the meals at her apartment. 

Our budget is an absolute cannot go over $1000.00 and would like to keep it at $800.00.  To help with the vacation expenses I have been taking all the money I save from couponing and stashing it in a jar.  It will be interesting to see what I have saved by the time we go on vacation. 

Over the almost 30 years that I have been married I have learned that it's not the amount of money spent that makes a great family vacation.  It's the time spent together, travelling and doing things together that makes it great.