Whether it’s a day trip or a week long getaway, there’s always ways to save money! I actually heard someone say that when they are on vacation, they didn’t need to think of saving money-it’s vacation. Yikes, that’s not me at all. My thinking is how can I save money on this vacation so I can get another one by the end of the summer.
So, here are some tips while on vacation:
Implementing these tips allows me to eat out at such a great cost!
Eating Out:
- For restaurant deals, I head to Restaurant.com. Punch in the zip code to the location to where you’ll be and you’ll find restaurant deals. Go a step further and google “coupon codes for Restaurant.com” and you’ll most likely find even more savings!
2. If I’m going out of state for vacation I’ll search daily deals for that town and state that I’m in. Quite often there are several sites that offer deals to restaurants and local activities.
3. Our family does a lot of day trips and mini getaways in NH and close by. Some of our NH deal sites that I look at often for both food and activities are Couptopia, HalfOffNH.com, Dollar Saver and Taste.
Eating Out Alternatives:
1. More hotels are offering free hot/cold breakfast with stays and often it’s not a price increase to other hotels. So, it is good to look for these special perks. I also look for rooms with fridges and microwaves. Sometimes rooms don’t have them, but can be added to the room for a small fee or you can use the front desk’s microwave when needed. If our family is staying away for several days, I’ll price out suites that have kitchens because often the savings is still significant. Mountain Club On Loon is one of those hotels we stay at and they do offer rooms from studios to family suites.
2. My friend recently brought a skillet to her hotel while vacationing at Hershey Park. She made easy skillet breakfasts and dinners and saved a bundle.
3. When going to amusement parks and water parks, I pack a cooler full of sandwiches and drinks. A lot of places welcome coolers, but just ask you to keep glass out of the park. This savings allows us to splurge on the cotton candy and maybe some fried dough at some point during the day or stop for dinner on the way home!
Looking for more alternatives to eating out?
My favorite is family tailgating! We have a large family and when we go off for the day I pack our food most of the time. One thing we purchased second hand, was a tailgating grill. Nothing like eating hot BBQ chicken and steak by the beach or at the mountains or cooking it in a hotel parking lot.
Here are a couple grilling picnic recipes we like too that are pretty easy!
Bacon Maple Dogs: All you need are your favorite hot dogs, bacon, maple syrup, can of beans, honey mustard and hot dog buns.
1. Wrap each hot dog with a slice of bacon.
2. Brush the dog with maple syrup while grilling.
3. Put your dog in a bun and top with beans and honey mustard.
You can opt out of brushing syrup and use maple bacon instead. Either way, you’ll want to have more than one!
Kabobs: Prepare your kabobs before your trip and just toss them on your grill when it’s lunchtime! Kabobs are really a meal on a stick. Use meat, shrimp, veggies and fruit. Make sure if you’re using your wooden skewers, you’ve soaked them in water.
Packing Tip: When taking advantage of the eating out alternatives, I’d suggest getting a covered bin big enough to hold cooking utensils, cleaning up sponge, dish soap, paper towels and I like to pack ziplock bags for any leftovers. You can also keep your paper plates, eating utensils in here, as well as a small salt and pepper shaker.
Following these tips are really quite easy to do and the savings that we save is easily over 50% of what it would cost, otherwise. It does take a little planning, but to me I’m quite happy to not have to gasp at the bill or by the end of vacation have to charge our fun or eating out on the credit card. We’ve followed these tips for years and I wouldn’t do it any other way!