10 Ways to Save Money While on Vacation with Kids

For the past week and a half we've been away with our kids on a road trip to the east coast.  I wonder why we don't do this more often, then I tally up the costs associated with a vacation once were back and realize just how expensive it is.  That's why!

Now that we've been vacationing with the kids for years, we have some things down to a science.  This vacation in particular I feel like we've really aced some skills in money saving that I thought I'd share.

10 Ways to Save Money While on Vacation with Kids

Get a Hotel Room or AirBNB with a Kitchenette 

Or at least a fridge, microwave, and kettle.  This will allow you to make some of the meals while you're on the road from your room.  Even if you're just mixing up chocolate milk for an afternoon snack, it's going to be cheaper than buying individually packaged milk from the corner store.

BYOT or C

That stands for bring your own tea or coffee.  Trips to a local coffee shop add up, particularly when you have two little children demanding honey donuts and croissants.  This easily saved us $40 to $50.

Make the Kids Contribute

Molly and Jack were given some birthday money early from their grandparents to buy souvenirs on vacation.  We find that when it's their money they are a lot more choosey about how it's spent.  Like, when they both contributed $5 each to buy carrots to feed the deer at a wildlife reserve we knew they really wanted to.

Support Local Farmers

This is a fun way to explore where you're vacationing and to get fresh, healthy, good food for cheap.  We went to the Charlottetown Farmers' Market (open on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the summer) and picked up an amazing dinner and some fresh fruits and veggies for snacks, all for under $25.

Book a Room That Includes Breakfast

If there is a nominal difference in cost and breakfast is included, book there.  This will give you a good start to your day, in what's already the sunk cost of your accommodation.  We only managed this once on this particular vacation, but every bit helps.

Look for Deals

More and more companies charge more for 'at the gate' purchases of admission.  If you know you're going somewhere, check online for coupons, discounts for buying online advance, or even have a flexible Groupon or Living Social price that is somewhat flexible on when you can use it.  For the most part it's only $5 to $10 here and there, but when you're paying for a family of four it adds up very quickly.  We found out that kids get in free in National and Provincial parks this summer, so made sure we included those destinations on our itinerary.

The Best Things in Life are Free

Visiting 'the world's biggest' whatever is a fun, and often free, way to break up the monotony of a long driving day.  Local parks have playgrounds that let the kids wear off excess energy at zero cost.

Bring Your Gift Cards for the Journey

We often ask for experiences over things for gifts, and this means we often have passes for movie theatres and gift cards for chain restaurants at our disposal.  Bring these along on vacation.  If you hit some rainy weather an afternoon at the movies is the perfect escape.

Snack Before Supper

My kids are pretty good eaters, but we've found for the most part it's best to feed them a simple dinner (think hot dogs, sandwiches, fresh veggies etc.) before we go out and then we simply order them an appetizer to split, and if they're still hungry let them eat off of our plates. This way there is less wasted food, and less expense on food that for the most part they're lukewarm about.

Domo was a part of a lot of our vacation photos this year.  A game that Jack loved.

Bring Your Own Entertainment

Print out colouring sheets, bring some cards and board games, or a portable DVD player or tablet to avoid spending on a hotel movie.  When you're out make up a scavenger hunt or go geocaching, cause it's free.  Going to the beach?  Bring your own buckets and shovels, and maybe even a kite to fly. Remember what they're going to remember most of all is the time they got to spend with you.


Have other travel money saving tips?  Let me know!

Life Is A Highway - Tips for A Road Trip Down South With Kids

This past summer we test drove the minions on how they would react to a lengthy road trip when we drove to the East Coast.  The trip went really well, so well in fact, that we decided to take the plunge this past March and take on a 2250 KM road trip each way to visit the grandparents in Florida and take the children for their inaugural trip to Disney (more on that later).  While our trip to the east coast was shorter, it also took place in the summer, this meant we were able to take many of our rest stops as outdoor picnics and hikes, which really helped take the edge off the hours cooped up in a car.  (Here are ten tips for a great road trips that I came up with this summer.)  Driving from Ontario to Florida, with a stop off in Myrtle Beach, can make for unpredictable weather, so it changes up the rules a little, as does driving in the US instead of Canada.

10 Tips for An Amazing Road Trip Driving South With Kids

1. When Booking Hotels, double check Amenities
I was booking hotels on the road, I looked for ones with pools, but didn't bother to check if they were indoor or outdoor.  Even in Virginia, an outdoor pool is going to be closed in March or April because it's too cold.  In addition to this, when making a last minute booking for Columbus Ohio I searched for a hotel with an Olympic Pool, only to arrive and discover it had shortened Easter hours, so we were out of luck in terms of swimming.
2. Sack of Snacks
Before we left for the trip I went out and spent $50 on snacks alone.  Energy bars, apple sauce tubes, and fruit leathers kept us healthy each day and saved us money.  We topped up at the grocer regularly for carrots and cherry tomatoes, in addition to two new road favourites clementines and pistachios.  We even kept a separate shell bottle to help keep the car clean.

My sack of mostly healthy snacks

3. Be Wary of Portion Sizes
When on the road, travel will take you to restaurants with different portion sizes.  We felt a sizable difference in super sized meals on the road and found that two to three meals easily fed all four of us with left overs.  It's also better to under order, and then order more food, than it is to waste food and money.
4. Gas Station Differences
I guess Canadians are just more trusting than Americans when it comes to gas.  Most Canadian gas stations will let you pump your gas and go inside and pay after (particularly during the day).  In the states you need to go in and pay for your gas before you pump, and if you overpay you'll sometimes need to go back inside to get them to refund you the difference on your credit card.
5. Speaking of Gas
Both Chris and I have been driving long enough to know that when driving, particularly on a highway in an area that we don't know, it stresses us out to be low on gas. Travel can be stressful enough, so we made a rule that if the tank fell to a quarter we found the next gas station.  My grandfather always used to say, 'it takes the same amount of money to fill the top half of your gas tank as it does the bottom'.  By the time we hit a quarter tank it was time to get up and stretch our legs anyway.
6. Avoid Rush Hour
By making weekends the days when we did the largest blocks of driving we never hit 'rush hour'. This probably saved us hours on the road.
7. Learn Your Power Hours
You'll quickly figure out the times of day when you feel the most energized and alert, and are able to cover the bulk of your mileage with little issue.  For us an early start was key to getting to our destination and being able to kick back a bit and feel like we were still in vacation mode, even if we had just finished a big day of driving.

One of Our Best Mid-Day Stops was at the Art Museum in Indianapolis

8. Mid-Sized Towns Are King
Big cities are expensive to stay in and have a lot of local traffic, some smaller towns may not have a restaurant open by the time you arrive and settle in.  By booking our travel days around medium sized cities we saved on cost, but were able to order pizza to our room at 10PM if we needed or wanted a late dinner.
9. Know Your Maximum Driving Times & Stick To It
Figure out the maximum time you ever want to be in a car during the day and then subtract an hour to half hour from that total.  This way you can have a traffic mishap and still come out close to your intended time on the road (most of the time).  Take shifts driving, particularly on longer days. When I took a shift Chris would often fill his time helping Jack build Lego or playing Mad Libs in the car with the kids.  Sure it wasn't a break to sleep but it made us both better appreciate the driver.
10. Have Fun With It & Embrace the Weird
Some days won't go as planned, but have a sense of humour about it.  The family now has a number of vacation related jokes about how a field full of deer may have saved Chris a speeding ticket, some overly animated billboard posters, and the hopefully well-intentioned gentleman we spotted who accidentally hit an armadillo with his car and thought he'd kick it to see if it was okay.

What are your best tips for family road trips?

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Road To Nowhere - 10 Tips For A Great Road Trip

We just got back from our first ever road trip as a family.  In just 11 days we travelled through four provinces and covered over 3200 KMs (not including day trips).  We weren't sure how the kids would cope with spending so much time in a car, the most they'd ever spent in a row in the past was four hours, and we knew we'd have a handful of days with upwards of nine hours in the car.

While we made a concerted effort to make the trip about the journey as well as the destination there was no getting around the amount of time we were going to be in a car.  It's still fresh in my mind, so before I share more about our trip (which was amazing), I thought I'd share some tips and tricks that totally helped us get through with minimal 'Are We There Yet?' questions.

Exploring Botanical Gardens Together

Here Are 10 Road Trip Tips For Families Travelling With Kids

1. Figure out the time of the day when you'll be able to log the most mileage with limited complaints and hassle (this goes for drivers and navigators as well) and take advantage of those "Power Hours".  For us it's always morning.
2. Make sure you have a full tank of gas each night before you park, that way when it's time to go in the AM there won't be a delay.
3. Multiple "surprise" treats on days with a lot of driving give the kids something to look forward to on the road (for us the dollar store for colouring books, mini dolls, figurines, and Amazon for cheap mini figurines was some of the best money we could have ever spent).
   
   
   
   

   

   Our First Stop On The Trip Was At The Big Apple In Cramhae Ontario

   
   
4. Research Road side attractions for fun stops that aren't too out of the way to help make the trip about the journey as well as the destination.  Things like museums, botanical gardens, hikes, or giant novelty statues can make for really fun breaks from endless hours on the road.
5. Fill up water bottles every night and put them in a cooler/fridge so you have them handy on the road.  This will save you money, keep you well hydrated and force everyone to take much needed bathroom breaks to stretch their legs.
6. Pack healthy portable foods for snacks.  Our favourites include baby carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, squeezable Apple sauce tubes, yogurt drinks, and cut carrots and celery.
7. Plan some games for the road.  We had an ongoing license plate game looking to find as many states and provinces we could for the entire trip (you can get printable ones online). We also played a game where we looked for all the letters in the alphabet and numbers (from A-Z with no repeats on the same license plate) until we were done. We spent six hours looking for the letter U one day, but everyone was excited when we found it.
8. Never underestimate the power of a pool.  Promises of accommodations with pools at the end of particularly long driving days let everyone blow off a little steam, and energy.
9. Understand that your kids sleeping hours are going to be wonky since they'll nap so much in the car.  Some nights the minions were up to 11PM because they'd gotten so much rest on the road, and that was okay.
10. Know your driving limits and that plans will need to change sometimes.  Our "down days" when we stayed two nights somewhere were always our best ones cause we could really relax with less of a clock to punch.

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Paperback Writer: Sharing My Writing From Other Sites

It's that time of the month again when I share some of the writing I've been completing for other publications.  This past month I wrote an article that went viral and to date has earned nearly 1.6 million views (13 Things Celeb Parents Did That Were Sketchy AF).  One of the interesting things for me in terms of parenting and entertainment articles is how it's hard to predict if what I write is going to be popular or not.  Some of my favourite articles to write and research are the ones with the least "sexy" topics and titles, so I'm always curious to see what attracts readers.

Nowadays as my full-time job I write and ghostwrite articles for online publications, organizations and blogs, in addition to providing public relations services.  While I can't really share my ghostwritten articles on this platform, cause then I wouldn't really be a ghostwriter would I, I can share some of the other stuff I have been working on.

I'm looking forward to lightening my work load a little this summer to enjoy some lengthy vacations with the minions as well as more time with them on a day to day basis while they'll only be attending camp part time each week.  As always, the more time I spend with Molly and Jack, often means more content for Multiple Momstrosity...so buckle up!

Click on the links for the topics that interest you most, and if you enjoy what I wrote please share, like, and follow, and keep parenting and reading on!  If you have any ideas for a story, a playground review, or article on any front, feel free to share it with me!  I'm always looking for new sources of inspiration!

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