Plan a Budget Conscious Vacation

My ex-husband and I used to love impromptu weekend road trips. We would pack up and head out on a Friday evening after work and follow Florida backroads until just past dinner time. We would find accommodations in small towns and quaint beachfronts. Unfortunately, now as a single mother with five children in tow and limited finances, I no longer have the luxury of such unplanned escapades.

By properly planning vacations now, however, we can still enjoy our share of adventures without sabotaging the regular budget.

Plan the Journey

By using mapping websites or our trusty GPS device, we can ensure that we get to our destination with the least number of detours. With $3 - $4 per gallon gas prices, taking the most efficient route has never been more important to keeping within a vacation budget. Some mapping websites will assist in calculating what that gas budget should be. Using national gasoline prices and your input of miles per gallon for the vehicle being used, the site will provide a good estimate of how much gas will cost for the trip. Be sure to double the cost if you have only mapped a one-way route.

Plan the Pitstops

We frequently check GasBuddy.com to find the cheapest gas prices along our route. We also report back to the website when we find an unreported gas deal along the way to help the next guy.

In addition, we always carry restaurant location maps for our favorite franchises. We often have coupons or discounts that work as well on the road as they do when we frequent the local locations.

Many hotels include some version of breakfast. While lower end accommodations often provide only donuts and coffee, some of the mid-value chains are improving their morning offerings to substantial spreads. For our family, I consider a hotel-offered breakfast saves us $25 over buying breakfast, and I figure that savings when considering the overall cost of our lodging.

Plan the Fun

Knowing where you want to go and what you want to see beforehand may save on admission costs.

Last year we were in Colorado Springs and I had hoped to take my children to Pike's Peak. Unfortunately, we did not follow through with an earlier telephone call to the reservation line. As a result, we arrived and found the wait longer than we could afford.

This year we are returning to the area and have already made our reservations for the train ride up the mountain. Not only are we assured of having our tickets, by checking out the Pike's Peak website I found a coupon that affords us $5.00 off per ticket if we take the 8:00 train. For the five of us, that's a savings of $25.

If you hold season passes to any local attractions, check to see if there are reciprocal discounts available. Our Busch Gardens Tampa season passes offered us a 50% discount last year when we visited Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. Our Stone Mountain annual passes garnered us a 50% discount at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.

Plan Your Meals

Meal planning is equally important to a vacation budget as it is to the family's household budget. In addition, to carrying coupons for national restaurant chains and choosing hotels that serve breakfast, we limit our eating out at lunch and dinner to contain costs.

While on the road, we will pick up picnic supplies or a prepared meal from the deli counter at a local grocery and then stop at the next rest area to eat and relax. Bringing a Frisbee along gives the kids some exercise as well. Many tourist attractions also have picnic areas available. We have carried our own lunch into such sites as Mammoth Cave (not into the cave, but outside), the United States Air Force Academy, and Franklin Roosevelt's Little White House, among others.

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