Frugal Friday: Saving Money on Weekend Trips

Last week we took a trip to The Creation Museum. The museum is about 5 hours from our home. We had a slim budget and in order to do the extra attractions like the planetarium we had to cut corners somewhere.

After researching our destination, this is what I did:

1. Plan out Snacks for In-the-Car snacks. I purchased peanuts, teddy grahams, pretzels, grapes and drinks. Not stopping at the gas stations or rest stops for snacks saved us lots of money.

2. Pack the snacks in individualized servings and into brown paper bags with each child's name. You can include small toys and stickers to make the bags more interesting. Just make sure that the children know to eat in increments, or they very well could eat everything at once.

3. Allow children to take their own book bag with things to do on the trip. Focus on items that your trip may inspire a new interest. Since we were going to the Creation Museum I packed books about Noah's Ark and Dinosaurs. I packed a few little toy dinosaurs that we already had. I also printed out coloring pages and activity sheets from the internet featuring Bible characters and dinosaurs. This can easily be adapted to your destination.

4. See if you can find a hotel at your destination that sells their rooms as a package that includes the room, breakfast, and your tickets. We were able to find an extremely nice hotel that provided a hot "Welcome Home Dinner," a swimming pool, a hot breakfast in the morning, and all four of our tickets for right around $150. That saved us quite a bit of money since dinner and breakfast was included.

5. Take water to drink in a reusable container to the actual destination.

6. Pack a picnic lunch and have a picnic there.

7. If you opt to, give your children the amount that they can spend on "stuff" and let them work out how they are going to budget their spending.

8. Make a meal to come home to that can easily be popped into the oven as you unpack from your trip.

9. Remember to have fun and not stress out. Focus on making memories with your kids, it's not likely that they will remember that they didn't eat a restaurant meal.

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