One thing that I've been meaning to post about was our uber-frugal mini-vacation back in February. One of the things that has been the hardest for me is cutting back on our trips and little vacations. When I was single and in college, I was constantly going places, and, for me, travel is a necessity for my sanity.
But it IS possible to have little vacations on a little budget.
Case in point:
At Christmas last year, J was skimming through Groupon (which we LOVE) and noticed a Groupon for a B&B for only $65. If you're a B&B lover, you know that this is a steal. However, we didn't exactly have $65 to spend...until we went and checked the mail and found an unexpected Christmas check. :) It was almost enough to cover that, so we decided to buy the groupon and tuck it away for a weekend away later on.
The weekend after V-day...shortly before I started my new job and when finances were extremely tight...we decided to use that Groupon. To sweeten the deal, we pulled out a restaurant.com gift certificate we had snagged when they were on sale for 90% off for $25 off of a meal...with a minimum $35 purchase.
We budgeted a whopping extra $20 for that weekend. And it worked.
Overall, we had a great weekend. We slipped away after work, ordered drinks off the $1 menu at McDonald's, and headed to the B&B, which was lovely and usually went for about $135 a night. Then, we headed to a restaurant and had an awesome dinner. It was a fairly inexpensive place to eat, so we were able to splurge on expensive entrees we usually didn't order, virgin margaritas, and dessert...for a whopping $13.
The overall cost?
B&B - $65 +tax
Dinner-$13
Gas- $5
Snacks -$5
All of it was less than $100....and it was just what we needed to get away. It IS possible to enjoy some luxuries on a budget. :)
For us, it has really helped to watch sites such as restaurant.com and Groupon. We've scored some fantastic deals. :)
