by Hope
This weekend we will travel for the first time since returning from Texas last August. This is an all time record for me staying in one place, spending every consecutive night in my own bed. We are going to DC for Little Gymnast’s state meet. We have budgeted $300 for the entire trip. Here’s the plan:
We will leave Friday morning after breakfast and spend the afternoon touring IKEA and dreaming of the day when we have a home again or at least enough room to each have a bed. It will serve as a math lesson using room diagrams to see what they can fit in their imaginary room and then money with a set budget for their room (kind of like the Princess and I did when we went car shopping.) I think it will be a lot of fun and give us good ideas for the future.
We are staying two nights at a hotel, my favorite hotel chain Hyatt Place using points I’ve accumulated over the years. Yeah! Breakfast is included.
Saturday Little Gymnast will compete with an eye on making regionals (his coaches are fairly certain he will make it to the next level this year.)
And then Sunday we are planning to head into DC and do two things: see the White House, History Buff’s request and then spend some time in the Smithsonian’s which are free.
So with just three days away, two will be filled with education experiences…a homeschooling win!
Home Sunday night.
So where will the money be spent:
Gas: $30 (will have left over when we return but budgeted for a full tank)
Dog Care: $90 (have found a trusted neighbor in our apartment and I am so thrilled with the care the dogs will get and the price)
Transportation: $30 (I don’t drive into the city, but rather park and ride the subway. We already have the cards, but not sure how much money I will need to add for the round trip to and from so this is a guesstimate.)
Food: $150 (8 meals while we are gone: 2 breakfast covered via hotel, 3 lunches covered by food from home, and 3 dinners, that’s the tricky part.)
I have 6 meals to cover (since breakfasts are already covered.) Planning to take food from home for lunches – sandwich stuff, crackers and peanut butter and granola bars. Friday we will eat a hardy pasta meal somewhere to prep Gymnast for his competition the next day. Haven’t figured out dinner for Saturday and Sunday will probably be fast food on the road home.
We are all pretty excited about this mini-roadtrip. Think we all need a break from our lives and this will hit the spot!
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
I live here. Try the travel planner on wmata.com to figure out your subway fare. Metro has gotten more expensive, and for a group, it’s really much cheaper to drive into the city and pay for parking.
Hey, Hope. We took our daughter to DC for her birthday this winter. One metro tip: to go the White House, you should get off at L’Enfant Plaza, not Federal Triangle. The metro list recommends the former but it is much further away from the White House. Have fun – looks like you have a solid plan.
I think you’re confusing Federal Center SW (which is past L’Enfant Plaza & closer to the Capitol) with Federal Triangle. The closest Metro stations to the White House are Federal Triangle & McPherson Square (Blue, Silver & Orange lines) and Metro Center (Blue, Silver. Red & Orange lines).
DC is a great place to go for free museums and a solid educational experience. You are lucky to live less than a full tank of gas away!
Sweet trip – have a great time and wear comfy walking shoes! Also, carry refillable water bottles – when we went it was a lot of walking and we were constantly thirsty.
Another suggestion – it’s not super healthy, but take homemade rice krispie treats (reduce the butter in the recipe and it’s not too unhealthy) for great walking around snacks – the sugar keeps tired kids walking:)
I appreciate your enthusiasm and believe in travel as fantastic educational opportunities, especially to DC. However, I would not consider this a trip on a shoestring. I find the $90 boarding for dogs expensive (have you tried looking for bartering or care.com?) and the $150 food budget expensive. Overall, I can’t help but get a sense of disorganization from you that I believe is key to fixing in order to prevail in your debt repayment. For example, it would be very easy to figure out the meals away and what to do about them ahead of time, like Ashley always does. I feel like you are trying to save in one place and then you inadvertently overspend in another. Not to be too negative, but I do believe more long-term planning (what is actually feasible for the long term?) consistency and follow-through would go a long way, even if it is harder to think about creative ways to save money.
Actually, all of this weekend is coming out of my monthly budget line item…kids activities. We have no traveled (stayed overnight) for a single meet this season which typically ends up meaning a 3am rise time, 3-4 hours of drive time, 3-4 hour meet and then back in the car for the drive home. I have. Been super proud of the hard choice to not make it ‘easy’ by driving up the night before, and have saved a ton of money making that choice.
With 3 dogs, $90 for 3 days is a steal! Especially for them to stay in our home and stay on their routine. And believe me I shopped around!
Hi Hope, sounds like a fun, educational trip! I think $90 for pet care is a good deal. Finding someone you trust is priceless, in my opinion.
We used to be in the same boat you are, traveling to required meets and the eating out is budget breaker but I think you’ve done a great job planned the trip. I’ve done some crockpot meals to help stretch my budget. There are some great recipes for lasagna and other ideas on the web. Use crockpot liners to make cleanup a breeze or checkout groupon, scout mobile etc for deals and coupons! One thing is sure, you’re making memories with your children and that is priceless????
Crockpot liners? You’ve got to be kidding. What a frivolous thing to spend money on. Convenience foods, even worse convenience household goods (don’t even get me started on the Swiffer) are designed to suck money out of your wallet into a big corporate behemoth and people who buy into that “convenience” mindset wonder why they are in debt.
I think crockpot liners make sense if you are using them for hotel cooking and don’t have a proper sink for dish washing.
We’ve been having quite a few short weekend trips for my daughter’s cheer team. Each time we bring lots of snacks from home to have with us during the long days of being stuck at a convention center that only has $$$$$ gross food. While I end up spending a bit more on groceries ($10-15), it’s healthier and cheaper overall.
I don’t think your plans are too far off, especially if only 1 meal is a sit down meal, and the other 2 dinners are more fast food. I know when my family of 5 goes out to eat, it’s always at least $50 if not more, so it’s a rare occurrence.
The biggest cost for us is almost always admission and parking. One competition a few weeks ago was $25/day or $40 for 2 days. needless to say, only I went and my husband stayed home with the other 2 kids.
You are so right. I completely for got to budget for admission to the gymnastic’s meet, while parking was free, the admission was $41 for the four of us to watch…ouch!