WEll we NEED a vacation!! WE serioulsy can't affrord this, but we need to get away and destress.

SO we have planned on driving up to New Hampshire and Maine for a few days. We have Holiday Inn points toward free stays, so we are using a few of them. Dh gets free gas from his company car, so we are taking that, plus it gets MUCH better gas miliage than my gas guzzling Minivan. We get free continental breakfast at the hotel, so as long as we get up and go, we have free breakfast every morning. I plan on packing a cooler full of snacks, juice, lunch meat, cheese and bread so we don't have to keep stopping for lunch. We plan on eating McDs, pizza and buffets for suppers.

Any other suggestions to help keep our trip within my very conservative budget??? I don't want to be stressing over every penny while we are gone so far from home. LOL

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan7.Samantha6,Cameron4

Back together!! Sept 28th Boston TDCenter!! Woohooooo!

I think you can definately have a fun vacation for not a lot of money...it sounds great so far, using hotel points, gas is covered, breakfast is covered. I too would also pack/take along things to eat like PB&J, bread, cereals etc

Will your hotel room have a refrigerator? That would make things great, because you could eat some of your dinners in your room - I do that sometimes when I travel alone with my kids and don't have to go out for dinner (we aren't fast food eaters). I use the mini fridge in the room and buy milk, veggies to snack on, yogurt...stuff like that. Make the kids PB&J for lunch or dinner. But it depends on what you like, how many kids you have etc

If you're close to a national park or forest, check out their websites for tons of info. We also love to go to different zoos and the zoo we belong to in our home state has reciprocal membership at tons of other zoos in states across the US, so we usually get in free.

http://www.nps.gov/

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/u...orest/main.htm

Things to do in ME:

http://www.thingstodo.com/states/ME/index.htm

Things to do in NH:

http://www.thingstodo.com/states/NH/index.htm

Have fun!

oh my goodness! Your trip sounds really frugal just the way it is. That is wonderful!

There are so many places that are free to visit. I usually type in free tourist attractions for ..... whatever state I'm going to. Or the town if you are planning on doing a lot in that town. Also the city website usually has attractions and prices. some town have realy cool parks that have train rides and mery-go-rounds. A town not far from us has one and it's only a quarter for the train ride and 5cents to ride the merry go round! They even have a free zoo!

I hope you have a great trip!

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~Home is where your heart is~

Frugal? I thought this was how everyone travelled - by car, with the kids, with a cooler packed full of stuff to eat at the hotel room. At least that's how we always do it!

I agree with everyone else - get online and see what free things are going on near where you are staying. There always seem to be street festivals, fairs, museums, parks, etc. that you can get in for free or a reduced fee. Also, are you military? Check about military discounts for attractions. Finally, use any AAA membership or any other club memberships you can to get discounts.

And most of all, have fun!

I do the holiday inn points thing too and recently was just short a few thousand points and if you happen to be short for another free night you can buy the points at like $12.50 for 1000 points! So if you only need a few more thousand to get another free room it's worth it!!

Also, I wonder if anyone has ever brought a small microwave to a hotel with them before? That's an idea for some frozen lunches or dinners or something to save the cost of eating out. Food is by far the most expensive vacation item!

check websites for free stuff and/or coupons. And most of all HAVE FUN!!