Do You Take Vacations?

**Karen1** · 07-19-2009, 07:18 AM

I am leaving for Cape Hatteras today for 8 days. I just started chatting again and will be gone for a bit, but will come back cause this is a great site!

I am paying in cash. Money saved for the trip. We have a travel trailer camper and the campgrounds are big money saving over a hotel.

BUT---what I am wondering is----are you taking a summer vacation this year? or are you being frugal and deciding to pass up the big vacation this year?

Last year I took mini trips. 3 days away camping just for a change of scenery and not too expensive.....but this year I decided I was in the mood for a real trip. So heading out today....

but wondering how you all view the summer vacation????

everyone have a great week and see you when I get back!! Karen

**Mom2Many** · 07-19-2009, 07:23 AM

I'm taking the kids on our first real family vacation. We went camping summer before last, but it was fairly short and fairly local, lol.

I'm also paying cash and spent my first month of summer vacation in a professional development class with a $500 stipend just so we'd have food and spending money

I'm excited. Also, my parents and brother are going with us and that will help with the costs as well.

**jas** · 07-19-2009, 07:24 AM

We took a somewhat mini vay cay. We were not planning on doing anything much. We did send dd16 away for three weeks with her friend and her family.

Then the inlaws rented a house in the mountains of NC and invited us and other family members to come along. They paid for the house and all the food to stock the kitchen. On our way home (Florida) we stopped in Savannah Ga for one day.

We had a nice time and it was pretty cheap and we can now say we did do something this summer!

**jas** · 07-19-2009, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by Mom2Many

I'm taking the kids on our first real family vacation. We went camping summer before last, but it was fairly short and fairly local, lol.

I'm also paying cash and spent my first month of summer vacation in a professional development class with a $500 stipend just so we'd have food and spending money

I'm excited. Also, my parents and brother are going with us and that will help with the costs as well.

Where are you going?

**AmyBoz** · 07-19-2009, 07:37 AM

We do take a vacation each year. We go to the Jersey Shore for a week with dh's family. On that vacation, my father-in-law pays for everyone's house (we share space, but he pays). We save up money all year in an envelope. For half of the year, it is the Christmas/Birthday money envelope, and half of the year it is the Vacation spending money envelope. We also save our loose change for vacation spending money.

This year, however, we are also taking a vacation with just our family. A woman I used to teach with sent out an e-mail regarding her parents beach house in North Carolina. It was only $675 a week, which is steal for a house on the beach! So, we decided to put aside some money and rent that for the first week in August. We'll use the other half of the vacation spending money there. We're very excited.

That being said, even within our vacations, we are frugal. We don't eat out, except for one night, we bring our homemade lunches to the beach. We bring board games and card games and books to keep us occupied at night. We go for lots of walks and just hang out and enjoy each other.

**Mom2Many** · 07-19-2009, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by jas

Where are you going?

I rented a cabin on the Va/NC border...easy drive to Va Beach or the Outer Banks.

**lisaflex** · 07-19-2009, 07:45 AM

yep. 1 w/ kids and 1 - 3 per year w/ just mommy and daddy! the mommy daddy vaca are usually only 3 days. we do 1 wk w/// kids

**jas** · 07-19-2009, 07:46 AM

Sounds like a great time! NC seems the place to go!!

**Pemberleyan** · 07-19-2009, 08:13 AM

Basically, no. In our almost-17 years of marriage we've been on five trips, including the honeymoon. I love to travel; DH does not, and he is very unpleasant to travel with. Oh, I forgot -- my sister very generously invited me along once to the Carribean and it was the greatest vacation ever, and I knew to savor every minute of it.

If I had my druthers, I'd travel to England for several weeks.

I hope you have a great time on your trip!

**Trishagirl** · 07-19-2009, 08:54 AM

Yes we are going to Mi for a couple of days then to Ky to visit son for a couple of days.

**Neeley** · 07-19-2009, 09:31 AM

Oh yes. We take vacations every year.

Our big trip is every December. For 7-10 days around Christmas and New Years we go to Disney World. DH gets a considerable annual bonus that we use a portion of it to cover our trip, a portion to pay for Christmas gifts, and the rest is put away.

In the summer we take a few smaller trips(only stay gone three to four days) to the beach, Six Flags or other place of interest to us.

**Sassyclass** · 07-19-2009, 09:32 AM

Husband gets 3 weeks of vacation, I only get 80 hours and the way we work opposite shifts most of the summer we just never get to take enough time off together. I usually take 2 trips a year to go home(Western Indiana) and visit. In fact I'm going home in about 3 weeks. We have been talking about saving for a weekend trip to an all year round indoor spa/water park here in Ohio. We are shooting for sometime this winter. I would love to someday take 2 weeks to go out west to Yellowstone or even Yosemite.

Cat

**Michelle68** · 07-19-2009, 10:50 AM

Every year we take a vacation. This year we went to San Francisco, last year we went to Florida. We save all year for our trips and we go somewhere we've never been before. So, to answer your question--we're being frugal AND we took a vacation. (I don't think one necessarily excludes the other.)

**NewLeaf** · 07-19-2009, 11:48 AM

We take a vacation every year. We feel like we just need to get away together as a family and de- stress and bond. We save and pay cash. Every other yr. we go to Holden Beach, NC. ON the off years we go to somewhere we have never been. This year we went for 4 days to Atlanta , Georgia. It was really fun. I had my doubts, but I have to say that I would love to go back again. We have also been to St. Louis and Chatanooga and Disney World in Orlando Fl.- all cash.

**coup** · 07-19-2009, 12:12 PM

We took our first big one this year to Disney. It felt great to know that it was "paid in full, in cash."

Now we're trying to plan a night or two away in Mackinaw City. I'm still working on finding the dest rates on everything!