Budget Beach Trip...Help! Need Ideas Quick!!!

[minnie10]

Okay, here is my story. We had planned to take a trip to the beach this summer (next week) for vacation. The beach is 7 hours away so because of the price of gas lately, we decided not to go. Then 2 nights ago, I see this deal on Ebay for 7 nights in a new Condo in Florida going for $280 at that time. I thought wow! That is an awesome deal. I asked my dh about it and he said let's watch it and if you decide to bid go for it. The next day I bid at the very end of the auction and won the auction for $350.00 total tax cleaning and all for a new high rise condo in panama city beach, florida for 7 nights. Now I am scrambling to make this a budget trip. It is not that we can't afford to spend more, we just feel like that with the economy like it is that we should try to cut corners as much as possible because we like to vacation quite a bit. We did our year Disney trip in the Spring so that was our biggie for this year.

I have a ds that is 9 and a dd that is 13.

Here is where I need your help. What are some budget ideas for taking this trip?

Here is what we are doing so far to make this a budget trip.

1. Lodging $50/night in new high rise on beach.
2. Driving our Kia car instead of our mini van to save on fuel.
3. Packing Beach umbrella and chairs instead of paying $25/day to rent thiers.
4. Eating in for breakfast, lunch, and 2 nights dinner.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Thanks

 

[vfox]

Hi There

One thing that my big kid husband thought of last year for our trip to the Jersey shore was bring our playstation with us. It rained a few nights so we could not enjoy a night out without spending more money than we needed. When it rains at the shore the boardwalks close down and the arcades stay open. Which usually means you are stuck in the this place spending money trying to win prizes. You could go to the movies but than that will cost $10 a person with drinks and food ontop of that.

So in the end we still had fun and just played games indoors while the storms passed by.

 

[jcsbama]

We just got back from several days at the gulf and the water was beautiful! I will say that you may want to drive the minivan. You're going for a full week, including taking a beach umbrella and beach chairs. Packing a small cooler for sandwiches/snacks on the way down will save a fast food stop. You'll probably also have extra food to bring back home that didn't get eaten and will need the extra room. I'm just afraid you're going to be cramped and miserable for the drive. We live almost 5 hours from the beach. We filled up the gas before we left, once in the middle of the trip, and then the last time about 1.5 hours from home. We would have made it back home, but DH had a couple of job sites he visited, the resort was secluded and was 12 miles from anything, and we also detoured on the way down AND back to stop and see DMIL. So, we would have made it on two tanks of gas easily. Which for the sanity in the car for seven hours would be worth the extra gas for me.

We went on a strict budget last week as well. DH had a conference at a beach resort so the room was paid by his company for 4 nights. I went to Wal-Mart the first morning to buy milk, bread, cereal, deli meat, chips, fruit, bottled water and two packs of cookies. I calculated the total as I put things in the basket, even weighing the fruit to make sure I stayed within budget. I have to say I didn't do bad at all. My original plan was to cook dinner for two of the nights, but that got thrown out when I got in the condo and saw the condition of dishes/cookware and the cleanliness or lack thereof of the condo, but that's another story. If you have a medium plastic storage bin, go to your kitchen with it and make sure to pack anything you think you will need especially since you plan to cook that includes spices, ziploc bags, plastic wrap, recipes, paper plates, etc, etc. We make a lot of sweet tea so I just put our canisters in the bin so I wouldn't have to worry about sugar all over the place. We also packed our tea pitcher because most condos only have the class 2-4 quart pitchers and DH drinks almost a gallon/day. Remember, at the time, I thought I would be cooking for two nights, so I made sure I would have whatever I though I might need. I also threw in a couple of my small favorite kitchen tools like my favorite sharp knife because you can never find a sharp knife in a condo. You'll also want to take extra paper towels, toilet paper, dishwasher/dishwashing detergent as well as laundry detergent, It was a good thing that I just so happened to pack the clorox wipes. I had one storage bin and two grocery store bags for the kitchen/cleaning/paper supplies.

We had one night that we splurged eating out and even then the total was under $50. We did go to a waterpark on the last full day, which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. My recently turned 4 yr old that is exactly 42" went down the big, tall slides! She kept wanting to do the one that instantly dropped straight down, but mommy and daddy were to

The budget trip can definitely be done. Our total OOP was around $150 for Tues through Sat. Not bad I dont' think. Granted, we had the room, gas and most of DH's meals paid for by his company, which is a luxury we are very thankful to receive, but we were still very conservative.

Beware! Jellyfish season started early this year as we discovered our first day, lots of small ones very hard to see. We were at Gulf Shores, which isn't that far from Panama City, so I'm sure they are probably experiencing the same thing.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

We did this last summer and had a great time. I actually went on line to see what the sales were for the area we were visiting and took coupons with me for the items we needed to buy when we arrived. We did cook in almost everyday, but we did splurge on pizza one afternoon.
I also went through the internet to see what free attractions I could find. We really enjoy old buildings (churches, homes etc) and like to just walk around and look at them. Maybe buy ice cream while we walk or stop in a park to eat it.
We flew down when we went and had to buy food and everything when we got there. We had 7 people (3 adults, DD13, DD11, DD8,DD2) for 8 days at the beach and spent less than $300 on food. That included pizza, ice cream and the groceries. We even cooked crab legs one night. But I had planned our meals out ahead of time so I knew actually what I needed to purchase so we would not have many extras to worry about getting rid of or leaving behind.
Have a great time

 

[pjlla]

I'll try to be brief.

We took a budget vacation to NYC last year. We got a 2 bedroom apartment for FREE (corporate apartment on loan from a relative) in a nice area, so that was so helpful (although parking our car was SO expensive!). I planned our meals (breakfast and dinner) for every day, bought the groceries and did whatever prep I could ahead of time (like cooking the ground beef for tacos).

We loaded up the cooler, plus brought a box of dry goods and kitchen supplies (I knew the apartment would have the basics, but I didn't know about other things). I brought paper towels, kitchen towels, a few sharp knives, spices, salt and pepper etc.

I found some easy to make/easy to pack foods that I hadn't bought before (like shelf stable pizza kits from SuperWalmart.. cheap, tasty, reasonably healthy!) And as I mentioned, I prepped what I could ahead of time. As I recall, we had planned a pizza night, taco night, caesar salad night. Nothing time consuming or difficult, but WAAAAY cheaper than eating out in NYC!

For breakfast we had planned a cereal morning (brought along a "treat" cereal that the kids don't usually get), an egg/cheese sandwich morning (bought frozen Jimmy Dean sandwiches... very fattening, but quick and yummy), pancake morning (using the complete mix that you only add water to).

I also brought along snacks, but it was definitely more fun to buy stuff from street vendors and such along the way! And we usually stopped at a bakery or deli on our way back to the apartment in the evening and let everyone pick out a special dessert to have after dinner. That was our big splurge.

If I was planning something like this again, I might even be tempted to bring along a small crockpot and put something in it in the morning that would be ready at night when we came back from a long day of sight-seeing.

REMEMBER, this was an apartment with a full kitchen, not a standard hotel room. Don't want any flames for cooking in a hotel room!

Anyhow, I say we "planned" these meals, but we didn't end up eating them all.... DD ended up with appendicitis 2 days into our trip and we had to do an emergency pack up and drive 5+ hours home to get her to the doctor (but all was well in the long run).

HTH...........................P

 

[minnie10]

Thank you all so much. The ideas are great and has got me to thinking about items that hadn't thought about needing. Thanks again for the help. Hopefully the jellyfish wish cooperate also next week.

 

[Ladybugsy]

I live in Panama City and work right on PCB...on the sand...lol. Things here can be a little expensive. 5 minutes on a go cart is 18 bucks!!! I would say it's all in what you had in mind for fun. There are dolphin tours that are relatively inexpensive, and dolphin tours you can take on a jet ski. If you go on a boat it's proably 20 per person...on a ski, you can take 3 on a ski for about 150 dollars for a 2 hour tour. Parasailing runs about 50.00 per person. Jet ski rentals are about 55 per half hour. Banana boats, 20.00 per person. We have a Ripley's Believe It Or Not ....which I hear is pretty expensive although I haven't been. We have the Grand Maze...I'm not sure what that costs, but I think it's pretty reasonable...they also have a miniature gold/maze combo ticket. Then there's the arcades, bunjee jumping, slingshot thingies...not my idea of fun, but maybe yours...lol. We also have Shipwreck Island Water Park. It's a nice park...around 20 per person.

I know none of these things are really budget, but I just thought you may want to get an idea of what things cost. Pier Park is a new thing we have...shopping, movies, restaurants, including a new Margaritaville which kids and adults both like. And it's beautiful. If your kids like to skim, there are places you can rent skimboards...Mr. Surf's on the East end of the beach rents them.

I guess if I knew where you were staying I could give you a better idea of what is nearby. On the West end, it's more beach local town rather than tourist town...The East end is the busy end. And if you did nothing buy lie on the beach all day, you'd have a great time. It's beatiful right now.

 

[minnie10]

We will be staying at the Wyndham Resorts that I think is on the West Beach. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Taja]

Definitely pack things for you DS and DD to do--and mom and dad, too! Do you have some board games? Pack one or two of those--or just a couple of decks of cards and a copy of Hoyle! Teach everyone a new card game or three if the weather is inclement.

Along with the paper plates, be sure to pack plastic cutlery--just in case!

Rather than actual "cooking" while on vacation, my thought would be to cook and freeze in advance. Then thaw, heat and eat on vacation. Pot roast, ribs, chicken breasts (those are great because you can use them so many ways), casseroles. Portion them before freezing. All would easily make the trip in a cooler--and probably still be frozen when you arrive at your destination! You could do the same with baked good, if you want cookies or something simple that freezes well.

 

[slamzim]

We usually eat breakfast and lunch in and go out to dinner, but have found if you eat lunch out and dinner in, it is usually less expensive and less crowded. Excellent suggestions, the beach and pool are the best "free" events

 

[crusoe2]

We usually pick up some new (but cheap) indoor activities cause even if the weather is great you can only stay out on the beach for so long. Things like a new board game, a puzzle, some fresh art supplies and such. It gives us some nice family time, doesn't cost a small fortune, and we don't have to spend so much time dealing with the horrendous traffic. Oh, and we always take a cheap kite or two to play with on the beach. For food, we like to hit the deli at Walmart and get a couple of rotisserie chickens - those are usually pretty cheap, it's easy to make some sides to go with, and the leftover chicken can be used in sandwiches and salads.

 

[minnie10]

Thanks so much!!!I almost forgot the kites. The new board games. I think those would be a hit also.