This past week, my husband and I were able to take a pre-anniversary vacation (baby free!) to the Washington Coast. We stayed at a nice place that was only a quarter-mile walk down to the beach, and we also had a nice view of it from our room. Even with our anniversary being nearly 3.5 weeks out, it was SO nice to be together and celebrate, well, US!
I wanted to share a recap of our vacation with you all, as well as some tips and time and money-saving tricks that I’ve learned when packing and going on vacation.
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TIP #1: Do Your Research Of The Area Ahead of Time
You don’t have to go as overboard as I did and make an Excel spreadsheet of all the different, fun-sounding locations and mileage to the destination (YEAH, I’m THAT person), but if you’re not familiar with the area that you will be vacationing at, do a quick internet search a few days beforehand and see what local places may be worth checking out. Especially the coffee shops ;)
Tip #2: Make A Printable Packing List
I love making lists, but I have a bad habit of losing them. This time, I decided to do things a little differently and type up my list on my computer and print it out whenever I may need it again. Not only does it allow me to have a Master List that I can use for future vacations, but I won’t lost it AND I don’t have to second-guess my handwriting. It’s really a win-win all around. I can also go back into the document and edit when needed, and everything that I usually pack is still there so I don’t have to go through the trouble of remembering it all again.
TIP #3: Bring Yo Baggies!
As in a few Ziploc baggies, and even some plastic grocery store bags (thanks for not charging me for my multi-functional grocery bags, King County!). Call it luck, or call it providence, but the day we were leaving, I threw a few extra Ziploc baggies into my suitcase for a “you never know” type of scenario, and guess what? I actually used some to pack up our leftover food that I didn’t have a container for! Hurray! I was very pleased with myself for doing this, so I think I will continue to do so henceforth and forevermore.
TIP #4: Bring Food With You
We stayed in a condo this past vacation, so we had a small kitchen and basic appliances in our room. This made it easy for me to plan a couple of cheap and easy meals for us in advance so we didn’t have to spend all of our money going out to eat. The beach that we visited was only 3 hours away from our home, so I packed some food that I knew would be able to last in a cooler, and we bought the rest of the items that we needed at the local grocery store. What I wasn’t prepared for was the little, independent grocery store prices, and I had a bit of sticker shock when I realized that I was paying upwards of $1 or more per item than I do back home! Crazy, right? Just another reason to plan to bring some food from home with you.
TIP #4.5: Easy Is Key
Here’s what our food schedule looked like for 3 day & 3 nights: Day 1: Dinner: leftovers brought from home
Day 2: Breakfast- bagels & cream cheese, fruit & scrambled eggs (daily); eat out in town for lunch; cook dinner in (spaghetti)
Day 3: Same breakfast; leftover spaghetti for lunch; snacks for dinner
Day 4: Same breakfast; grilled cheese for lunch; returned home for dinner
As long as you and your family don’t mind eating the same thing for a few days in a row, I’d highly suggest bringing food that you can make stretch, such as our 6-pack of bagels and cream cheese.
TIP #5: Save For Your Vacation
We set up a Vacation Savings Fund in advance just so we could be free from the burden of having to watch every penny we spent on vacation. What an amazing feeling! And the best part is that I don’t even think we used half of the money we had in savings, so that just means we’re already a step ahead for saving for our next vacation! If you’re able to start a savings fund for vacation, even if it takes you a year or so to save the amount that you want, I guarantee you that the lack of stress and freedom to do what you want with your hard-earned money will be worth all of the effort that you put into it.
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Here are some of my favorite pictures from our vacation
