Travel

Jan

The Frugal Adventures of the Russell Family: Ocean Edition

We’ve sure had our share of frugal misadventures in the past, so I was excited to share the ”win” we had last weekend with our small Ocean Shores getaway.

Win #1: Buying a Hotel Stay on Groupon.

So I found a killer deal for a 2-night Ocean Shores getaway on Groupon a couple months ago. It even included a bottle of wine. Score. If you haven’t, watch sites like Groupon and Living Social. Don’t discount the fun you can have on nearby cities, too. Sometimes the fun is simply getting away.

Our room came with free popcorn. Score.

Another site I adore is Hotwire. My husband and I have stayed in some pretty darn swanky places for dirt cheap thanks to Hotwire. Read more about that on my post from last year.

Win #2: Cheap Entertainment with Birds.

Now, this might not be for everyone. Particularly those of you who have seen too many Hitchcock movies…

All we did was buy a $1 loaf of bread in town. Even better if you have something from home you can bring. Then you just start hucking chunks out the window.

My husband came up with the idea of taunting the birds sitting on the hood of our car. Kind of messed up, I know. The part that cracks me up is that the seagulls won’t eye the bread or you directly, like they are trying to play it cool, feign disinterest. But they are soooo interested.

But the best was something we’ve decided to call a “drive by birding,” where you basically throw out bread to the birds while the car is in motion. Would you believe about 30-40+ birds were following our MOVING CAR? Crazy. And slightly unnerving.

Check out this car…

The kids were shrieking with laughter, they thought this was great fun. And we did this all three days we were at the ocean. It cost us $1.

Win #3: Finding something free to do.

The best part about going to some place like the ocean is that the entertainment is completely free…and breathtaking!

And then of course, you can take pictures of your kids. (Also free.)

No matter where you go, chances are there is something you can do for free, whether it’s window shop, people watch, take pictures, play a game, take in the scenery, or make figure 8′s in the sand.

Win #4: Saving money on Food. We did a few things to help save on food. First off, we ate a meal before we left the house. That way no one was hungry. Plus, I packed snacks for the car ride. Our hotel also had a kitchenette, so we ate breakfasts and snacks from our room.

On both Saturday and Sunday we ate one meal out, but ate right in the middle of the day so that a second meal out wasn’t needed. Oh, and I might have enjoyed a glass of that wine that was included with our room!

Win #5: Limiting entertainment Costs. One night we did go bowling, and that ended up costing $28 by the time it was all said and done. My kids had so much fun, though my daughter doesn’t seem to convey that emotion in this photo.

Mommy also had fun because she won. This *might* have had something to do with the fact we were using gutter bumpers.

In the evenings, we spent time at our hotel reading books, playing computer games, and watching TV. It was…very nice. It felt like being at home, without the pressure of having to do the laundry or wash the dishes. You should try it.

Concluding Remarks

Last night, the fine solicitors at Hilton called me. “Want to go to Las Vegas?” they asked. When I realized that no, I had not won any sort of sweepstakes and that yes, this was a pitch for me to spend a lot of money, I declined. The gal then asked me if I wanted to go to Hawaii? Well, yes, Lady, but these aren’t things one just decides on over the phone without consulting one’s budget or husband.

I know some of us would love to take big trips and it may just not be in the budget. But I hope this post maybe inspired you to visit somewhere nearby for less money. All weekend, I kept remarking to my husband how much I was enjoying just getting away. I got to read half of the biography I picked up last week, catch up on my emails, snuggle with my littles…

and enjoy a site I’ve never seen in my life…

A snow-covered beach.

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Dec

Six things we did to save on our Disney trip

Of course the best way to save money on Disneyland is not going at all. Let’s face it: Disney is expensive. VERY expensive.

But for some of us? A trip to Disneyland is something worth saving and planning for. Disneyland has a very special place in my family’s history…

When my mom was a little girl, a nice man at Disneyland helped her onto the train. She later learned that it had been Walt Disney himself.
My first trip to Disneyland was during my mom’s pregnancy.
I have fond memories of Disneyland as a child – we always did it as a road trip.
My husband & I honeymooned in DisneyWorld in Orlando.
I completed the DisneyWorld Full Marathon in 2007 and my husband completed it in 2008 (I was pregnant with our daughter – and see the cycle continues).

Last month was our first trip taking the kids, and I wanted to share some ways we saved on our trip and some ideas for you, too.

#1 – We started planning early. We gave ourselves plenty of time to plan our trip. This meant we could focus on one thing at a time – first hotel, then airfare, and so on. Not only did this help us score deals, it gave us time to pay for it, too.

#2 – We did not stay in a Disney hotel. While I’m sure staying at a Disney hotel is a magical experience, I just couldn’t do the price! I ended up finding a fabulous deal on a local hotel through Living Social (watch the “Escapes” portion of the site). I estimate that we easily saved several hundred dollars by choosing this more affordable option. The hotel was also walking distance to the park.

Other ideas for saving on a hotel: watch Jetsetter. This is a daily deals travel site, and new customers get a FREE $25 credit. They offer some pretty competitive discounts on hotel and travel packages. And of course, I can always vouch for Hotwire. A couple of the nicest hotels I’ve EVER stayed at where found on Hotwire (and we did not pay top dollar, either!).

#3 – We bought our hopper passes at Fred Meyer. Not only were the passes slightly discounted over buying at the gate, we earned Rewards on them, too! From the research I did, you have to be really careful about any deal that looks too good to be true when it comes to Disney passes, such as buying from eBay or Craigslist. Mousesavers has some other information on saving on Disney passes, but I thought I was pretty clever with my Fred Meyer idea!

You can also buy Disney gift cards at your grocery store too! At Safeway and Fred Meyer you can actually earn gas savings with your loyalty cards.

#4 – We got $120 in FREE groceries with our airfare! Now this was a bit to sort through, but OH SO worth it! We knew we were going to be flying Southwest (we’d found the best deal there), so I ended up buying Southwest gift cards during an Albertsons gift card catalina promotion. The resulting purchase yielded me $120 in free groceries! I know that such a deal might not always be possible, but the idea here is to put your couponers’ hat on and get creative!

#5 – We didn’t rent a car. Since we knew we would only be visiting Disneyland, we decided we didn’t need a rental car. The shuttle fee still wasn’t cheap, but less than the cost of a rental car, gas, and parking.

#6 – We brought in some of our own snacks. You can bring a backpack into the park – so it made sense to me to bring some store bought water bottles and fruit snacks. i can’t even believe I’m admitting this, but I actually had saved a couple snacks from the plane! (Hey, they were perfectly fine, right?)

A final word. Now you might not entirely agree with me about this, but Disneyland is…well, Disneyland. We saved on the hotel, but we splurged on a character dining experience for our daughter. We didn’t rent a car, but we did let our kids pick out a couple special souvenirs. My husband and I went into it knowing that we would be spending some money, and we did. So this might not be the most frugal post I’ve ever written, but I also don’t want to misrepresent this and make it seem like “hey! you can do Disneyland for $50!” because I feel that would be a bit of… a fairy tale.

PS…I just have to share this because I thought it was so cool…but I ran into Crystal from Frugal Chic Living by the teacups in Fantasyland our first day there! It was actually my first time meeting her in real life. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get a picture, but you’ll have to take my word for it. (Crystal, maybe you can vouch for me if you’re reading this!)

Just prior to my trip, I posed the question on Facebook: “what are your best tips for saving on Disney?” and some of you had fabulous suggestions! I wanted to share a few of my favorites:

“Go to Vons.com and order groceries to be delivered to your hotel rm. like bottles of water, etc. They deliver for free if you have never used Safeway.com or Vons.com. Saved us a TON of $ since water is like $3 or $4 a bottle. We bought cereal and bread/sandwich items too. That way we only ate 1 real meal in the park” – Crystal
“We ate at Ihop more than once during their kids eat free times..” – Callie
“For snacks make sure you get the popcorn bucket because it has free refills and a souvenir container. Also, I pre-bought gift Disney store gift cards at Fred Meyers for my kids and then was also able to also get my points on the reward card so that was nice.” – Athena
“If you don’t mind sharing food, get the turkey legs! They are about $7, and a perfect meal for two, or a good sized snack for 3″ – Lyndsay
“For an evening break head to the California Lodge (Disney Hotel) for story time. Its free, and in front of the fire. Mom and dad can grab a drink (that parts not free) and you can all relax for a while in a cozy atmosphere (and your kids are the perfect age for the stories). Have a great time!” – Sia
“Also, t-shirts and things are very expensive inside the park, so buy some Disney paraphernalia beforehand and give to them while you are down there-way cheaper and kids don’t know the difference!” – Lindsay
“Do you have an iPhone or a Droid? The MouseWait app is an absolute must for accurate wait times” – Amy (not money saving, but TIME saving, yes!)
“Go online to the Orange county visitors page. We were able to print coupons for other restaurants” – Andrea (my note: also check your hotel’s brochure display. As we were checking out, I found at least two coupons we COULD’ve used – one for a free appetizer at Rainforest cafe. DOH!)

What other tips would you have for saving at Disney? Are you planning a trip yourself?

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Aug

Luxury vacation hack (in eight steps)

Are you feeling down because you don’t have money to travel? If so, I’m here to show you how you can have a luxury vacation for less. A lot less.

Step one: Skip the cruise, take the ferry.

(It’s a lot less money and I promise the kids will still be delighted.)

Step two: Skip the spendy, high tech gadgets for entertaining the kids on the journey there. They’ll come up with some way to amuse themselves.

Step three: Nix the zoo and keep your eyes peeled for wildlife.

Step four: Forget buying those over-priced souvenirs and see what you can snag for free instead.

Step five: Pretend you own a yacht by walking onto the dock and acting like you know exactly where you’re going/what you’re doing.

Step six: Remember that a million dollar view doesn’t always have to cost a million dollars.

Step seven: Save money on entertainment by entertaining yourself. (In this photo, hubby Terry dons a $2.50 pair of candy teeth. Money well spent.)

Step eight: skip the hotel and instead take the last ferry out and drive straight home, arriving at 2 am, and flopping into bed.

How do you save money on a vacation?

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Jun

Free Disney Planning DVD

Some of you have noticed that our family is planning a trip to Disney this year. If you’re in the same boat, or even thinking about it, you might be interested to learn that you can snag a FREE Disney Vacation Planning DVD!

The freebie includes (noted from the website):

A complete tour of the 4 Theme Parks, 2 Water Parks and over 20 Resort hotels at the Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida
A tour of the Disneyland® Resort in California, including 2 enchanting Theme Parks and 3 Resort hotels
Affordable ways to play and stay during your Disney vacation
Plus much more, including pocket-sized planning guides, planning tips, and information on special events

You can snag your freebie by heading HERE.

This will be the first time taking the kids. The last time we were in Disney, my husband ran the Walt Disney World Marathon (2008) and the year before, I ran the same marathon. We actually also honeymooned in Disney World. (Yes, we’re big fans.)

Of course, this prompted me to dig through some old photos to share with you. Here is our most recent trip, to Disney World. These African dancers at Animal Kingdom were fantastic. They actually brought me up to dance with them. Awkward, since I was 5 months pregnant at the time.

Here’s another one of my favorites, from the same trip. This is the closest to visiting Paris we’ve ever come. (It’s at Epcot, in case you didn’t know.)

Are you taking a trip to Disney World or Disneyland any time soon?

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Jun

Albertsons gift card promotion, part deux…

I am so excited about how this turned out today that I just had to share…

Remember this morning I said I was going to take advantage of Albertsons gift card promotion? So for every $100 on retailer gift cards I spent, I earned $20 off-my-next Albertsons purchase?

Here’s what I did…

Yes, I know that $600 in gift cards seems like a lot, but we were already planning on buying airfare this month for our family vacation. I found the lowest airfare prices on Southwest the other night. So why not combine that with Albertsons deal, right?

I purchased one yesterday and purchased 5 more in a single transaction today. Here’s the result…

Think that’ll stretch into a ton o’ groceries at Albertsons? They do expire next week, so I will have to quickly devise some great shopping trips.

As far as the Southwest gift cards go, you can use up to three of them in a single transaction plus a credit card when booking your trip. So I booked my son and me on one transaction (and used three) and then my husband and my daughter on a second transaction (to use up the other three). Worked like a charm! I also learned from Southwest that if the flight prices drop at any point, I can get a refund for the difference. (Yes, I will be watching for that, though we did snag a great price.)

Now that I’ve gotten such a great deal, what are we going to do next?

Heck yeah, baby, we’re going to…

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Feb

My Hotwire Review & Tips

I shared with my Facebook pals last weekend that I was able to nab a HOT deal on a 5-star hotel using Hotwire. Because I am such a Hotwire fan and because I know some of you look for discounts on travel, I thought I’d share my experience and how this works.

Hotwire Basics

Hotwire provides deep discounts on hotel, airfare, and car rentals, but there is a catch. You won’t know the “exact” deal you’re getting until you’ve booked. So there is a little element of risk.

For instance, last week my family and I decided to book a stay in Portland. I entered the date we wanted to go, the number in our party, and the location. I was given a few choices. I ended up paying $119 for a 5-star hotel for one night. I only learned which hotel it was after I paid. (Incidentally, when I just checked the hotel’s website directly, it appears the rooms there start at around $200/night!)

Getting over the “Risks”

There are a few things you can do to minimize your risks when using Hotwire for your hotel stay:

1. Know the “star” ratings. The higher the star rating (up to 5), the more luxurious your accommodations. I always try to shoot for the highest star rating my budget will allow and that is available.

2. Know the locations. While you won’t know the exact property you’ll be staying at until you book, you will be able to see its location on a map. When I used Hotwire to book a stay for our New York trip last summer, I was able to see that the hotel was literally blocks from Times Square (which is was). I also knew that our Portland hotel would be in the heart of downtown, near shops and restaurants (which it was).

3. Pay attention to the recommendations. You’ll also be able to see how others have rated the property in terms of customer service, location, and cleanliness. You’ll also know which percentage of reviewers would recommend the property.

My Experiences with Hotwire

I have used Hotwire to book three hotel stays in three different cities (Vancouver, New York, and Portland). Two of these hotels (the one in Vancouver and the one in Portland) were easily the nicest properties I’ve EVER stayed at! The hotel in Vancouver was on the 14th story overlooking the bay and was easily a $250+/night room. We paid $99.

We also used Hotwire to book a car rental for our trip to Texas last year. Hotwire works with major car rental carriers, so I didn’t feel there was any risk here. Based on calculations I did, we easily saved $500-600 on our car rental last year!

To see how it works, you can try the embedded widget below.

If you’ve used Hotwire before, I’d love to hear your thoughts, too. Are there other sites you’ve found useful for shaving big bucks off your travel?

Disclosure: while the links contained above are affiliate links that support this site, please note that Hotwire has not contacted or asked me to write this review. I did it because I am a big fan of Hotwire and felt it would be of value to share with you today.

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Now at Southwest Air: one-way fares as low as $49!

January 19, 2011

Looking for airfare? You might try Southwest. Right now they are offering fares as low as $49 one way. Here are a few from Northwest airports that stood out to me: From Portland To Boise $64 To Sacramento $64 To Spokane $49 From Seattle To Denver $102 To Las Vegas $114 To San Diego $118 [...]

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My impressions of Great Wolf Lodge

October 21, 2010

Last weekend, I had a wonderful time getting to hang out with many wonderful bloggers at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA, including: Amber from Coupon Connections NW Abby from Steals & Deals Angela from Frugal Living NW Jen from Thrifty NW Mom Heather from Because More is More Kim from Shop with [...]

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Great Wolf Lodge this weekend? The agenda & some tips!

October 11, 2010

You might recall that this weekend I’m headed – along with a GREAT line-up of other local bargain bloggers – to the Great Wolf Lodge! Some of you were able to get in on this deal, too. Here are the bloggers that will be there for you to meet: Jen from Thrifty NW Mom Amber from Coupon [...]

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One day Jet Blue sale!

October 5, 2010

Today only (through 11:59 pm EST 10/5), you can snag HOT prices on one-way travel on Jet Blue! Check out some of these awesome prices: :: Seattle – Long Beach $54 :: Seattle – Boston $129 :: Burbank – Las Vegas $39 :: New York City – Barbados $109 Travel is only good from between [...]

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