Spring Break on a Budget: Trip Reflections

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I’m what you call a “champagne on a beer budget” kinda gal if you haven’t recognized that about me already. I like to have nice quality things, go on adventures, and one thing about me: when I want something, I figure out how to get it. This means that doing spring break on a budget is a challenge I’m up for.

My kids and I got back yesterday from our 4-day, 3-night spring break trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. My budget was $300. Today I tallied up our final total, and it ended up being $409.35.

I’ve been listening to the podcast “Money for Couples” hosted by Ramit Sethi lately. Now, as a single mom, you might wonder why I think I have any business listening to this – it used to be called “I Will Teach You to be Rich” (the name of his first bestseller book, and rebranded to Money For Couples when he announced his latest bestselling book). I started listening to it when it was I Will Teach You to be Rich.

But I digress…

The reason I bring him up is that he always recommends adding 30-50% on top of your estimated vacation costs to your budget for unforseen expenses, and I understand why he recommended this. However, I also recognize that I could have prepared better for some expenses, so I wanted to reflect on that for ways to be better next time. Maybe some of these are no-brainers to you, but maybe they could help!

Note: one expense I did not list in the budget is that we chose to board our bearded dragon at the vet for this trip because he currently requires some extra care beyond having our neighbor come in and feed him salads every day. I didn’t include this in the trip budget because if you do choose to board your animals, the costs vary widely and I only wanted to share helpful tips that can be more easily followed.

So – how did we manage a whole roadtrip including a hotel stay for only just over $400?

Accommodations: FREE!

No, I didn’t get a comped hotel room. If I did, I promise I wouldn’t be writing things like “here’s how I travel on a budget” posts.

The biggest money-saver here was using credit card points to pay for the hotel. We found a nice hotel that had breakfast included and I used credit card points for it. Now, I recently paid off my credit card debt at the beginning of the month and I do not advocate for credit card debt. I absolutely believe in responsible credit card usage and paying off the total amount every month – but there was a time in my life a couple years ago when I needed the credit cards to cover the cost of life (childcare is expensive y’all), and once I got out of that phase of my life, I focused all efforts on paying them off.

I signed up for a Chase Sapphire Preferred card back in November when I knew I was going to have a large purchase coming up (that I had the cash for) and I could easily hit the incentive spend for the bonus points. I also use that card for everything and pay it off every month, so I’ve accumulated additional points on top of that. One of my requirements was that it served a decent breakfast. This one had limited vegan options, but I made it work.

Gas: $81.77

Our gas would have been a bit cheaper, but we ended up on a two-hour detour in the middle of Arkansas on the way there, turning our six hour road trip into almost nine hours. Our GPS redirected us to avoid some accidents caused by dustbowls across the highway (visibility was super low and they were actually pretty scary), and a closed road. The trip home was thankfully uneventful and it took the estimated amount of time.

Food: $145.98

The hotel served breakfasts, and we mostly packed our own lunches. I had budgeted about $80 or so for food for dinners out, but we ended up splurging on gas station snacks. In hindsight, I wish we would have just gone to the Dollar Tree before our trip and spent $10 on treats to last us the whole time, and maybe picked up a case of our favorite sparkling waters to avoid splurging on Gatorades. We very rarely go out to eat, so going out for dinners was a fun thing to do together. Our very favorite was the Diablos Tacos and Mezcal restaurant close to the Hot Springs National Park. Their guacamole was super chunky and fresh, and I had a taco made with cactus!

Another food-related funny is that on our last full day, I was about to pack our lunches for our adventure when I realized we only had enough vegan deli meat for two sandwiches and not three (and would still need another lunch meal for the trip home the next day). A quick google search told me that the Kroger carried a vegan deli meat option, so we went there but couldn’t find it anywhere. We were about to buy a box of Uncrustables when I spotted frozen vegan California rolls on clearance, so we bought three boxes for a total of $13.89. And that’s the story of why we were eating sushi while digging at Crater of Diamonds State Park.

Parking: $19.79

We had to pay for parking twice, once in the Hot Springs ($2 to park on the main street), and once near Diablos ($8/hr + credit card fees). I set the payment at two hours to make sure we had plenty of time, but the service was fast and we were hungry, so we only used one hour. I don’t use parking meters very much, and didn’t realize that I could have easily started with one hour and added another hour if I needed to. Live and learn.

Activities: $115.26

The Hot Springs National Park and Little Rock High School National Historic Site are both free to get in, which is wonderful! There are so many things to do at both locations, including Junior Ranger programs that children can complete that help the children learn about the significance of each location and why they are important to our country’s history. Both of my kids love earning Junior Rangers badges, so this was a really fun project for them.

Because the parks were free, and because there is a lot of controversy around the National Park system, I very happily spent a total of $56.26 in their gift shops. “Every purchase supports our National Parks” is a message I will always support.

The only place where we had an entrance fee was at Crater of Diamonds State Park ($15/adult, $7/kid), and we also rented their equipment for $30 (if you visit just familiarize yourself with their refundable deposit on their equipment because it’s quiet steep, but the refund hit my card quickly). We did not find any diamonds, but the experience overall was something I would try again.

Extras: $46.55

I forgot to pack a supplement I use for my heart condition, and upon unpacking we realized that my youngest’s job of packing the family toothpaste and his toothbrush didn’t happen (because he naturally locked them in his toy safe, which he was going to pack but forgot, and the hotel was out and waiting on a shipment), so we stopped at Kroger the first morning. We got a toothbrush and toothpaste, I found organic spirulina tablets for $4.50 each on clearance (so I bought two), and then had to go to a local supplement store to get my medicine, which cost $33.50. In hindsight, making a list and checking it twice would have saved me $46.55.

Things I Will Do Differently On Our Next Trip:

• Make an individual packing list for every member of the family, including all the specifics (like “pack your toothbrush” for the kids and “pack your medicine” for me) and only have them check off things as they put them in their bags
• Make a simple first aid kit, including things like pain relief tablets, hydrocortisone, allergy meds, bandaids, etc) to limit any superfluous trips to the store. I know I’m both a nurse and former Girl Scout, but somewhere along the way I stopped doing this.
• Stop at the Dollar Tree to get some fun treats for the road. Apparently the bags of from-home pretzels and Boom Chicka Pop kettle corn weren’t exciting enough to stay interesting.
• Pack peanut butter and jelly in case other lunch options go faster than planned. And probably a box of instant oatmeal packets in case the breakfast isn’t set up for vegans.

I hope these reflections gave you some ideas for your next trip, or at least you found our family’s antics entertaining. Be sure to share this post with your road trip-loving friends!