How to Plan for a Frugal Spring Break

Don’t go to a popular destination

If you want to plan for a frugal spring break, then don’t head to some of the most popular destinations. Make a list of places you want to go. Avoiding places like Disney World, Mexico and Daytona Beach will help you get the most bang for your buck. If you have your heart set on a Disney vacation consider a Disney Cruise instead. You can book one for a family of 4 for under $3,000 for a week. This includes, your room, all meals, amenities, entertainment and more! You can get a free quote now so you can start saving! If you are looking for a beach trip skip the popular beaches like Panama City Beach and go for near by beaches like Apalachicola, FL. You don’t have to deal with all the collage spring breakers but cna still travel to all the entertainment if you want.

Have a budget in mind.

Whenever you are traveling and don’t have a budget in mind, you are asking for trouble. Always have a budget in mind when you are planning for any type of spring break getaway. Make sure to include things like gas, hotel, meals, snacks, admission prices, and even souvenirs. We always plan and ‘extras’ budget when we travel. The amount depend on how long we are gone, this is for things we forget about, items we need ect. We have used this budget from everything from first aid supplies, replacing a pair of broken shoes, unexpected gifts, and more.

Stay close to home.

The further you want to travel for spring break the tinier your budget will become. Staying close to home allows you to spend extra money on your actual spring break trip. There are many places you can drive to and still keep your trip cheaper than flying. Consider maybe renting a cabin in the mountains or visiting a historical location that has been on your wishlist for years!

Travel in groups.

We always save money on spring break by traveling in groups. Splitting hotel and food is always one way to save a bunch of money on a spring break trip. I start planning for next year’s spring break trip at least six months before. We buddy up with another family who wants to head to the same destination as us.

Make your own food.

I know the last thing you want to do is plan to cook your own food for spring break, but it will help you stay as frugal as possible. I make a menu prior to our trip and make sure I know exactly how many people are coming. I make sure we can eat out at least once a day, but every other time we’re eating at home. I bring stuff for breakfasts like cereal, pop tarts, and I will buy some fruit, milk and yogurt when we get to our destination. I also bring stuff to make sandwiches for lunch. If you have room, packa crock put to make some dinners in, then head out for dessert. Maying $10 for ice cream cones is better than $30 for dinner!

Keep the number of activities low.

When you’re on vacation, activities can really be an expensive part of your day. Either plan to do free activities or keep the number of activities low. If each activity costs $30 a person, your frugal spring break is going to go down the drain really quickly. There are many things you can do for free, request a travel guide from the area you are visiting, they always include a calendar of events, things like a day at the beach don’t cost much at all either! Take advantages of parks and local activities.

Call the hotel yourself.

I’ve heard from several different hotel destinations that it’s better to check prices with them before booking with a hotel travel site. Make sure you give your desired hotel a call before you pay a dime more online. Many time you can negotiate a better deal with the hotel it’s self because they wont ahve to pay a site fee to the online hotel sites. You never know until you try.

Take time to relax.

Some people tend to get a little restless during spring break vacation and go a little crazy on shopping. Make a rule that there’s not to be any shopping. Any time you would spend shopping, you should be relaxing. If you tell yourself you’re not going to shop, then you’re more likely to not do it. We also set aside a little time on our last day to pick up an souvenirs ect we had budgeted for. This way we have been there all week (or weekend) and have an idea what we want spend our money on, or that we don’t want to spend money at all.

Make sure if you’re heading on spring break this year, you take time to plan for a frugal one. Actually, the more details you put into the budgeting part, the more money you will save overtime.