Going Away on a “Quick” Day/Overnight Trip

You know those.  The ones you “have” to go to or the ones you decide you want to go to and are committed to but in the end you've been away so much you don't want to go so you make it quick.  Our situation was the second this weekend.  It was a wedding about four hours away from where we live.  The wedding did not start until 3pm so we drove down in the morning.  This is my first cost saving trip.  Can you leave in the morning?  The second and obvious cost saving tip is eat breakfast before you go or pack it with you to eat on the road, also pack your tea/coffee, etc.

Writing of food, that can be a huge expense on any trip, especially a quick trip.  Ways that my husband and I often minimize that is that we pack snacks, like juice boxes, fruit snacks, fruit, etc.  As you can see they are usually healthy “munchy” type snacks, which helps in the eating healthy on trips and on the frivolous snack spending.  

The other food thing we do is that before we go I often make a pan of granola or snack bars (there are lots of recipes on the internet – pick one that looks good).  I pack the pan and a sharp knife to cut them with.  VERY SIMPLE.  My husband and I both like to eat breakfast fairly soon after we get up and it is annoying to have to find a breakfast place so we eat the granola bars for breakfast right after we get up.  We also eat them for a sweet snack during the day.  Granola/snack bars are fairly clean to eat too when you are worried about a disaster in your vehicle..... 

The other thing that my husband and I did this trip is that we stayed overnight...  Oooh, expensive you say... Well, we didn't stay in a hotel.  We camped.  Yes, you read that right camped.  It cost a whole $20 plus tax for the night and all it required for packing was sleeping bags, our tent, foamies, and our pillows (don't forget the pillows!).  Very simple.  Easy to pack, easy to crash when you get to the campsite and are tired, simple all around. 

One thing that we did is that we stayed halfway between our house and the wedding.  So, we were going to come back after the wedding and check into our campsite then.  Instead, and this worked out to be a great stress reliever, we stopped by our campsite on the way down, checked in and put up our tent.  Then it was even easier when we came back after the wedding as the tent was already set up.

In the morning we got up, packed up and I will confess that we didn't pack a pan of snack bars for this trip so we stopped at a bakery for scones.  YUMMY and still cheaper than fast food.  Then we drove home.  Quick overnight trip done for hopefully a little less money.