Traveling on a Shoestring

My last post was all about two of our trips we took while homeschooling. What I forgot to mention was HOW we were able to travel on a single income that was not a huge one at that!

First off, my husband's airline tickets were always paid for by his company. We still had to pay for three tickets on our own, but at least the fourth was paid for! Secondly we always had the hotel room paid for as well. My husband did all of his own travel arranging so we could choose anyplace we wanted within a reasonable price. We always chose a place that was either a suite or at least had a microwave and a fridge. Most times the hotel had the free breakfast and we quickly learned which places had the best breakfasts! (doughnut and coffee VS eggs, waffles and the works!) If we played our cards right, many of those breakfast items became lunch later on. I brought boxes of ziplock bags. Bread, packets of peanut butter, those little jelly squares were a perfectly good lunch. I learned to bring plastic cutlery. If the local hotels did not have a suite or a fridge in every room, I learned to ask if we could have one brought in. Believe it or not, they usually had them for the asking. Some of the hotels had those milk machines (look like a spigot or plastic tube coming from a machine) that operated 24 hours and some even had coffee (good coffee, too) 24 hours.

When we went to Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island (near Nanaimo) we stayed in a nice condo on the beach for two weeks. It was winter. It was cheap. When we were traveling to Canada we were getting $1.50 Canadian for every $1 American. Those were the days. The condo had a full kitchen and a sleeping loft with a privacy curtain (thank goodness) for hubby and I. The kids slept on the main level in twin beds. There was a coin laundry facility on the premesis, too. I found this place on the internet. We loved it! After looking around online it appears that this place does not exist any more. It was sitting on prime oceanfront real estate so I am guessing someone sold it for development. Oh well. Our trip was 10 years ago.

We always went to the local grocery store to get frozen dinners, milk, juice and whatever else a young family would need. Of course snacks were a must!

Hubby always took a few days off either at the beginning or end of his 9-day trip and sometimes at both ends. This way we could travel around together and see the sights. We always had a rental car, also paid for, so I could drop Dad off with his customer and then the kids and I could tool around all over during the day. My daughter was 13, we saw a lot of Canada's malls!