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| Us, traveling by ferry (outside our van) to Aransas Pass. Note all the stuffed animals that made the trip with us. |
Simplify, simplify, simplify. Last year, we spent a month in Texas and flew with the five of us. Upon arriving at the airport, we got a cart, loaded our 4 huge bags of luggage and made our way to the rental car pick-up. Trying to save money, we had rented a small SUV. The customer service woman at Avis took one look at our overloaded cart and laughed. We upgraded to a van for a grand total of $1500 for the month. As much as I loved having more than 5 sets of clothes, I knew I had to learn to simplify our stuff.
You learn with each trip, so this time....
1. We drove to Arizona.....savings in money for plane tickets and rental car ($3000) versus gas plus four nights in hotels ($900).
2. Packed only two luggage bags: 5 days worth of clothes/person including swim suits
3. Kids brought pillow pets and one toy for the car.
4. School curriculum was condensed into one crate with folders and worksheets already printed out for each kid.
5. Cooler full of food for lunch and snacks during the travel days.
6. Book hotels with pools and continental breakfasts. Pools help everyone burn off energy at the end of travel days and continental breakfast are time and money savers for families.
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| A stop along the way at a city park to burn energy and eat sandwiches for lunch. |
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| A cargo carrier is a space saver and bike rack is great bonus for outings. We traded in our van for a four wheel drive SUV for driving in winter weather conditions. |
