Vacation After-thoughts - How to SAVE

Some thoughts on how you can save on your vacation.

• Stay somewhere close - we only used 2 tanks of gas! Check our your local points of interest.
• You can get deals on commemorative items by looking for last year's - sometimes they are 50% off!  I got an artistic tshirt from a museum that way. (I DON'T EVER pay $20 for a tshirt!)
• Look for rummaging areas & even sale items in antique stores.  I landed a couple of pairs of earrings for $3/pr. (Would have been much more elsewhere & they are clips, hard to get nowadays.) Also got some antique lace for a few dollars.
• Check out local thrift shops!  We got lots of great stuff - even a little ring for $4.50 which I swear has a real peridot (my birth stone.)
• Look around for motel/hotel discounts.  We asked at a gas station & ended up getting the best lodging for the least money of the trip!
• Combine your business/hobby with pleasure - We went up for a gig for my husband Mark's music  - for which we made some $ and were fed - and we kept on going further than we normally do for our vacation time.
• Save those soap/shampoo samples,etc.  You can use them or donate them to a shelter for the homeless or abused women, and so on.
• Look for local festivals - we found a Farmer's Market in Lompoc.
• Look for deals in tickets to Fairs - The Ventura Country Fair in our neck of the woods has $1 on opening day (& a week later) - a Seniors Day - and other discounts. 
• Good deals on top music at fairs, too.  The Doobie Brothers and the Beach Boys are playing at the Ventura Co. Fair - and at $9 for admission - those tickets are a good deal!
• Remember to pick up those pencils/pens/post-its/memo pads, and other giveaways at local events.
• If your motel has an ice machine, fill your drinks and ice chest up with ice before you leave in the AM. (We used a recycled foam shipping container for our little car ice chest.)
• Bring your own food and picknick when you can.
• If there is a continental breakfast at your motel/hotel - get up early enough to take advantage of it!  And maybe you can get some fruit for the road, too.  (One of the places we stayed had a wine/cheese tasting in the PM, that was nice, too.)
• If there are wineries around, you might want to check out the tasting areas for free/inexpensive fun. (There is an area in both Santa Barbara & Santa Ynez.)
• Check out parks you go by for future reference.  We discovered one lake was nice and quiet during the week - whereas the weekends seemed frantic....
• Pick up info on local attractions whenever you can.  We found a map of the wine areas which we will use again! There were also brochures with little maps of the area(s) included, which were enough for our purposes. (Remember the days of free maps?)
• If you are 50+ check out senior discounts - Might think about joining the AARP, too - as they have motel/hotel discounts.

Just some ideas.  It made up feel as if we were REALLY on vacation this year - and without breaking the bank, either.

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Save Even on Your Vacation

You don't have to blow the budget on your vacation - Here are some ways we pinched pennies.

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