Our Big Fat Almost Free Vacation

This is actually a post that I wrote a couple of weeks ago, but took until now to load up the pictures. Have I complained enough about being too busy lately? I need to go back to this place!


Well we are back from our "almost" free vacation. It was such a fun time together. I think planning it for free was half the fun. Here is a list of what we had to work with to produce a free vacation.


1 - my parents gifted us the use of their timeshare condo on the beach in Ormond Beach

This was the view from our unit...watching the sunrise every morning with my coffee......aaaahhh...

2 - We purchased 95% of our food using the buy one, get one free items from Publix over the past few month. We ate spaghetti, taco's, harvest casserole (meal makers) and had chicken for the grill, but ended up bringing that home. We also had all our breakfast, snacks and lunch stuff. We brought back a LOT of groceries.


3 - We had about 150 dollars in cash from birthdays (Pat and I), a walmart gift card for $10.

4 - Four Disney coupons good for a day at Walt Disney World from their Give A Day, Get A Day campaign. This was a great savings as it turned out. I had NOT idea Disney was so expensive!

We did have expenses that we didn't know how we were going to cover. Such as the food at Disney and any soveniers for the girls. Well on our first day at the condo, they offered us a hundred dollar VISA gift card if we would go and listen to a high pressure vacation sales pitch. We looked at each other and said "sure". After a free breakfast, 90 minutes and a "we don't make any decisions without thinking it over for 24 hours", we had our gift card! (On a side note, the vacation plan sounded really good!) We used that Visa card for our Disney day!


We did well finding resources for miscellaneous spending and the vacation. But knew that we would have to pay $140 for our dog who was with a dog sitter. On our last day on the beach, someone approached us about seeing yet another vacation speal. Well, we all said no. Then the guy said he would give us $120 CASH and a 3-day stay in Gatlinburg, TN. Dad said "that will pay for Lucy" and we are agreed to go. After 2 hours, we had the money for the dog. Well almost, we were 20 bucks shy. Turns out, when we arrive to get Lucy, her sitter said "120" because she was such a good dog. Go Figure! That is exactly what we had earned for our last pushy sales pitch!

So the vacation was a success with minimal out of pocket and loads of fun. We had time to reconnect as a family and just hang out. That is priceless in my book. Can't put a price tag on family.

This.....is pricesless......

A Free Ride - Possible?

My parents so graciously gave us a free week at the beach in Florida during September. A timeshare that they don't plan to use, right on the beach. What a blessing. Since our "extra" income has been somewhat limited, or eaten up by emergent needs lately, we don't have a lot to spend on the luxuries such as vacation. That sparked an idea. We already earned free tickets to Disney World through their Give-A-Day-Get-A-Day awhile back. The girls and I were talking and wondering if we could pull off going on vacation.......FOR FREE. So far we had a free place to stay for a week right on the beach, free one day tickets to Walt Disney World (a two hour drive from our beach place by the way). All we need is food and gas money and maybe some cha-ching for our pockets.

Well, recently a good friend explained how to coupon shop to me and I have been on a shopping trip or two. But, fell out of the habit rather quickly. We decided to get back in the habit and to bank all of our our "free" items from the "BuyOne, GetOne" deals out there. A few days ago I made the first trip to begin our food bank and here is the first stash to go into our vacation box. Not bad. Even have a spaghetti dinner and chips and salsa! Not a bad start. I get a lot of help from Southern Savers and IheartPublix. Our goal is to not use any household money, buts to eat off of all our free stuff for the week and use any gift cards (Pat and I both have birthdays in August) for dairy and meat. Any "cash" we receive for birthdays will go for gas for the trip.
I have decided to use eBay to sell items we no longer need or want to raise the spending cash for Disney. I am going to have the girls do a heart to heart in their rooms and decide if they would like to part with any toys, books, etc.... Combined I am hoping to raise enough for a cheap hotel after a day at Disney and some spending money for the park.

My friend Patty over at ReasonsforChocolate recently did a post on her children's "Go Bags". I normally do "Go Bags" for my children, but need to be able to fill them "free" or almost free for this vacation. I had a few dollars from selling a homeschool book. I headed out to where my friend Patty found her treasures - Target. I was in luck. The summer items with the black dot were on clearance and half off (in the cheapo bins to begin with). I got some cute items which I can't list because C-Sunshine reads this blog. (I will sneak in a post closer to the trip)......

It was a Whirlwind Week!

We just returned from a very fun trip back to Illinois to watch our eldest, Amber, graduate from the University of Illinois at Springfield. Congrats Ambie, we are so very proud of you!

Returning to Illinois was bitter sweet. It was as if we had walked right back into our life in Illinois. We got to see old friends and picked up right where we left off. The girls visited with a lot of their home school friends and even got to go to our former "House" group. (Home Oriented Unique Schooling Experience). I love that name. There was a lot of playing going on at the funny farm.

Besides seeing my daughter, my next favorite thing was seeing my good friend (Sister) Jennifer.

I miss her so much. We became friends when we first started homeschooling six years ago. She is the frick to my frack...the calm to my crazy. We just sat down and talked like it had been just 18 days and not 18 months since our last "tea party". You ever had a friend like that? Well, one of us has to move. And I vote....Her! It's cold in Illinois!

January in Florida - Great Idea!

We took a break and went to visit Nonno and Nonna in Florida over the last few days. What a great idea! The weather was about 20 degrees warmer and it was nice to wear short sleeves and play outside in the sunshine. Atleast the first day. The girls played Bocci with their Dad and Nono on Bocci courts right by the ocean. The breeze was just perfect. K-Doodle had a special interest in the game and both girls played very well. While we were walking the beach, Dad found a huge coconut that had washed up on the beach. When we opened it, it was full of salt water and not coconut milk. Bummer.
We also went to a flea market and visited family friends. These friends grew some of the largest lemons we have ever seen. What do you think?
K-Doodle and C-Sunshine learned a new Italian card game called Scopa (Sweep). The cards are really cool looking and a lot of fun to play with. I found a picture of them and you can order from Amazon. I plan to order a deck for our family card closet now. It was nice seeing the girls learn a game from their grandfather that he use to play as a boy in Italy that they can show their own children. We need to make sure that we keep playing it and remember how!

Fun at the Lake with Nanny and G-Dad

Amber came to visit us from college. We were so excited to see her!

C-Sunshine and her cousin Amy 'hammin' it up on the Lake.

K-Doodle with cuz Beth about to take off.

Some Cousin Fun!

Our Spring Break

We are back from a great Spring break trip to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We love being only five hours away! Our family REALLY loves the beach, especially my ex-Navy hubby. We had both my parents and my mother-in-law along for the trip, although not all in one condo. We spent time on the beach, at the pool, bike riding, shopping and just enjoying life. It was a well needed and much anticipated vacation.

C-Sunshine enjoying the sun on her face and the breeze through her hair. Can't you just smell the ocean?

K-Doodle in the "surf" trying to jump all those waves. She loved the beach and playing in the ocean until she spied a dead jelly fish! Then it was, "Can we go to the pool?"

This is an alligator we saw sunning himself by the water close to the golf course. There were a lot of alligators around where we stayed. Did you know it's a $1000 fine to feed alligators in SC?

My talented hubby took this photo of a seagull on the beach (as well as all the rest on this post).

We had a great time and can't wait to go back next year. But we did miss our cousins!