I think Missouri gets a bad rap for being “boring” – but this past (long) weekend The Big Guy, baby RB40 and I discovered that it’s anything but during out trip to Branson and the Big Cedar Resort. Not only did we have an awesome time, we spent very little money!
We just spent 1 night at the Hampton Inn in Branson, MO and 2 nights at Big Cedar Lodge just outside of Branson. While we were there we did a TON of walking around the beautiful Big Cedar campus,
canoeing, and enjoying the beautiful weather! There are tons of things to do in and around Branson – but seeing as most of them are pretty hard to do with a child under 1, we took stock of the activities for a later date and enjoyed relaxing and doing a lot of walking!
We did this a couple of different ways, but let’s look at straight costs first, and then I’ll get into how exactly we paid for it!
Housing (3 nights) – $150 + $32
Groupons – $40
Other Meals/Groceries – $335.38 (Yeah, we like to eat)
Total Cost = $557.38
Hotel costs seem pretty reasonable (even before learning that we didn’t actually pay for them), but our food costs were through the roof. We had intended to take full advantage of the kitchen in our room and cook, but we’re ridiculously lazy on vacation and just ate out most of the time!
Now, let’s talk about how we paid for it!
We paid $32 for our night at the Hampton Inn in Branson ($29 employee rate…whoop whoop!). The other $150 we paid for out of pocket, but due to a “special” Bass Pro Shop was running, we were “reimbursed for $100 of this in Bass Pro Gift Cards. Basically, on Monday we attended a 2-hour timeshare presentation in exchange for the gift cards. Now, we couldn’t use them to pay for our room (we had prepaid for it) but we could use it for anything on the resort, or later at the Bass Pro Outlet, like I’ll talk about in a minute.
I paid for the groupons and other meals/groceries our of our pocket, but to cover those I redeemed $365 in credit cards rewards (from our Chase Freedom $200 sign – up bonuses!), which left us with $92.38. That’s pretty good for a 3-day getaway, I think, but stay with me, because it gets better!
Most of the groceries we bought we didn’t eat, let’s say $60 worth, so I’ll be adding that part to our grocery budget. Also, we only used 1 of the 3 groupons that I bought, so I’ll be returning the leftovers for a $23 refund.
Unfortunately, though, it’s not quite that simple. We paid the $150 out of pocket for the 2 nights at Big Cedar, but we reimbursed $100 in Bass Pro Gift Cards. Since we couldn’t actually use them to pay for our stay, I probably shouldn’t have subtracted them from our total vacation cost above. But, it’s kind of hard to take the gift certificates into account. I suppose we could have sold them for 60% or so of what they’re worth online, but instead we stopped at the Bass Pro Outlet on our way home because we need a tent.
Well, we don’t really NEED the tent, but we really want one.
And camping is a really frugal way to take a break.
So we stopped at the Bass Pro Outlet and bought:
A tent: $179.00
Tent Light: $10.00
KId Boots: $20.00
Swim Top & Bottom: $60
Shirt: $15
Bedside Holster: $20
Total Retail Cost; $304
….But we actually paid $46 after $100 in gift cards!
So I guess the most accurate way to sum it all up would be to add our little shopping spree together with the actual vacation, huh?
Housing: $182
Food: $375.38
Shopping: $146
Less Credit Cards Rewards: $365
Less Gift Cards: $100
Less Returns: $23
Total Vacation Cost: $215.38
A bit on the high side, I’ll give you that! But we’re learning… We had a blast, but we also learned a few things:
- It is MUCH easier to visit a grocery store near our vacation destination than to try and pack a bunch of food. It might be more expensive than our home grocery stores, but it will save us in the long-run.
- If I don’t cook up a bunch of chicken and get the steaks marinating the first day, it won’t get done!
- We have to plan for splurges. Room services is going to happen, as is a late lunch when we’re exhausted from playing. But, by shopping near our vacation destination and cooking the first day while we’re still fresh and non-sunburned, we can minimize how often we eat out!
- We can say “no” to high-pressure salespeople! Not only did we survive the timeshare presentation, we were the first couple out of the office!
So there it is, our first actual vacation as a family!
Have you ever been to Branson or listened to a timeshare presentation?
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Sounds like a fun, low cost mini vacation!!!
We had a great time!
I have a whole post about creative ways to pay for travel. I think even a trip to Hawaii can be frugal. For example, we won a trip to Hawaii :0 so I would say that is a frugal vacation. Yes, the taxes might be a lot but it’s essentially a trip for 65% off – no complaints from us!
Whoa – I would love to win a trip to Hawaii! I bet that made it even more fun!
Wow you did really well considering you got a tent out of the deal!
That’s what I keep telling myself. It makes me feel better that we were over budget , LOL
We’ve never done the timeshare presentation gig, though as someone who works in sales, Mr PoP has always been curious what kinds of tactics those guys use since they are apparently pretty successful. Glad you guys had a good weekend and hope that tent can make some even cheaper getaways happen in the near future!
The salesman they had us with at first was really very good! I can’t definitely see why they pay him the big bucks. Our “guide” after the presentation, though was new and did not know how to close the deal at all!
My parents listened to a timeshare presentation in order to get a free trip to Branson once. It was when we lived in St. Louis and we had a great time! Bass Pro Shop is so fun–I could wander around in there for hours. Glad you had such a great vacation!
Hi Gretchen,
the best way for inixpensive vacations are home exchange.
We made it very often and change cars too. Many european destinations and oversea too (we are from Germany.)
All my best wishes
Nina
Very neat – we’ll have to check that out!
It sounds like you did great!
Credit card rewards also help keep our trips on the cheap side. I love getting parts of our trips for free =)
…And I love reading about all of your amazing trips that you pay practically nothing for!
My coworker went to Branson for her honeymoon and loved it! I’m going to have to seriously think about planning a trip there.
If you’re interested in Big Cedar, you can get rooms there for $69 a night on craigslist most of the time :-)
Great post! Found your blog on the Thrifty Thursday link party and started following on Google +.
Erin
http://theeveryday-mom.blogspot.com/
It sounds like you had a great time without spending a ton of money!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Great job! We usually drive to my grandma’s and take food with us ;), but it’s about the only way for us to go! Thanks for linking up to last week’s Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party! I have finally pinned it to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party!
We have a timeshare and do vaca’s that way…in unit kitchens at our resorts…Here’s one way we’ve done it… Pre-make a menu plan at home for the week and a shopping list to hit the grocery store after check-in or the next morn. Pack at least one supper and one breakfast in case it’s tomorrow after check in before you feel like going and can locate the grocery.
While pre-making the menu plans I schedule us for eating out a certain number of times. I’m extremely frugal so I do take a box with many things in it, but try to plan for fresh fruits & vegs & meats to be purchased on location. The certain number of times for us? One fast food eat on the way to and one on the way home. In the interim week…one breakfast out, one lunch out, and one dinner out. That’s it. I do make a full M-F menu w/three meals and snacks.
The food usually doesn’t all get eaten, nor do I stick to the ‘I wrote this to be eaten on Tuesday and Tuesday it shall be’. We just cook something from the lunch menus for lunch on whatever day we feel like eating it. Eh. I dunno, but I usually come home w/money left in our vacation budget envelope.
We also don’t buy souvenirs too often. If someone needs t-shirts we might buy one at the thrift store…where you can find the ‘Branson’ school t-shirts, etc. But not often. I also don’t take a bunch of pics to remember the trip buy. Of course this started long ago before computers when pics were expensive to get developed. For now, though, I figure most postcards were taken by professionals so I MIGHT buy some of those for a rememberance.
Nice post. Thanks for sharing.
Oops, forgot to mention we buy bottled water at the grocery and have snacks with us at all times during our outings to stave off the ‘gotta buy the $7 water at the amusement park’ thirst!
Check w/ hotel/resort concierge for discount tickets and coupons and check those ‘pamphlet kiosks’ for coupons as well. About three or four weeks before going to a new area I do a bunch of online research and can usually pick where we’ll be eating out at and look for and find discount codes/dates/meal-deals/kids eat free/etc. bargains.
Great advice! My fiance and I are both teachers. Over spring break we are going to Delaware. We are driving straight through from Texas, and staying with a friend (free–we’ll buy him a couple drinks as payment). We are going to drive down to DC two days in a row, but not stay in a hotel. It’s only an hour and a half from where we are staying. The Smithsonian and the monuments are all free, so we’ll have food costs. Then we’ll visit Philly for a couple days–it’s only 20 minutes from our friend’s house. A lot of the national historic sites are free, there, too. The majority of our costs will be gas and food. But I have a specialized medical diet, so I have to bring food with me or buy when we get there, so that will save money, too. Should be pretty cheap for a week vacation!