Just recently my family and I went on our first “real” family vacation to no other than….the beach! Since this was our first vacation as a family I was super worried about going budget because let’s be honest, going on vacation to the beach with five people isn’t exactly cheap.
And because I know that y’all are curious to know what our budget was and if we went over or not and how we spent our money on vacation, I decided to share our real numbers and how we managed to make this vacation work for less than our budget!
Since many of y’all know that my family doesn’t use credit cards, y’all wanted to know how we managed to go on vacation using nothing but cash. This post here explains how we saved up the money, but the best thing we did was make a budget for our cash vacation, which is below.
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We stayed on Tybee Island and it was so much fun and honestly, we didn’t want to come home! Our overall total budget was a $1,000. And to be honest, I was a little worried we’d go over the budget, but thankfully, we managed to stay below our overall budget!
| ITEM | BUDGET | ACTUAL |
| Cabin | $500.00 | $481.50 |
| Dining Out | $200.00 | $153.90 |
| Gas + Convenience Store | $150.00 | $112.06 |
| Extra Supplies | $60.00 | $100.83 |
| Parking | $15.00 | $10.50 |
| Miscellaneous | $75.00 | $60.52 |
| Laundromat | $19.50 | |
| Totals: | $1,000.00 | $938.81 |
So, as you can see, we managed to stay under our overall budget but we went way over in our “Extra Supplies” category and I didn’t even have “Laundromat” accounted for originally.
How We Managed to Stay Under Budget
We decided to rent a 400 SQFT cabin versus renting a beach house or paying for a hotel room. The cabin we stayed in was located in the River’s End Campground so we had access to their Laundromat and pool. We were also super close to the beach so we were able to walk which helped save us money on paying for beach parking.
The only bad part was that the beach we were closet to was the “brackish” beach so you didn’t get the full beach experience like further down the island. Oh and it meant that there were more jellyfish and I ended up getting stung by one…not fun.
***Tip: pack apple cider vinegar in your beach bag because it immediately takes the sting from a jellyfish sting out. The woman that came to my rescue with her bottle of apply cider vinegar, if you’re reading this, thank you! 🙂
Another thing we did was bring our groceries from home. Since we drove, we just packed the car with our groceries from home which helped to save us a ton on dining out.
And since we’re avid campers, we have all kinds of camping gear like an awesome camp stove that allowed us to cook meals at the cabin (the cabins don’t have stoves in them). So we didn’t have to go out to eat as often.
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How We Went Over Some Areas of Our Budget
We weren’t expecting all three of our children during the course of our trip to wet the bed. In one night two of our three kids wet the bed and then the very next night, the other one wet the bed! So it ended up costing us close to $20 to get the laundry done. So that was definitely an “expected expense”.
And since we weren’t expecting to have to do laundry while on vacation, we ended up having to spend more money in our “extra supplies” category because we had to buy laundry detergent but we also went over in this category because Daddy decided he wanted to take the boys fishing.
It was totally worth the expense!
The key to sticking to any budget is to first make the budget and then to track your expenses. I know that sounds challenging especially whenever you’re on vacation, but it doesn’t have to be cumbersome. You can just pull out the cash for your trip and divide it up into the different categories by using the cash envelope system or you can even just keep a small notebook or notepad handy with a different page for each category with the total budget for that category listed at the top. Then whenever you spend money in that category, you simply just record it on the appropriate page.
There’s no right or wrong way to stick to your budget. Just remember that when you go over money in one category, you must re-balance the budget by taking money from another category.
What are your tips for making a beach vacation on a budget possible?
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Jessi, I’m super happy your family was FINALLY able to go on a real vacation! I bet it was extra special knowing you were not going into debt over it, and hopefully that allowed you to enjoy your time on a whole different level. Thanks for sharing your real numbers and allowing us to see that it doesn’t have to cost a fortunate to go on a nice vacation. You certainly could have justified a much higher budget, but you didn’t. And you had cash to spare! Boys fishing with their daddy is priceless…great picture! Thanks again for sharing your life with us…what a beautiful family you’ve been blessed with and they with you. <3
Thank you so much Liz! You are always way too kind to me darlin’! 🙂
We’ll be headed on vacation soon. We’ll be on an $800 budget. It feels daunting but we’re very blessed and dont have to pay for our condo. If we had to then there would be no vacation for us! Im super glad you guys got to enjoy your time!
Nice work!!!
Last year I tracked all of our vacation expenses on my phone, which I always had with me. We managed to squeak in JUST under-budget!
It sounds like you had a great trip. Well done for coming in under budget! Here, employers give you an extra 15% in your pay when you’re on annual leave, which sure is nice. Because we book our holidays and pay for the big stuff a looooong way out we always come back with more money in the bank than when we left! We learned the hard way to always pack laundry powder – a couple of scoops in a ziplock bag go a long way and it’s always handy, even if you just need to do a bit of hand-washing in the bathroom sink.
That’s great that you were able to relax at a great price and spend a lot of time with family. I haven’t taken a vacation yet because I’ve only started working for a month but I know that I will take a vacation in the coming years. Fishing must have been so much fun! I remember I caught a stingray the first time I went fishing and it was pretty funny because we just threw it back in the water.
We definitely find that renting a house/ something with a full kitchen and washer/dryer helps us save lots of money when vacation with our family of 5. My boys are all teenagers and food is always our biggest expense. Saving on eating out (plus eating healthier) allows us to stretch those vacation dollars further.
Thanks for sharing this again. I am planning a trip for my husband and I to Waco very soon and you listed some things I haven’t thought of yet. I think you did an awesome job of staying under budget even with the unexpected costs. #HomeMattersParty