We traveled to a small California town about 45 minutes from Yosemite National Park. Full disclosure, we go there every year on the same weekend. The difference for us this time, was that with the exception of $8 worth of cookies, everything I bought are things I would buy anyway.
Let me back up, first of all, we go to this cabin with 4 other couples and each couple has 2 kids, so 10 adults and 10 kids. We each sign up to provide some meal(s) and we all bring snacks and fruits. My brother-in-law's cousin owns the property and they graciously share it with their family and friends.
Generally when I shop for this trip, I buy anything and everything that catches my fancy. I also take orders from The Husband and Kids, but this time that wasn't the case.
I planned our meal, BBQ chicken sandwiches, tater tots, and broccoli, and only bought snacks we would normally eat at home. We make the chicken in a slow cooker and then put it on toasted hamburger buns. The broccoli was $2.79 for 3 pounds and I bought that in lieu of the husked and cut corn I wanted to buy that would have run me $19.50. The tater tots were about $6. I fed 20 people dinner for about $30.
Additionally, as I walked through the grocery store, I only added items to our cart that we would normally buy. All the snacks we brought home will easily be consumed by my family. In years past, I bought things that looked good at the time, but then tended to languish in our cupboards when we returned home. This time, that's not going to happen!
As there are 20 people there, I do the majority of my shopping at Costco. There I spent about $120. I spent an additional $20 at Winco buying some smaller snacks and cookies. For a three day get away, I feel like we got good value for money.
For a long weekend trip away for a family of 4, we spent about $190, including gas. For that $190, we got to hike, play football, play games, ride a rope swing, read, visit, cook, laugh, and enjoy the company of life long friends. In my opinion, that's money well spent.
In truth, it didn't even cost us quite that much as we brought a lot of food home, many of our snacks unopened! These snacks will help to keep our grocery budget down in the coming month because I won't have to buy snacks for lunches, we will already have them!
Don't get me wrong, I know to a lot of people $190 would not be considered cheap, but I think we got a "great deal"! Roughly $200, divided by 4 people is $50 per person, but then divide that by 3 days and we averaged a cost of less than $17 per day, per person... That's a good deal!
Come back often and check if our debt totals are going in the right direction and if I can come up with any more "cheap" entertainment!
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