I know a lot of people say that when they become a mom, they feel like they lose themselves. Well, I am the complete opposite when I became a mom I found myself! I absolutely ADORE being a mom! It is so fun to spend every moment with these little humans that are my best friends! I get to eat all of my meals with them, clean with them, walk with them, shop with them, just everything!
So since I have enjoyed being a mom so much, we now have 4 kids! I love this life with them, but the more kids I have the more expensive life is getting. When I go out to eat, I am no longer just paying for myself, but 4 other people to eat. Buying school supplies, clothes, shoes, sports equipment, presents, Easter baskets everything is quadrupled in price and is a lot harder to pay for than when there was just one little kiddo.
So besides being a mom, my next greatest passion in life is traveling. So yeah, this already ridiculously expensive hobby of mine has guess what….quadrupled in price as well.
Instead of giving up one passion for another though I have learned there are many ways to still travel with kids and not spend a significant amount of money. I mean literally this summer, as a family of 6, we spent a week in California for only $1,000. It is possible to travel with kids and not go bankrupt!
Why I Love To Travel With My Kids
I am not going to lie traveling with kids is a heck of a lot more work and a lot more stressful than traveling alone, but holy heck it is so much more rewarding. Watching my kids live life to the absolute fullest is one of my greatest joys! I love that we love doing something together so much! The bond we have developed from spending so much time together, trying new things, is worth all of the hard that comes from traveling.
Benefits of Traveling With Kids:
- You are never alone! You don’t have the disappointment of finding something amazing and having no one to share it with! You always have someone with you!
- The excitement is the level you need for each adventure. I get super excited about traveling, so if I am traveling with someone not on my same excitement level it really bums me out. Kids will almost always match your level of excitement, if not surpass it.
- Traveling is some of the best education they can receive because it is experiences. My daughter just started Kindergarten, but she can already tell you the history of the Native Americans by visiting Mesa Verde. She can tell you about stalagmites and stalactites from exploring Black Chasam Caverns. She can name almost all the animals in the zoo and tell you where they live. Your kids will learn so much more experiencing things than sitting in a classroom.
- Memories that you or they will never forget. This is my favorite reason for traveling with my kids! I love the memories I have made with them. It makes me so happy to hear my kids talk about things we have done or experiences they have had.
- Screen free time. Parenting win! When your kids are hiking mountains, swimming in lakes, exploring museums, and holding koalas; they are not in front of a screen! What parent doesn’t want less screen time for their kids!
- You are living in the moment. When you travel with your kids, you are too busy taking care of your kids and having fun that you have no choice but to live in that moment. When I am at home it sometimes feels overwhelming with the things I need to do and the stresses of life. While I travel I leave all of that behind and truly live in the moment with my kids.
- They will make you happy! My kids make me laugh every where we go! They are so fun and so funny. I feel like when we are out on adventures they are even more funny cause they are having fun!
- You won’t be worried about them. You are not going to spend your whole trip missing them or worrying about them, because your kids will be there. Honestly when I am traveling with out my kids I just spend the whole time wishing they were there anyway so the trip just isn’t as satisfying.
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Tips For Traveling With Kids On A Budget
The number one question I get asked when people see all the things that we do is, “How can you afford to travel that much?” I get it, cause you look at all the stuff we do and you probably think I spend hundreds of dollars a month for everything.
You would be wrong though.
I have a budget for gas and that is usually my main costs every month. Most months I spend less that $30 on activities! Here are my tips and tricks that make traveling with kids on a budget possible:
Make Your Own Food
The key to traveling with kids on a budget is work. You need to put in the work to get the reward of cheap travel. Starting with food. My biggest expenses when traveling are food, lodging, and transportation. So lets start with the food.
If I were to go to a fast food restaurant with my 4 kids, I am looking at spending an average of $40 a meal. That is $120 a day! $840 a week!! That is just for fast food!
My monthly grocery budget for our family of 6 is $450! So eating out for a week is more than I spend in a month! Moral of the story is that when I make our meals homemade I save our family around $735!
Whether you are camping, in a resort, an Airbnb, or even just a plain old hotel, you will always have some make to make your own homemade meals. It isn’t as convenient and takes a lot of planning and organizing, but making your own meals will save you significantly when traveling with kids!
Some of our favorite quick and easy meals that you can have on the go camping or in a hotel:
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
- Bagels and Cream Cheese
- Cereal
- Parfaits
- PB&J Sandwiches
- Tuna Sandwiches
- Chicken Salad Sandwiches
- Italian Subs
- Chili Dogs
- Walking Tacos
- Chili
Camp
Places to stay are the most expensive part of traveling with our family. As a family of 6 it is hard to find places that will accept that amount of people in one location. At least it is hard to find one places that are ridiculously expensive for that amount of people.
Resorts are in the $200 range a night and you will rarely find a hotel or Airbnb for less than $150 a night. This is why we camp!!
Camping is a significantly cheaper way to travel. You are looking between a range of FREE-$30 a night to tent camp most places, and FREE-$50 to RV camp. Kids love tent camping too. Being out in the middle of nature is like being in a giant playground to them. My kids get so excited every time I tell them we are going camping. So not only will it be fun for them, but it will be cheaper for you!
My camping necessities:
Purchase Passes
So we have talked about food and lodging, now let’s talk about activities. One of my greatest secrets to how to travel with kids on a budget is purchasing passes! Now up front passes can be pretty expensive, but the money it saves you throughout the year is undeniably beneficial.
The best passes to always have:
Zoo Membership
No matter where I go, one of the first things I look up is if that place has a zoo! I LOVE the zoo! My kids love the zoo! Any activity that involves animals is usually a win with kids.
Only problem with going to the zoo is that it is not cheap, especially for a family with multiple kids. This is why a zoo membership is so helpful! A zoo membership will get you into over a 100 zoo’s for either free or 50% off!
You can purchase a pass at any participating zoos. For the complete list of zoos that are a part of this zoo membership deal click here.
Get Out Pass
Let’s say you are going to visit San Antionio and while there you want to go to the zoo and the aquarium. That will be $31.99 for the zoo and $24.95 for the aquarium. For just 2 activities in San Antonio you are spending $56.94!! Why would you spend that when you could spend $44.95 and get into the zoo, aquarium, and about 73 other places?
The Get Out Pass is a great pass to get if you are going to a specific place like say San Antonio, Texas. If you buy the pass for this city you will have about 75 activities you can do all for the price of one.
Just send me a comment below with which pass you would like to purchase depending on the area you are exploring and I can activate the code WESTXMOM so that you can get a discount.
National Park Pass
This pass is my favorite pass of all!! If you want to see the most amazing sites that America has to offer, than visit any National Park!
National Parks are our favorite places to visit and offer an assortment of activities at each. They range for giant sand dunes, riding donkeys down the Grand Canyon, hiking to waterfalls, rock climbing, native American ruins, and so much more!
The National Park Pass will get you into any of these National Parks for free, plus the National Monuments, and even some National Sites and Landmarks. It’s just a yearly price of $80 and you can visit the wonders of America as much as you would like!
State Park Pass
Now if you take a step down from National Parks you get State Parks and they are incredible too!! Each state is different in their admissions, prices, and process of using a state park pass, but I do recommend getting the pass of your state.
We obviously live in Texas and so we purchased the Texas State Park Pass for $70 which will last us a year. With this pass we can get into any Texas State Park for free (our day use is free).
We also get our second day of camping half off. So this means we can camp at any of the Texas State Parks for around $10-$25 and get the second night for half off. It not only gives us access to countless number of parks and activities, but also makes our stay cheaper as well.
City Pass
Sort of like the GetOut Pass, the City Pass is another pass that will help you get into an assortment of activities all for the price of one ticket. We have used this pass several times and though it seems like a lot up front, it is a heck of a lot cheaper than going to each of these places and buying a physical ticket for the one location.
Book In Advance
When planning a trip, try to plan months to a year in advance. Plan where you want to stay and what you want to do. Once you know what you want to do and where you want to stay, start booking for it. Here is why:
- Since COVID hit, people are traveling more and so if you want to actually do things you need to book in advance.
- Activities and experiences that cost more normally offer early deals. These are the best savings you will find for these places.
- Certain things like flights and hotels get more expensive the closer you get to the time you are going to use them. If you buy them early you will get them for cheaper.
- If you book to late the amount of options in your area will get sold out, which means if you want to stay in a certain area, you will have to pay for the higher priced locations.
- Buy Tickets Online
A lot of businesses that offer the ability to purchase tickets online will also offer a better deal if you purchase the tickets online. So before you go anywhere, check online to see if the tickets are cheaper.
Look For Free Activities
The obvious way to make traveling with kids more affordable is to do things that are free! You will be surprised as to what you find is free once you really look. In our travels we have found free museums, free lakes to swim at, free zoos, free historic sites, and so much more for free.
Activities With Kids That Are Almost Always Free:
- Swimming In Lakes Or Rivers
- National Forests
- Splash Pads
- Finding Murals
- Nature Centers
- County Museums
- Playgrounds
- Hiking
- State Capitals
Hiking
One of the things I loved when we lived in Colorado was that the majority of the activities that we did were free, because the majority of the activities in Colorado involve hiking! Hiking is a cheap (most of the time free) and fun thing to do with kids!
Pretty much everywhere you go there will be hikes! I love to use the AllTrails app/website because it gives the most up to date lists and locations on local hikes. Honestly the coolest stuff you will see in this world are the things you hike to anyway!
Essentials For Hiking With Kids:
Make Your Own Road Trip Snacks
One of my most important essentials for keeping my sanity while traveling with kids is, snacks! Kids will do just about anything for food, heck I would do just about anything for food! I used to spend at least $100 on just snacks for road trips! Can you believe that!? $100 just for snacks!
On top of gas, lodging, our meals, and activities; I spent that much just on snacks to get us by. I am a major snacker when it comes to traveling, probably because it is so physical. Snacks are also a good way to keep my kids happy on long road trips. I give them a treat or snack every 30 minutes to an hour as long as they are well behaved.
So to cut that costs I decided to try making some of our favorite road trip snacks. Here is a list of some of our favorites.
Some Of Our Favorite Homemade Road Trip Snack Ideas:
Use Credit Card Rewards
I know there is controversy on this subject, but I love using a credit card. For almost everything I use money on in a month I pay with through a credit card, for the sole reason of rewards. Did you know most credit cards give you rewards for using them?
For instances with my capital one I get cash rewards for using my card at places like the grocery store or restaurants. I build up this cash rewards and then I use them to pay for our trips, so technically we are traveling for free!!
Now I am not saying go rack up a ton of credit card debt so that you can have free money. We use our credit card to pay our bills, for groceries, gas, just our everyday needs. These are things we would use our money for regardless. At the end of the month or half way through the month we pay the credit card completely off, so that we never have to pay interest for our charges. Using a credit card responsibly, you will make money instead of lose money.
Get Hotel Rewards
If you are a big hotel traveler, than go ahead and become a member! Download the app and sign up. I mean it is free, so its not going to hurt you to become a member. By becoming a hotel chain member you are opening up yourself for the opportunity to gain rewards and work up to either cheaper stays or free nights.
Our favorite Hotel Memberships:
- IHG– Holiday Inn, Staybridge, Crowne Plaza, Avid, Regent, etc.
- Choice– Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Econo Lodge, Mainstay Suites, etc.
Travel In Off Season
The majority of people travel in the summer because that is when school is out and the weather is the best. This is why this is the most expensive time of year travel. This is just like most people travel on weekends over weekdays, because the majority of the people work or go to school and have weekends off. This causes weekends to generally be more expensive than weekdays.
More people equals higher prices. So if you travel during off season of areas and during weekdays, the majority of the time it will be cheaper.
Our favorite week of the month to travel is the week of Labor day. Labor day is busy, but after that everyone goes back to school and back to work so places are way less crowded. Normally too this is when the off season starts for most places so attractions have sliced their prices.
Travel Local
This is my number one secret to traveling with kids on a budget. Whoever said that to travel, you have to fly or stay overnight somewhere. People forget that there is so much to do right in your own backyard. I am a huge fan of day trips!
I literally have a 3 and a half hour circle around my house that I stick to. Every week we pick somewhere in the circle, pack a lunch, and just explore that area. Then when we are done, we drive home and sleep in our own beds.
This cuts cost significantly, because we are not going far and are not spending money on a place to stay! Day trips are a great way to see more for a lot less.
Drive Instead Of Fly
I would say the majority of the time driving will be faster than flying. For instances, I was looking at flights up to Cincinnati, Ohio; which is a place I am hoping to visit soon. In order for my entire family to fly to Cincinnati it would cost us $3,897!
Whereas if I drive it would cost my family $300 with out Hybrid van! That is a $3,597 savings! Plus I don’t have to pay to rent or fly car seats and I don’t have to pay for a rental! Driving saves you so much more than flying (most of the time).
I know though that road trips are not the most fun with a car full of young kids, but because of the amount that you save compared to what you spend, think of all the fun things you will get to do without breaking the bank!
Stay in National Forests
Did you know that National Forests are free to stay at? If you camp in a National Forest you are dry camping with no amenities, but it is free! You can take your RV or tent and just set up anywhere for the night.
Forewarning you now though that there are not very many rangers to control noise levels and the roads are not always maintained. My kids always love camping in National Forests though because they love being out in the “wild.” They love the free range and ability to be loud and explore.
If you can cut costs on any of the big ticket items it will make traveling with kids on a budget so much more manageable.
Gear You Will Want When Camping In A National Forest:
Become a Family Travel Influencer
If you love to travel then get paid to travel! Make money doing what you love. I love to travel and so do my kids. We went on so many adventures, so we decided to start writing about it and posting our pictures and videos on social media. By doing this we started to gain a following. We also started to get offers from companies and attractions to come try their stuff and advertise it!
By becoming a travel influencer you will not only get into attractions and stay at places for a discount, but you will get to stay at some places or do things for free!
As you become a travel influencer you will also get opportunities to sell products as a brand ambassador and make a commission. This is a way to pay for your traveling and make even more money!
Stop By Visitor Centers or Welcome Centers to look for coupons in brochures
Visitor centers and welcome centers are not just there for people who have no idea what to do, they are a great place to find coupons for attractions around that town or state! Every visitor center I have been to has a wall of brochures.
Along with all these ideas of places to go and things to do, there are coupon brochures! A lot of the coupons will get you deals on restaurants or a couple dollars off some of the bigger attractions. If there is no coupon brochure, then you can talk to the visitor center employees and they can let you know of any deals offered.
Do Not Invest In Timeshares OR Vacation Packages
A lot of people have been investing in timeshares or vacation packages, because they think they will save them money. These packages will get you into resorts which are a really, really fun way to travel with kids, BUT it will cost you way more to become a member than it will be to just stay at the resort on your own as a regular old customer.
The costs for these packages is in the $10,000+ range to begin with and then each year you will pay maintenance fees in the $1,000+ range. Even after paying all of that money it does not guarantee that you will even get into the resort of your choice and it really limits your options of places to stay. It is not worth it and will really eat away at your savings.
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