Children’s clothes all packed and ready to go
We survived the whirlwind weekend that included us running a table at our local homeschool used book sale (we sold almost all our stuff and made over $120 to use to buy next year’s homeschool curriculum!), two special missionary services at our church, Jesse’s sister’s graduation, time with Jesse’s other sister and her family who were in from out of town for the graduation and a Josh Groban concert (my husband shocked me big time by surprising me with tickets to this!).
Sunday afternoon, we started packing for our family road trip. Our first stop was to be Joplin, Missouri. Then, Sunday evening, we heard the heart-breaking news of the devastating tornado there. I spent much of this morning researching out ways our family could personally help and specific ways you all could help by donating extra stockpile items. I’ll have a post up tomorrow with more details on that.
In the mean time, thank you for your patience with me today as I was focusing most of my time and energy on Joplin and figuring out Plan B for our road trip. We decided to still go ahead with our planned family road trip, but we headed to Oklahoma City today instead.
Silas getting ready for a dip in the hotel pool tonight
I didn’t get a video done for the 31 Weeks to a Better Grocery Budget series today. I’d hoped to do it from the hotel room tonight, but it just didn’t happen as we were having too much fun playing in the pool and just enjoying life away from all the usual distractions of life.
I am planning a number of road trip-themed posts over the next few days along with the usual blogging fare, provided I have time and internet connection while we’re traveling. We’ll see. If they don’t get done this week, I’ll be sure and post them next week.
For starters, here’s our menu for the road trip:
Breakfasts
Continental breakfast at the hotel (we always try to stay somewhere that serves breakfast as this saves a nice chunk of money — especially when we get a great deal on the hotel in the first place!)Lunches
Ham sandwiches, chips, juice
Peanut butter & Jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, bananas
Tuna sandwiches, chips, veggies
Egg salad sandwiches, veggies, fruit
Peanut butter & Jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, apples
Snack-y lunch (cheese & crackers, pretzels, carrots, apples, etc.)
Cereal, fruitSnacks
Apples
Carrot sticks
Pretzels
Crackers and peanut butter
Cheese and crackers
Chips
Granola barsDinners
We’re planning to eat dinner out every night as this is something we budget for on vacations. We keep it pretty economical, though, and usually spend around $25 to $35 maximum for dinners for the five of us. We did Cracker Barrel tonight and will likely do Chick-fil-A tomorrow night.
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What a great plan! Please do a post (in your free time, ha) on how to get hotel room cheap.
Glad you guys are having a great time. We always do a local road trip during the summer months. There are so many things to see in our lovely state, and so many do not take advantage of them. I like your menu’s. We travel on the cheap too. Of course if we can we camp somewhere with one night of “hotel” bliss, lol. State and Federal parks are fantastic for cheap lodging outdoor style
For those interested in donating to help those in Joplin, I have a nice post of information on where to donate.
http://www.couponfrugality.com/frugality/how-to-help-those-in-joplin-by-donating/
Here’s a spreadsheet of drop-off places in various midwest towns for supplies for Joplin: https://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?hl=en_US&key=t7FpXE61_2vBAn9fQ_QkQKA&toomany=true
Here’s a church in Joplin that is organizing donations: http://www.facebook.com/IgniteChurchtv
And the general relief FB page: http://www.facebook.com/joplinmo
I wish I could hunt you down!
I live in OKC, and would love to meet you and tell you my story on how you inspired me to pay off all our bad debt, and pay cash for our attorney to adopt our daughter all in the same year. We have done amazing things, financially this year, that I never thought was possible. In just two weeks our adoption will be final and we are debt free thanks to your inspiring blog! I wish there was a way I could pick your brain so I can keep doing amazing things. 
Again, thank you so much for all you inspiration!
Welcome to OKC! I live a bit south of there, but there are lots of yummy restaurants up that way. We love Spaghetti Warehouse (for a chain restaurant) but there are many others. If you get a change, the zoo there is very nice…rated 3rd, I believe, for child-friendliness or something like that.
Some towns have “early bird” specials at dinner time. As long as you are seated by a certain time – the prices were less expensive and the quantity of food was such that we had leftovers to take with us. Might be worth asking about.
Make sure if you’re in OK still that you follow the storm warnings…there’s supposed to be a huge storm with possible tornado outbreaks in that area today! Everyone please pray for safety for those living in Oklahoma!
Josh Grobin…VERY awesome.
Hope you have fun on your vacation! I was going to echo the kids night at Chick Fil A suggestion made earlier. Ours is on Thursday nights I believe?
I love the idea of labeling the ziplocks with the clothes for the days of the week. I may have to impliment that for our next trip
Yeah, that ziplocks idea looks great! I’m filing it away for the future!
Here’s our meatless meal of the week: http://theselittlepieces.blogspot.com/2011/05/meatless-meal-of-week-no-3.html. It’s soooo good!
Crystal,
I love your blog! So glad to have you all here in Okc!!
Have a great trip, as someone else said you have a lot of followers here!
We love msm
Wow you pack some of your clothes the way I pack for my son’s summer camp he loves his Christian horse camp but the organization side is hard for him. I just pack 1 day of clothes in each zipper top bag. Then toss in a few extra pairs of jeans and go over it with him. He loves it this way and now at 12 he says I do not need to write the day on it. Now if I could just get him to actually change clothes each day and not come home with many of the bags still packed.
“Now if I could just get him to actually change clothes each day…”
HA! So true, Beth! If you ever figure that magic trick out, please let us know! My son is 14 and I’m hoping his growing awareness of girls will eventually make things easier.
I am so glad my son is not the only one.
Good for you re: eating out for dinner. In my book, Mom’s not on vacation if she has to cook and do dishes every night.
I agree.
Praying for your safety in OKC and for those who have been affected by other storms. We were in a tornado warning on Saturday night, but fortunately the rotation stopped just before it reached our town. My heart goes out to everyone who is suffering.
If you are looking for a great hotel with a great breakfast for a good price…I suggest the La Quinta! We have had a huge success with them, especially in the newer ones. They are always clean, have a good breakfast, and friendly! My husband is a hard critic of hotels and restaurants so for him to be on board with them says a lot.
Also, I love what I saw about your packing. Care to do a quick blog about that
I’m always looking for new and improved ways to pack.
Praying that you and your family have missed to tornados in Oklahoma City!!
Me too…worrisome weather everywhere
Hope you are ok! As we (in South East Oklahoma) were packing our emergency tornado bags last night, I thought of you in OKC. I hope all is well for you.
We just enjoyed two days away, too – although I am positive we came back more tired than rested!
Here’s our menu plan: http://ourfrugalhappylife.blogspot.com/2011/05/menu-plan-522.html
How did you manage the lunches on your trip? Did you bring a cooler with the food and just handle it there, or shop when you got there? It sounds like such a pain, but it would definitely be cheaper (and definitely healthier) than eating out for lunches. I might give that a try! Any tips!
We did some of both — brought some food and then shopped when we got there. Our hotels had small fridges which really helped.
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