A testimony from Victoria who blogs at Snail Pace Transformations
Back in March, it dawned on my husband and I that both our boys would be in church camp for a week at the same time — within two weeks of our wedding anniversary! My daughter told us that she was more than willing to stay with friends for the week if we wanted to getaway just the two of us, and so a special anniversary getaway was born.
The next obstacle was paying for the getaway. We had already put away a small sum for a night out for two for our anniversary but it was not going to be enough to stretch into a 3-night, 4-day event.
I immediately suggested we go camping to keep costs down. At first, my husband was less than thrilled. But he soon warmed up to the idea.
We decided to stay at the Sand Dunes State Park in Indiana, located just a few hours away from us. We booked the spot in advance with some of the original money marked for our anniversary.
With the spot booked, we made an agreement that the rest of the funds for the trip would come from selling things we already owned and no longer needed. Here are some of the things we sold:
- First, I listed all the items we wanted to get rid of in an album on Facebook. I sold an iPod to a friend, some children’s clothes to another friend and a no-longer-working (but still in great shape) mower to a friend with a handy husband who was up to a challenge.
- I then used a local Facebook buy and sell group to sell a bike and an air conditioner.
- Using Craigslist, I sold a plumber’s snake and a reel style mower.
After the sales, we were just a bit short of the amount of money we thought we would need, so I held an Eat From the Pantry Week, and added the grocery money saved to our anniversary trip envelope. This gave us exactly the amount we wanted.
With our cash in hand, we set out on our trip and had a very relaxing time. We rented Redbox movies to watch in our travel trailer together, read side by side for hours, enjoyed bike rides and long hikes. In fact, except for dinners, we didn’t leave the park — which saved us a lot of money.
Both of us arrived home feeling well rested, and my once-reluctant-to-camp husband said he didn’t know camping alone would be so much fun. (Of course, having a travel trailer helps!)
We also came home with $184 left in our Getaway Envelope, which we have agreed to use to take the children camping soon.
Victoria is a homeschooling mom of three who writes at Snail Pace Transformations with the mission of helping moms find the time and money they need to pursue their passions while maintaining harmony in their homes. Her own passions include running, biking and knitting.
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I love that you worked it out. My husband and I almost never take trips. 2 years ago, I remembered that I had signed up for a credit card to get a nice cash back bonus. I’d paid it off, gotten the bonus, and put it away. It also came with lots of promotion travel points that I hadn’t touched and my husband’s birthday was coming up. I had enough points to pay for a 3 day weekend at a hotel on the beach. Our kids stayed with my in-laws and I just paid for gas, food, and activities. We had a great time. I’d love to do it again. I know lots of people like to be cash-only, and I think that is great, but I like to use my credit cards for anything I can, pay the balance, and earn points. Right now, I am saving up points for Christmas.
We stayed at the same camp ground last month and LOVED it!!! We were looking for a “cheap” fun vacation within 8 hours of us and my kids learned they did like camping and I realized it also wasn’t that bad 🙂 We have never been up there and loved that part of the country!
It isn’t our anniversary, but next week the hubs and I will be going backpacking for 2 nights/3 days as our ‘getaway’ trip. We live 45 minutes from a resort town, but decided backpacking would be the more frugal and fun (for us) way to go. He already had all his gear & I purchased mine (I’ve never been) on Amazon funded almost entirely by gift cards earned from surveys and swagbucks. =D I think the only thing we paid out of pocket for was the food at Vons the other day. I can’t wait!
This sounds perfect!
Thanks for sharing!
I think I would take the money left and put it towards next year’s getaway instead of taking the kids camping. 🙂
My husband works trimming trees around power lines. So when Hurricane Sandy hit NY, he was on Long Island for 16 days (we live in Maine) helping restore power. It stunk to have him gone so long but the pay was amazing. We used some of it for out anniversary getaway. So worth it to find a way to do that.
What a wonderful idea. Now if our anniversary didn’t fall in feb. Maybe we’ll plan a half year anniversary my hubby just mentioned going camping monday…as a way to get our stuff organized before going with some friends who have never been. Of course we have to tent camp and I want to let this heat wave pass.
We recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary, combined with my husband’s graduation from Grad school. We went camping too! I loved it. No tv or internet to distract us, so it was just us and nature.
Congrats to you and your hubby. I did that once but will try to do it again for a fall road trip, I’m taking with the hubby. I will use my Hilton Honor points, for a free hotel stay and pay cash for gas, food and entertainment. This post was inspiring to make me do better.
We do the same type of thing for our family vacation. I put some away each month in a budget column. I also save all my change and $1’s in a jar and cash that in as spending money during the trip we planned.
Yay for you and your husband! Every month we have a date budget that we get in cash. At the beginning of the next month when I get the cash we put all the leftover form the previous month into an envelope for our anniversary getaway. By the time the year is up we typically have a nice sum saved up because we always try to use coupons, etc for our dates.
I love your “about” section! “Helping moms find the time and money they need to pursue their passions while maintaining harmony in their homes.” What a great mission statement. Thanks Victoria!
Thanks!