Family Vacation: Thrifty Things Day #1

As we told you, we are on Family Vacation.  To us it has become a tradition for Kelli’s parents, Kelli’s only sister and her family (which includes 3 of our 8 amazing nieces and nephews) and Kelli and Jim to go somewhere each year as a family.  This year the adventure finds us in the Cincinnati area.

Since our deal postings will be a bit slim during that time because being online is not a priority during this magical fun trip, we thought we’d let you know how we try and save as a family when we travel.  Summary so far:

• We used HotWire to book our hotel and we are so happy with the results!  We are staying a Hyatt Place, and we paid a fraction of what the going rate is for this hotel.  Even comparing other travel sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, etc–we couldn’t have come close to the rate HotWire provided us. Yes, it is a bit of gamble to buy on HotWire because you don’t know the name of the hotel until after you pay, but you know the star rating and that gives a good indication of what you will get.  This place is great, super clean and huge!  Our rooms each have 2 beds plus a pull out sofa and a lounge area.  The rooms are adjoining, which the kids love!  We’ve used HotWire at least 15 times to book various trips and have always been pleased.  I strongly recommend them from personal experience.
• We stopped at McDonald’s during the road journey and used our BOGO coupons on the frozen strawberry lemonade.  Yum-o!  My mom tried the mango one, but of the 2 we like the strawberry lemonade best.  You can still print your coupon for the BOGO offer here.
• Dinner last night was take out Pizza Hut.  We were tired and no one felt like going out to dinner after a long day in the car.  We did put our thriftiness into action though with this one because Pizza Hut doesn’t include their $10 Any promotion for delivery!  So, my Dad ventured out to pick up the pizzas (luckily the Pizza Hut was about 1 minute from the hotel) and we saved 50% on the price of dinner!  Way to go Dad!   Have you tried their $10 Any deal?  $10 for any size pizza, any crust, any toppings.  It’s a good value.

We are excited to see what today may bring…………it’s on to King’s Island today and the heat index is supposed to be 110.  Should be interesting!

Enjoy your day!