Affordable vacation strategy

We plan on eating out while on our trips. Not every meal, but if it's a week long trip, then it will not be less than 2-3 of them eaten out. We normally do not eat at big chain places or fast food when we do it either. We like to eat local and unique places. Part of the experience. Plus, we are on vacation. We don't want to have to cook all the time. We can do that home and save the money of going somewhere.

But, if you need to do it on the cheap, then there are lpenty of ways of doing it. We enjoy using our crock pot. It keeps us from having to do a lot of cooking and can just put a bunch of stuff in it and let it go durign the day while we are doing other stuff.

Another way of cutting costs (especially when in subrubia) is to check Groupon. You can get some deals on there. Also, check out the touristy type towns for the discount books. That's if you want to do some of that stuff. We have kayaks and a paddle board that we can take with us on trips. It's a cheap way (beyond the initial cost) of having some fun. You can also rent them at places. We also try to take our bikes with us.

Do some research ahead of time online on where you are going. You can probalby find a lot of free stuff to do or things that aren't too expensive.