Vacation Plans on a budget.

We love to go to Holden Beach N.C. It is so relaxing to have a whole week of play time with our kids. We love the sand in our toes, the sun on our faces, the ocean breeze, and watching our kids have a blast. We like to be beach bums while on vacation. We spend the whole week on the beach and usually we don't shop. What we don't like is the cost. After having kids we realized how awesome staying oceanfront really is. No crossing the street, or huffing it with chairs, cooler, toys, and don't forget the kids! However it is way more expensive, throw in the fact that I got one in school and another will be this coming year and that puts us vacationing right in the smack middle of prime season. Prime season is when they raise the cost of the houses during the most used time, sometimes by as much as a thousand dollars or more. I, however do not have that kind of money to shell out and ex specially since I quit work to stay home. This is what we do. We rent a house with family. You could also try this with friends. I find out who wants to go and then what everyone's budget is. Then I spend the next two months looking at houses and trying to get everyone what they want. Sometimes that doesn't work out and sometimes it does. Then husband who feels sorry for me and tired of my bellyaching over how to make everyone happy gets on the computer and finds the cutest little house and within every ones budget. So after the house was divided among everyone we our share of the house was eight hundred dollars. That is about three to four hundred more than we've spent in previous years but still cheaper than a motel in Myrtle. We ride down with my mother who fills up before we leave and we pay the gas on the way back, this saves us alot depending on how high gas prices are last year it saved us one hundred dollars! We also eat at the house. When you have a whole house full of people it's nice to take turns and each couple cooks on different nights or we just all pitch in and do what needs to be done. We eat like kings most of the week and if we want to eat out we usually eat lunch out because it's cheaper and we can get the kids in without a long wait. We also eat our fair share from the pier.(best burgers and fries) I hope that helps someone out there! Can you tell I'm daydreaming of summer? Have a great day.