We just got back from 2+ weeks in England and France (no, not Paris! More on that later!). Here are some of the frugal and not-frugal things we did on our holiday...
Frugal
- got a ride to/from the airport and left our cars at home (no parking fees)
- had someone stay in the house with our pets (no boarding fees) - we did buy him a small gift and gave him a gift certificate for Amazon (way lower than what we would have paid for pet boarding)
- stayed with family in England (and they fed us so well!)
- brought a packed lunch to the Arsenal Football Club stadium tour
- F has a "Junior Gunners membership" so her tour was free
- D contacted them ahead of time to say we were coming all the way from New Mexico and that F is a huge fan and Junior Gunner, and they arranged for the mascot - Gunnersaurus - to surprise her! Wow! And he gave her a goodybag of stuff including a watch and cuddly toy Gunnersaurus for free!
- stayed in a weekly rental in France so we cooked most of our own meals (and it's fun shopping in supermarkets in other countries)
- our stay in France was in a little town near the Spanish border - much less expensive than Paris!
- most of our days in France were spent at the beach (free); activities included walking along the cliffs to another beach about an hour away - the walk itself was awesome!
- Used public transportation in our last two days (when we didn't have a rental car) and to get to the Stadium
- Rental cars were diesel - we filled up very little
- Didn't buy souvenirs (except F got this very cool little whirlygig which we played with on the beach every evening - 2 euro - it goes up in the air with a slingshot and then spins when it comes down)
Not Frugal
- bought lunch in the airport rather than pack it (I ended up with work to do at the last minute and decided our holiday would start in the airport - but it wasn't even a good meal, so I wish I'd packed the lunch!)
- some meals out - but well worth it! - in France
- one terrible meal out in England - we took my father-in-law to his favorite pub which is just awful, but we see him so rarely and it's his favorite.
- Arsenal Football Club stadium tour wasn't cheap, but worth it
- paid for admission to some tourist sites (Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain; turtle sanctuary; a castle; and a fortress outside of Perpignan)
- Paid for the French rental apartment to be cleaned at the end rather than clean it ourselves; we could've cleaned it ourselves, but really wanted not to wreck our last day there.
I'm sure there are more... but that's all I can think of right now.
We're Back from our Holiday - Frugal and Not-Frugal Things
August 14th, 2014 at 02:10 am
August 14th, 2014 at 03:15 am 1407982512
August 14th, 2014 at 03:29 am 1407983341
The trip made me want to move back, if only to be closer to the rest of Europe; it's so easy to get to other places there. Where we live it takes hours to get anywhere, and even then it's probably somewhere that is just like here. Oh - and I think that F would like to move there just to get to see a few premier league matches. And the candy - I'm a little bit addicted to mint Aero bars.
August 14th, 2014 at 04:56 am 1407988618
Where is the bottom one from?
August 14th, 2014 at 01:44 pm 1408020250
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August 14th, 2014 at 02:49 pm 1408024158