A frugalish vacation

We're headed to vacation tomorrow for a week long relaxation that we all deserve.  My MIL is graciously paying for the house, we're so blessed.  The four of us, plus my MIL, BIL and his fiance are staying in this lake house.

I took meal planning very seriously and my BIL was a little taken a back thinking that money is extra tight around here.  He didn't think it was necessary to write out a grocery list and plan everything down to the dollar.  Bless his heart, I love him like a brother, but he isn't a planner like me.  Thankfully money isn't too tight right now, but I still try to scrimp and save whenever possible, especially when I have 7 mouths to feed.  We split up the grocery bill amongst us and I'll be doing 90% of the cooking, which I will thoroughly enjoy.  We could have easily spent $400 to feed us all, but I've got the bill right at $230.  Now, that doesn't include meat, because we're just going to take from our personal freezer since we have a stockpile.  However it does include wine and beer, not in a large amount though.

Tonight I spent a couple hours baking 2 huge loaves of banana bread and a dozen banana bread muffins + 1 huge loaf of blueberry/zucchini bread and a dozen muffins.  These will be served for breakfast most mornings, but I'll also be bringing some cereal.  We're not doing a "big breakfast" because we're limited on space in the cars...we're all bringing our dogs.  So, I'm trying to keep ingredients at a minimum.  I'm going to take a gallon ziplock full of dry oatmeal w/ craisins and sunflower seeds to make one morning too.

We are going out to eat one night to one of the local burger joints likely, or one of us may just pick it up and bring it back if we're feeling extra lazy.  There is also a farmer's market about 30 miles away which I'm hoping to visit and pick up some fruit and veggies.  We won't be doing any souvenir shopping or typical touristy stuff...just relaxing, hiking, swimming, reading and LOTS of board games.

We're all excited to go, especially Miss A.  She keeps saying "Can we sleep in my sleeping bag at the lake house?".  Too cute.  The weather appears to be mid-70's all week which is a bummer for swimming, but you can bet your last nickel I will be in the lake every day, probably multiple times.  I LOVE to swim no matter the temperature...well maybe.


Have a great week everyone and I'll check back with you next week