Budget Beach

This summer we needed to manage our "vacation budget" a little better than last year.  With one son in college, two in private school and the hotel business not doing all that great we needed a cheap, or at least reasonable price tag.  We were able to find a house to rent at a cheaper beach in NC and not through a rental agency.  It was posted on a homeschool loop and we even got a homeschool discount.  The only thing is, the pictures and description of the house were a little misleading.  We arrived at the house to find it much smaller than we thought and it was a good walk to the beach and bay.  We brought two extra teenage friends plus Nana. We had 13 people all together and the house only slept 8 (that's including the pull-out in the living room) and was only about 1500 sq. feet.  Anyway, we managed and everyone had a good attitude (mine had to be adjusted some :o) We put my Mom and all the girls in the master bedroom-that was 6 girls in one room!  But they did have a really big bath.  Ron and the baby and I squeezed into a little bedroom upstairs and I had to share the bathroom up there with 6 boys.  It was pretty gross at times, but not too bad.  Anyway, that was 2 ways we saved money (house and location), then we really managed the food and entertainment.  Fishing and crabbing and swimming are free!  We played Goofy Golf one evening and Ron rented Jet Ski's with the older kids one afternoon.  We only ate out at a seafood restaurant one night and one night got take-out seafood.  I cooked 2 nights (on vacations I like to take a break from cooking if at all possible :o).  We got Domino's pizza 2 nights which was only $30 for all of us!  We had some great memories and quite a few laughs.  The beach and dock were beautiful and actually the kids loved the house and want to go back.  But I think I'll save-up all year for a bigger house closer to the beach next summer!

Notice the dining table for all of us that only seats 4!  Great for playing cards but not for eating : )