Jon and I have decided that we will not be taking our annual family beach vacation this summer. Given the state of the economy, and the fact that I make my living in the most fragile of fragile industries – media – we’ve decided that any money we would spend on the beach trip would better serve us in savings.
I’ve already taken a 5% paycut in recent months (company-wide, and I was happy to do it if it helped prevent someone else from losing a job, but still – not fun for us) Also, our house really does need some urgent repairs for which we need to save up.
All in all, just not a year in which we could justify taking any sort of real vacation.
The older kids will still have some great stuff happening this summer – camps and family visits and such – and C is too little to notice whether she hits the beach or not, so I think we’ll still manage a lovely time in the coming months. But yeah, no beach this year. In fact, we are going to try to cut back in several areas of disposable spending in order to pump up rainy day cashflow. (A lot of families seem to be having rainy days lately. It could happen to us, too)
And as much as I know that this is the responsible decision, I sure will miss getting away to South Carolina this year.
5 Responses to “It will be a staycation for us this year”
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Well…if you need some shoreline, and don’t mind a little coal ash, we’ve got some beautiful lakes to turn to!! (Did that sound bitter? Can you tell I’m struggling with a staycation decision too?)
My neighbors just spent the weekend in Chattanooga doing the fun things and they stayed at a motel with a pool. The kids had a ball and when asked what their favorite thing was about the trip, they all said, “the pool”!
There are fun places to go around here for a weekend mini-trip that will not cost near what a week at the beach would.
Wish I could say, “hey, come stay with us in Pawley’s.” But since we haven’t been able to sell, we haven’t been able to buy… maybe next summer…
Here’s some perspective Katie:
–No Grandparents pay for our childrens private school tuition (nor would we ask). We live in one of the worst metro areas for public schools. We currently pay for private preschool and will continue to pay for any education.
–I have a M.S. in Journalism, husband has B.A. in Accounting, both of us are employed in stable companies.
–Neither of us have had a vacation since 2006. Neither of us have seen the ocean since 2003.
Cheers!
A staycation in Knoxville at C’s age and with her need for a solid sleep schedule, might be more fun than driving all the way to SC.
We did this one year and discovered things to do in Knoxville that we never knew existed. The only danger is that you won’t really ‘vacation’ but work on your house or something. Be sure to leave the house every morning with a destination in mind and maybe a picnic lunch, and it can be really fun. You will also be putting your vacation dollars in the local economy.
I have never been to Ivan Racheff gardens and always meant to go on a weekday when I was off work. Check it out.