With Spring Break quickly approaching finding something to do with the children can be a task especially if your a single mother. This year I wanted to focus on spending a more meaningful time with my children and do more to take advantage of a free week in this amazing city of Atlanta that sits in a perfect spot in between South Carolina and Florida.
So I set myself up with a task of finding just that perfect thing to do that would not only shape them and be formative in their experience but was also agreeable with my current financial situation. Below you will find my simple but profound list of five things me and my children have experienced during the week of Spring Break at one time or another my prayer is that they will remember these times as adults and cherish as part of the cool experience of growing up with a single mother. Now, off I go to enjoy Spring break with my four beautiful children without breaking the bank.
1. Volunteer Your Time
As cliche’ as this may sound it really does pay off but “Volunteer your time” is the number one way to have a meaningful experience with your children. In today’s economy all companies are looking for volunteers and if you hit the right place you may even get to enjoy some free activities. Over the Christmas vacation I found this wonderful organization called Hands on Atlanta which is one of the largest community-based volunteer service organization in the United States. You can register for all kinds of events ranging from NBA basketball games, the Circus, food tasting and the list goes on and on. Once you sign up for an event you not only have the opportunity to volunteer and share that experience with your children you also get to join in the festivities for FREE what single mother can beat that?
2. Go Back to Basics
Go back to the basics. The world has become a busy place filled with technology and appointments we have forgotten about how we grew up. We grew up playing outside, going to the parks and enjoying the great outdoors. Buy some water guns, balloons and grab your children and burn that energy outside show them that we don’t need a lot of money to bring a little happiness to the scene.
3. Buy a City Pass
The most affordable way to see some of the top attractions in the city is to buy a city pass. City pass, is the original attractions discount provider, it allows you to see a variety of Atlanta (or other major city) within nine days at 40-70% discount. You even have the opportunity to skip the long lines something my kids fine to be really cool. Here is the link to the CityPass website: CityPass.com
4. Spend the day at the Beach
Atlanta is nestled right in between some of the World’s best beaches in either direction. Grab yourself a picnic basket, some Dollar Tree floats, a blanket and your wonderful kids, gas up the car and drive. I always try to leave in the middle of the night to give myself some mommy time before I encounter a day of fun in the sun. Your home may be near several beaches or attractions within driving distance. Get out, explore, and be pleasantly surprised at what you discover right in your own backyard.
5. Turn Your Home into a Vacation Spot
One of my favorite things to do sometimes is to just stay and enjoy my home one spring break me and the kids decided to just stay home for the week and then they came up with the great idea of turning our home into a vacation spot. Every day of the week one of my children took turns and gave us their version of one of the places they like to visit. My house went from Mexico to Spain in one week. My children decorated and even cooked, my oldest children tried their very best to make me some non alcoholic fruity beverage and we took pictures just like we were away. That was one on of our best Spring Breaks and I am looking forward to it this Spring Break.
Whatever you and your family decides to do for your Spring Break just remember it’s not about where you go or what you do its about that bonding time and giving your children that moment that they will cherish forever.
This year we went to Savannah and Tybee Island Georgia for Spring Break 2013. The drive from Atlanta was about 4 hours and the weather was great. We didn’t spend much time in Savannah because we wanted to get to Tybee Island to see the light house.
The lighthouse was closed when we got there but we still got to see it and the house in front. It was our first time every seeing a lighthouse so it was pretty cool.
The beach was nearby so we walked over to hang out for a while. The water was very cold of course but that didn’t stop my daughter from checking it out.
I got a few shots of the beach.
Kids on the beach
and the lighthouse in the distance.
After a long day we checked into the Springhill Suites for a restful night. We fell in love with this hotel. It was a little more than I normally spend but it was worth every penny. The only two issues were the strong smell of bleach in the lobby and the water pressure was not that good but otherwise everything was great.
We ate at Houlihan’s that was right next to the hotel. It was kind of late so I had the baked potato soup, my daughter has grilled salmon and mashed potatoes, and my son had his standard burger and fries. Everything was delicious and I highly recommend it.
Sorry no pictures of the food. It was so good I forgot…
Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.
Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.
She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.
After much deliberation, weather checking, and mind changing, I’ve finally decided where the kids and I are going for Spring Break 2013. We are hitting the Georgia Coastline for a little fun in the sun. We are going to do a driving tour down the coast from Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL.
Why the Georgia Coastline?
Because I’ve never been there even though I’m a Georgia native. It’s really ashamed because everyone says I should go to see it. I’ve heard of Jekyll Island my entire life but never got there. So I’m correcting this and going next week.
It will be a 4-day excursion to several points along the coast.
Initially, I wanted to go to Universal Studios in Orlando, FL because I’ve never been there, but I didn’t want to drive down and it’s not exactly original. Next I thought about hopping a plane to a new destination, but I didn’t find flights or prices that I liked. I thought about going to Chattanooga, TN to visit the Chattanooga Choo-choo hotel and Lookout Mountain, but the weather forecast called for rain all week. That would not make a very good Spring break. So I went to Weather.com to check out the regional weather and found out that the Georgia Coastline is supposed to be really nice during our break. Excellent!
Planning the Trip
I needed to decide exactly were we would go along the coast and what we would see. I went to the exploregeorgia.com website to find information about the Georgia coast and things to do there. It was pretty general with a few suggestions and Georgia Coast itineraries but it was mostly for adults. Not exactly want I was looking for. I found a website that had pretty extensive detail about the Georgia Coastline that gave me a good idea about what could work for our needs.
I went to the AAA website to plan my trip. I was able to chart my course to see how long it will take to go from Atlanta to Savannah to Jacksonville. It’s 5-hour trip driving non-stop but we will make several stops to see the islands off the coast, go to the beach, and check out a few museums and historic places.
The AAA TripTik app is a great travel planning tool that lets me plot out points of interests and add to my itinerary. Here is a sample of that it looks like below.
Planning my trip from start to finish using AAA TripTik
It looks like a lot going on but it’s about choosing what I wanted shown on the map. Then I hovered over the map to see what points of interest I wanted. The pop-up bubble showed a summary, details, and reviews from Trip Advisor (which I thought was really cool. Next I clicked Add to Itinerary to include it in my trip.
Finally I saved my trip. Below is a summary of my itinerary with all the stops I plan to make. I used the AAA mobile app to see my trip and get the directions on my phone.
To get the TripTik on my mobile phone I had to enter the ID. Here is a visual of the mobile phone view of my itinerary:
Then I downloaded my trip…
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I can now see my trip on my phone and follow the directions….Success!!!
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We are almost set now that the trip planning is done. Now I have to decide what hotels we will stay in. The choice is between a standard chain hotel or a quaint bed and breakfast.
I’ll let you know what I come up with in the next post.
Where are you planning to go for Spring Break 2013? Do you think you will use any trip planning tools? Have you used any in the past?
Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.
Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.
She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.
In post one of this series on getting to Disney on a Single Mom Budget I shared how I planned in advance to buy the park hopper tickets and book our flight. In part two I shared how I researched and found our hotel at Downtown Disney for about $25 per night. Now I’ll share how we were able to get to the parks and other attractions using Disney Transportation.
Our transportation needs were met through using shuttle buses. When we landed in Orlando we took the Mears shuttle to our hotel in Downtown Disney. I paid for round trip tickets for the both of us. They would pick us up and drop us off at the airport for an affordable price. The driver was friendly and very helpful as well.
When we got to our hotel we found out the Disney Transportation schedule. The good thing about it was the Disney buses came like clockwork. We never had to wait longer than 15 minutes for the bus. Another great thing is the busses took us between the parks as well. So when we left Magic Kingdom we could take the bus to Animal Kingdom. Having the park hopper tickets made it easy to visit the parks we wanted to see.
Tip: If you plan to fly into MCO-Orlando, book a roundtrip shuttle in advance. There are several companies that run from the airport to Disney. I used Mears and could book online. You don’t have to worry about rental cars, parking fees, or navigating through traffic. Use the Disney bus system to get where you want to go.
Summary
When I went to Disney World with my daughter in 2004 I was able to get some good deals and have a really great time. But while I was there I looked at the luxury hotels and wished I had saved a little more money to splurge.
The trip was virtually worry and stress-free though. I didn’t have to worry about driving because we flew. I didn’t have to worry about transportation because the bus picked us up from the airport and we had shuttle service to the parks.
I got multi-day passes at a discount at the military installation where I worked so we could visit the parks as often as we wanted to. Food was no problem because my daughter ate free and I didn’t eat much anyway. In short it was a very good trip because I was able to pay for all the things I wanted.
But if I had saved for a year or two the trip would have been even better. So save up your pennies, make extra money by selling stuff you don’t need, do freelance work, and look for discounts. You can have the trip of a lifetime because you planned for it in advance.
Another tip is to pay for things over time. Buy the plane ticket months in advance when you have the money.
Reserve the room and send the money when you have the right amount.
Simply take each element of the trip and pay as you go so by the time the day comes you will have very little to worry about financially except spending money.
Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.
Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.
She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.
In part 1 of the Disney on a Single Mom Budget post I shared how I took my daughter to Disney World on a pretty tight budget. I bought the tickets first at a discount and purchased the plan tickets well in advance to get a discount. In this post I share how I got our hotel for around $25 per night.
After I bought the airline tickets I began looking for hotels that were either on the Disney property or close to it. I didn’t want to worry about getting to the parks and I didn’t want to rent a car and have to pay for parking.
Research is the Key to Getting the Best Deals
I researched hotels that were outside of Disney first. They were cheaper but I felt it would be too much of a hassle to get into the park each day. I decided I wanted to say on Disney property so I researched their cheapests resorts. They were still way out of my budget even though it would be easy to get around the parks. I just couldn’t swing it.
Use Bidding Sites to Find Good Deals
But I got a tip from MouseSavers.com and a couple of forums to check out the hotels in Downtown Disney. They weren’t technically Disney-owned properties but they were serviced by the Disney shuttle system. I put on my thinking cap and researched all the hotels in Downtown Disney then I went to Hotwire.com to see if I could find a nice hotel that was in my budget. I found one that worked but before I booked it I did even more research.
I went to BetterBidding.com and checked the forum for bids that were won. They describe the property a person is considering and reveal the name of the hotel. I found out the name of the property I had my eye on and went to the website. It was the Holiday Inn resort hotel. They had good ratings, was in Downtown Disney, and kids could eat for free. Score!!!! I booked the hotel for three nights at $25 per night.
It was a pretty decent hotel. Not necessarily top of the line but it was good for us. My daughter ate for free at breakfast and dinner and we ate at the park for lunch.
Tip: Book your hotel through Hotwire or other travel bidding site if your money is tight. You can find out what the property is at BetterBidding.com or similar site. You may find a 3-5 star hotel for rock bottom prices.
In the next part I’ll share how I got around Disney for free!
Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.
Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.
She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.
With all the recent posts about my Disney trip I decided to post about how I took my daughter a few years ago for less than $1,000. I hope it helps you plan a trip for you and your kids too. Now is the time to start planning and paying your way to Disney. You won’t regret it.
In 2004 my daughter and I took a trip to Disney World. I had just graduated from college and gave myself this gift to reward myself for all the hard work. It was also an opportunity to take my daughter to Disney World for the first time.
I planned the trip a few months ahead of time but didn’t go all out like I see many families do. I was a college student, a mom, and a part-time intern. My money at the time would only stretch so far. But I made it work by using my research skills to sniff out deals.
Planning a trip to Disney typically starts at around $1,500. I didn’t have that kind of money to spend so I scoured the Disney websites and boards to get tips on how to get there with less than $1,000. I needed airfare for me and my daughter, a nice place to stay, food and transportation. I also needed tickets to the parks.
How to Get Discount Disney Park Hopper Tickets
The first thing I did was buy the park tickets. I worked on a military base at the time so I had access to their discount tickets because I was a government employee. I could buy park hopper tickets at a discount of about 35% or so. My daughter’s ticket was less because I could get the child rate. The tickets didn’t have an expiration date on them so I could go at any time I could schedule the trip. That was important and gave me a lot of flexibility.
Tip: If you work on a military base get your Disney tickets from MWR office. If you know someone who works on a military base or government facility ask them to purchase tickets for you.
Plan in Advance to Get Cheap Airline Tickets to Disney
The next thing I did was look for airline tickets. The earlier I booked them the cheaper they were. This was during the time when airfare was a lot less expensive. If I remember correctly, I was able to purchase round-trip tickets for about $150 or less each. So that was about $300 for our tickets to fly to Orlando, Florida.
Tip: Plan your trip at least three months ahead of time and buy your airline tickets weeks in advance. You will get a much better price at least two weeks in advance. You can try bidding sites as well but your mileage may vary.
In the next post I’ll share how I found a hotel on Disney Property for only $25  per night!
Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.
Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.
She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.
Hi! Welcome to RichSingleMomma.com. I started this website almost a decade ago because I couldn't find any blogs back then that helped single moms with money. I was having some success in that area so I decided to share what I knew about side hustles, making extra money, and managing money. Read more...
