TIP: Want Good Cheap Fun? Try Camping

Last weekend I went camping for the first time in 25 years. We decided on camping because it's so affordable. I certainly had my concerns about rain, bugs, bathrooms, bugs, showers, bugs, snakes. Did I mention bugs?

I wanted to go because my daughter, who turned 13 this year, has never had the experience of sleeping in a tent. I spent many weekends camping with my family as a kid and they're some of the best memories I have. Campfires, hiking in the woods, the stars at night.

The campsite in Slade, Kentucky, was $15 per night including electricity and water. The cost of gas was $100. I bought some camping equipment - $100 for cots (well worth the money and I'll use them for my daughter's sleepovers), and $16 for old pots, pans and utensils at the Goodwill store. The biggest expense was food, but I would've spent money on food if I had been home anyway. I brought the dog along, so I saved on the cost of a kennel.

We had a great time. The hiking was fantastic...the campsite was shady and beautiful with big tall trees and a little creek running behind our tent. We slept to the sound of crickets and trickling water. It was a lot of work, but it was SO relaxing. At night I got up to walk the dog and the sky was amazing...hundreds of big, bright stars in the black sky. Gorgeous. And while I usually feel like summer is passing me by while I look out the window of my office each summer, I feel like I've already had a chance to really enjoy summer, and it's not even the Fourth of July - the half-way mark.

My fears were about the heat and the bugs and the rain. The heat wasn't too bad because we had a shady campsite. Sure, it was hot but we were dressed for it. Yes I had lovely "camping hair" for four days, but who cares? The bugs weren't bad, maybe because we used some bug spray, but not excessively. I came home with more bug bites on my trip to Puerto Vallarta where I stayed in a resort!

It did rain one night. That stunk. That's the thing about camping. You have extremes - moments when you love camping and moments when you're asking yourself why you ever dreamed about such a crazy activity. For me, the good aspects outweighed the bad this trip.



Here's what I spent:
Campsite for 4 nights: $60
Gas roundtrip: $100
Gear: $116 (reusable for next time!)
Food: $150 (I would've spent this at home)
Ice, firewood: $15
TOTAL: $381
REAL COST: $160 (excluding the gear and food)

TIP: Reduce Gas Consumption part 2

TIP: With so many people planning road trip vacations this summer, we're offering some money saving tips for reducing your gas consumption this summer, according to The Daily Green. This is Part Two of our series on saving money by changing your driving habits. You can get better gas mileage just by changing your driving habits. Here are two things you can do to save on gas:

1) Don't put luggage on top of the car. When you pile the luggage on top of your car in your roof-top carrier, you increase the air resistance and thus the gas mileage by 21% in tests conducted by Edmunds.

2) Pack light. Your gas consumption increases for every additional 100 lbs of weight. So lighten up!

TIP: Great American and Key Lime Cove make great mini vacation

If a family vacation is out of financially out of reach for you this year, check out the waterpark resorts right here in Illinois. For the price of your room, you get admission to the waterpark. Usually you can use the waterpark from check-in time until the evening of the day you check out. No worries about the weather, either, most are indoors.


One of our accounting staff, Sarah K., visited Key Lime Cove in Gurnee with her family last fall. Here's what she had to say:

"My husband, son, and I went there last November for the grand opening and
had a lot of fun. The rooms were spacious, clean, and having a fridge in
the room is always a plus. One thing I suggest to anyone going there is to
bring light clothing, such as shorts, and short sleeved shirts as it is very
warm in there. While we were eating dinner, a man on stilts came through
the restaurant – that was pretty cool. They also had a live band while we
were eating dinner. It’s an indoor paradise….very well decorated and lots
to do with the arcade and water park. We are planning on going back later
in the year with some extended family."

Pair your Key Lime Cove stay with some discount tickets to Six Flags Great America and you've got a mini-vacation. Hawthorne is selling discounted tickets to Six Flags at a $24 savings off the gate price and $2.50 cheaper than the online ticket price. Key Lime Cove is running a special now through June - get the details.

Vacation on the cheap this summer

Camping is likely to increase in popularity this year as consumers seek inexpensive ways to vacation with the kids. When I was growing up my folks couldn't afford a hotel vacation so we spent a lot of time tent camping. Some of my best memories are from our camping days and I have a great appreciation for the outdoors and for nature because of it. Tent campsites cost around $20 a night. What's your favorite place to camp?

Have you ever taken a volunteer vacation? I'd love to hear your experience. It's an intriguing idea presented today by the Daily Green. You volunteer to help out and you get free lodging and meals. You can bring older kids to many of them, too. Provide your own transportation and you've got a really inexpensive vacation and probably life-changing experiences too.

Teaching Your Kids Savings Tips Along the Way

Certainly, summer is the time for vacations, travel, family adventures and a savings tip or two for the kids along the way.

We just got back for a short trip to Naples, Florida a couple of weeks ago, (yes, if you are wondering, it was very hot) and just like after every other vacation, when we got home I wondered where did all of our money go. Between the airfare, the car and dinning out all time, we ended up spending more than I had planned on. The next time we go on vacation, I’ve promised myself that we will save in advance by opening a Vacation Savings Account at Hawthorne.

One of the vacations savings tips that I have passed on to Zach is to never buy anything in an airport. This conversation started, because on our way through the airport for our departure we walked by the airport book store and he saw the new and last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

He went on to tell me how much he wanted to read the book and that he just had to have it, (he is only six and is not capable of reading the 759 page book, but of course I did not want to tell him that). I explained that you should never buy anything in an airport, because it is always much more expensive. The book in the airport book store was $50.

Once we were sitting down waiting to board the plane, I took out my laptop and we looked on the Walmart web site to find that the book would only cost $17.86 if we bought it there. He could not believe the price difference. After seeing this he said that we would definitely need to wait until we got home (not that he had a choice, but it was nice that he could figure it out on his own).

Since we've been home, I let Zach buy the book at Walmart with some allowance the he has saved up. I also overheard him in his room talking with his friend Joe, a couple of days ago. He was telling him that he should never buy anything in airport because it cost much more than buying the same item in a store. He continued to tell Joe about the Harry Potter book at the airport book store.

It made me feel good to think that some of the life lessons that I am trying to teach him along the way, may actually stick with him. Only time will tell.