Frugal Friday - A Washington D.C. Vacation

My Frugal Friday Tip: With free admission to some of the best museums in the country, Washington D.C. is a great, frugal, vacation filled with rich history, beauty and culture.

Other Tips and Considerations

Off Season. We love to travel in October. You still get lots of sunny, warm days that make being outside a joy, but yet most of the tourist crowd has fled back to their wintertime routine. From Boston to D.C. and beyond, you can’t beat off season rates. Do some Googling or check your AAA Tour Books for more information about each attraction.

Travel. Unless you live in California, Turkey or Fargo, Washington is, at most, a long day’s drive for most of the East Coast. If you scout travel websites and sign up for special promotions, you’re likely to find great deals on flights. When comparing travel costs, remember it’s 50¢ a mile to drive. With the right deal, sometimes flying is cheaper. Check which hotels have shuttles into Washington so you can save on the cost of a rental car.

Lodging. Unless you are blessed to have relatives who live nearby and you can bunk with, staying on the outskirts of town in places like Chantilly, Virginia, makes for great savings on hotel prices. The commute into D.C. from places like Chantilly is only about 20 minutes with no traffic. Plan to go early, around 7am-ish and stay late, after 7pm, to avoid backup traffic. Or leave around 3:30ish to avoid the rush and enjoy a nice night back at your hotel’s pool. Because everything closes at 5:00pm, traffic is the heaviest starting around 5:15. We know. We got caught in it. e’hem.

With our larger family and budget, finding a place where we could all stay in the same room was essential. Rich called around to numerous hotels and most only allow four in a room. We found and stayed at Comfort Suites, which allows 6 people to a room! It cost us $80 a night with reservations through Expedia. The fridge and microwave in the room, as well as the full continental breakfast and pool, were a big plus.

Parking. After paying $25 for 4 hours of parking when we went to Boston in September, I was shocked to pay $12 for all day parking at an underground lot on Pennsylvania Avenue, which is a short walk from everything. There are several underground parking lots right near the downtown area. You can walk to most of the attractions from there.

When we went back Sunday morning for a few hours, we were able to take advantage of the free 2 and 3 hour parking right on The National Mall. Those spaces fill up very quickly, so remember that the early bird catches the worm.

Food. We have saved thousands by bringing our own on our various travels and adventures. Bringing your own takes less time than waiting for your meal at a restaurant, but you just have be smart and prepare ahead of time.

When it comes to bringing your own food, a thermoelectric cooler is the only way to go. You can plug it into the car or any electrical outlet, either at your campsite or hotel, to keep food cool and safe for weeks. Rich’s parents bought one 6 or 7 years ago. They love it and it is so practical for camping trips and long summer road trips or when you need a cooler, but ice isn’t always available. We stumbled on one a few years back for next to nothing. We love ours too! It goes with us on all of our trips. If that type of cooler doesn't interest you, a 5 day cooler might be best.

What to bring? For breakfast, a gallon of milk stashed in the cooler with some fruit and a couple boxes of cereal will do you. For lunch and supper, sandwiches are king. Add a couple bags of pretzels or chips, cut up vegetables with dip, fruit and nuts with a 5 gallon thermos of real lemonade, and a man can survive quite well anywhere. Just make sure to bring several different types of fillings. I know from experience that 3 straight days of turkey sandwiches makes one a little crazy. It seemed like a good idea at home... And don’t forget to toss in a couple jugs of water. Bottled on site is always outrageous and the drinking fountains in D.C. taste like mud. Which I suppose is better than chlorine. hmm…

To keep sandwiches from going nasty, I only put mayo and meat on the bread, put them together and place them back in the bread bag they came from. Most times I will usually splurge and purchase several pounds of lunchmeat for a trip, but I also use leftover roasts and poultry. I also often purchase several loaves of bread too. It’s easier to pack and more uniform.

For the other fixings, I wash and dry the lettuce and put it in its own Ziploc. I peel and slice cucumbers and place them in their own bag. I do the same for tomatoes and any other sandwich fixings we will use. When it comes time to eat, I pull out a sandwich and fill it with veggies. When you make sandwiches this way, they are always fresh. I do all of the veggie prep work at home, but I only make four meals worth of meat sandwiches ahead of time. PBJ, two meals. More than that and the bread starts to deteriorate.

To keep PBJ sandwiches from going squishy, lightly cost BOTH slices of bread with peanut butter and then apply the jelly. The PB coating keeps the jelly from soaking into the bread.

For chicken or egg salad, make the salad ahead of time and apply it to the bread at meal time.

I’m sure there are many more frugal ways to take advantage of a trip to Washington, D.C., but this is what we’ve done as a family and it’s a great start! What tips can you share?

P.S. All the photos are from our recent visit to Washington. You can click on them to enlarge. From top to bottom: the kids and I in front of the Washington Monument; looking up the Washington Monument; Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz on display at the Aerospace Museum; at the Lincoln Memorial; minerals from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History; Mary Todd Lincoln's ball gown; and the foyer of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

P.S.S. Don't forget to visit Biblical Womanhood for more Frugal Friday tips!