Thanks for the ideas everyone!

Good luck at the card table, oxy. My idea of playing cards involves Go Fish so that $35 would not hold me for long. lol And using family connections is so not cheating. When we went to Disney last year, the hotel stay was free because my brother had so many Hilton Honors points that we shared an awesome 2 bdrm suite with his family. Love those family connections!

Heremeaj - we love Our State. My father gives it to us as a gift every December and we really enjoy all the NC locations they profile. I love your idea of taking day trips based on their articles!

KLW - you know I am a grouponaholic so I love your idea about using the daily deals sites!

Marybeth - Your scavenger hunts sound fun. I am sure the kids will love their Hawaiian hula adventure!

Oh, I should add that my husband has included gambling in our vacation. Knowing full well that I cringe at the thought of blowing money at a poker table, we're entering a tournament. For $35 we get to play til we're out of chips, and out of the tourny. He'll get his gambling fix, and test his theory that I might actually be dangerous (to other players) at a card table, without risking losing our shirts. $35 each is more than I want to spend on what could be less than half a day's entertainment, but if you view it as entertainment, it's a relatively safe and cheap way to play poker, and it might be a really good time. Might not. I'll let you know when we get back. :D

I cheat. :P

My sister works for Marriot. My hubby and I are going away, and at $39 a night in one of the country's biggest cities, that's not bad. I'm double dipping too, because Marriot is a Upromise company, so I'll be earning 2% of the cost of my stay back. So wrong, and yet so very right at the same time.

I second the daily deals sites. My hubby's been watching them for weeks in anticipation, and one of the attractions he had on our tentative agenda came up on Groupon, and we scored tickets for 55% off, which now moves it from the "may do" column to the "will do" column, since it's paid for, but that's OK.

We've also been trolling for coupon deals at the websites of the attractions we're interested in, and have printed off several to use to save a couple bucks here and there should we decide to hit a particular event.

We're going tropical, so he's decided that we should shop for clothes when we get there, and added several thrift shops to our itinerary. He learns.

Check out restaurant.com which is a great source for discounted restaurant gift certificates. You can pull up participating restaurants in your destination city and purchase the gift certificates at next to nothing. If you sign up on the website you will receive e-mail notification of sales (which seem to run every other week and you can often get $25 gift certificates for $2). They would be great hostess gifts too, for whoever you are visiting with, or you can treat your hosts to an evening out while you're there. You can also sign up in advance on groupon.com or livingsocial.com for the city you are going to, and you'll receive notifications of deals for things to do there. Then just print the certificate that you purchased and you're on your way to fun for less money!

We use the "Our State" magazine articles and once a month we pick a place from the srticles and take a day trip there. Great places to eat, small town charm and things we would never have known we were missing are all just a drive away.

I take mini daycations with the kids all of the time. We just pack a lunch and drive until we see something we might like. I will just call out a childs name and they choose left or right. My favorite time was when we came upon a huge patch of trees that were so tall that the kids could throw footballs to each other under them. It was probably someones property ... but it was fun ;) Not gas efficient but it is definately an adventure! We do at least one fauxcation each summer too! This includes dressing up and doing a scavenger hunt! Pirate maps are always a hit. I have a Hawiian trip planned this year. Whoever finds the Golden Tiki will be king or queen for the week!

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