Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota

This summer, I wanted to do some fun things with my kids but I did not have very much money. I did some research and decided that something within driving distance would fit our budget. I went onto Priceline, and bid on a hotel room for four nights, five days. I got a three star hotel for $30 a night! I was so excited! I also read and found out that you could get discount Nickelodeon Universe tickets by going to Burger King. That was $5 off an all day wristband! It only cost $25!! Before leaving, we went to Pride of Iowa sandwiches, they have sandwiches for .50! Or you can buy a pound of lunch meat for .99! They also have loaves of bread for .99! I packed two coolers, one with water, juice boxes and pop. The other with sandwiches and lunch meat. My car drove to Bloomington on less than one tank of gas!We checked into the hotel, they put a refridgerator in our room for $10 for the five days we were there. We stayed at the Park Plaza. They had the most incredible pool and hot tub, the water was so warm and nice, even I did not mind getting in the water! While we were in Bloomington, we also drove up to Como Park Zook, the admission is free! Radio Disney was there when we visited! It was so much fun! We also went to Minehaha waterfalls, it is beautiful and free! After 4:00 Valleyfair amusement park has admission for 19.99, it was great, we spent the first couple of hours there at the water park, it closes at 6, so we then enjoyed the rest of the park until closing! We had a five day family vacation for under $500!!!

How to afford a fun family vacation

I have struggled with family vacations. I want to be able to take my family on vacations, but without enough money it only creates stress. Last year, by following several travel websites for deals, I was able to take my family to Walt Disney World in Florida. We get newsletters from Mousesavers.com to find the best deals and where to get the cheapest tickets. We found a vacation home on skyauction.com and we had to pay the $20 fee and $195 for the entire week. Our home was incredible, it had four bedrooms, three bathrooms and our very own pool and hot tub. We purchased our tickets to the Disney Parks, when you bought three day hopper, you got two free. The only downside, was that we went in September and it was incredibly hot.