Budget Travel for Sporting Events

Budget Travel for Sports 

Our son is very active in swimming and therefore we travel all over our state.  In order to maintain our budget, we need to be careful when traveling.  All of the hotel(s), meals out, snacks, drinks, etc.  really add up if your not careful. 

Here are a few travel tips for when we travel for swimming:

1- Packing 

Make a master list of what you need and pack extras of key items such as competition suit, googles, towels and caps.  This will help you not to forget items and/or if an item fails to have a back up.  Forgetting a cap will run you about $10.00 but forgetting a suit will cost you between $30-$50.00 depending on what is available. 

2- Lodging Cost

  We are fortunate that my husband earns hotel points from traveling for his job, but if you are not so lucky try lower grade hotels (e.g. Home Suites), comparison shopping, changing credit cards to earn you free nights stays, becoming a reward member for a favored hotel chain, staying at a Camp Ground, Bed and Breakfast or with friends/relatives.

3- Meals

Breakfast
When booking your lodging, try to find one with a complementary breakfast.  If you do not get breakfast as part of your lodging, try bringing some healthy options with you.  We would pack granola bars, fruit, instant oatmeal packets or hard boiled eggs.

Lunch
Pack lunches for the event.  I have brought lunch meat, bread, salad, fruit, drinks etc. in a cooler for the weekend.  When we are at the hotel, we can use the mini-refrigerator that is provided or add ice to our cooler from the ice machine provided by the hotel.

Event Snacks
We pack them- Granola Bars, Apple Sauce Pouches, Slim Jims, Dried fruit, Drinks, etc. DRINKS are very important to pack!  At a swim meet, 1 drink will cost at least $3.00 each.  Wow!   I buy cases of water when they are on sale at the beginning of the summer and keep a case in the back of my car.  In addition, we each have refillable beverage containers. 

Dinner
We look for reasonable places to eat out.  Pizza is usually a favorite spot.  Sometimes, we will go to a grocery story and see what items they have in their already prepared section such as a roasted chicken, deli salads, etc. In addition, we look for gift cards that are discounted prior to going on our trip.

4. Gas

We use our GasBuddy, when it getting close to filling up time to check out where the best prices are.  In addition, we generally know where to look for the best prices in our state.  We keep careful records from previous trips so that we can strategies for the next trip.

5.  Activities

We have already spent the time, energy, and money to travel to different spots in our state, so we look for fun, cheap or free activities for the weekends when we there.  We have gained a lot of experiences for little added cash.