Nightlife / Stephanie Depasquale

Have you gone on a staycation?

By Stephanie De Pasquale | Saturday, September 06, 2008 | () comments

I was on vacation last week, but instead of going to some far-off place and spending tons of money, I went to my grandparents’ cabin in Wisconsin.

The weather was great, which is about as much as you can ask for, and I had a good time spending a week with family on a lake.

Another good part was that all I had to pay for was the gas to get there. The cabin is already paid for, and my grandparents just spend their summers up there now that they’re retired. We also cooked all our own food, so there weren’t any huge dinner bills from eating out every night.

With the rising cost of just about everything these days, the Quad-City Times has been publishing two series on how to save money and still have a life. The series are “Make Change,” which profiles Quad-Citians who are doing various things to tighten their budgets, and “Wandering with Wundram,” in which our master columnist, Bill Wundram, showcases vacation destinations close to home. I also write a regular feature in the Go&Do section on places in the Quad-City area where you can have a meal out for $10 or less.

I’m not sure whether my trip qualifies as a staycation because I did drive seven hours to get there, but it definitely was a low-cost vacation. What have you all done to still enjoy your hard-earned days off without breaking the bank? And what other changes are you making to help your dollars go further?

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.