No typos there. We are living it up on this road trip courtesy of Mama Butterfield! My mom is a rock star & decided to be our food & souvenir sponsor on the trip. She has given me $500 buckaroos to divide between the 4 of us. That’s $125 each for FIVE days. My head is spinning. We’ll document what we spend our money on during the trip & let you decide who got the biggest bang for their buck.
We do have a few rules:
We can only shop locally. No big box stores allowed. Farmers Markets, fruit stands, local mom and pop-type places only.
Anyone can attempt to increase their budget by singing or dancing on the street.
We also have some official snack and drink trip sponsors who are totally awesome. Clif Bar sent us TEN cases of Clif bars to snack on. How cool are they? And Mamma Chia is our latest drink obsession. We tried their original chia seed drinks at the Mother Earth News Fair and couldn’t stop drinking it. Their drinks are so yumalicious. So they stocked us full of drinks to power us along the way! We’ll be sharing the love with products and coupons from both companies along the way.
But those snacks/drinks aside, that $125 is all we have to spend. Here’s how I think this is going to play out:
The Girl: She’ll save every last penny she can. I suspect she ends up only spending a few dollars here and there and saving the rest. She’s a teenager after all. There are so many cooler things to buy with that $125 than food. I’d put money on her walking away with the most money left in her pocket.
Joey and Amberlina: These girls are both foodies. They LOVE food. It’s almost a spiritual experience for them. So it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see them blow every last penny on some gourmet cuisine. There is a real possibility that Joey goes crazy at Dollywood and blows her entire budget on big blonde wigs, and Amberlina feels so guilty for ditching her troublemaker kids, she spends all $125 on fancy souvenirs for them. Then they both live on crackers and water all 5 days.
Mavis: $125 for 5 days is Blowing. My. Mind. One of two things will happen. After almost 2 years on such a strict budget, I’ll go hog wild and buy everything in sight and spend all my money by tonight. Or I’ll revert to frugal Mavis and spend virtually nothing.
Stay tuned to find out what happens!
jill says
Free money?!!!!! I would spend every single penny. No guilt, no shame!!! So looking forward to following along on your trip.
blessings, jill
Laura says
I agree! Spend it! After all, it is “only” $25 per day! That’s easy to spend on a vacation. Souvenirs and nice lunches/dinners. A nice meal in a fresh veggie restaurant isn’t cheap. The closer the restaurant kitchen is to the garden, the fresher the produce (as well as the fish or beef) the more expensive the meal!
Enjoy the money! Never mind who gets the most value for it, that takes away the fun!
Nancy says
My teenager pretty much lives on Clif bars and water anyway, so she’d be in heaven!
Helen in Meridian says
Butter…you can load your suitcase full of butter after you gnome St. Judes.
Heather says
Well MAvis- you’ll be fine until you see Panera… however you could save all your money and then go to Panera when you get home!!!
Leanna says
If you were traveling through New York I would tell you to stop by for a meal – and wouldn’t charge you anything for it. My guess is you have readers along the way who would love to do the same. As for souvenirs – watch out for the ‘made in china’ kind that sit on the shelf and collect dust for a few years, and then become yard sale junk. Pictures are my favorite souvenir because they stir the memory for years!
Helen in Meridian says
Tell Amberlina that she can buy an American Girl doll with her food budget, while chewing on jerky she probably brought along.