There Is No Such Thing As A Free Vacation

Last week we took our FREE vacation to Legoland. You may remember that I won it off the radio earlier this year. And while it wasn't completely FREE, it came pretty close.

First: Gasoline

I had a free $100 gift card for gas. We ended up spending about $120.00. So my final gasoline cost was $20. Pretty good.

Second: TOLL ROADS! We have never been to Carlsbad before, so we relied on Eric's phone GPS to get us there. And in doing so it took us on 2 toll roads,  2 miles apart from one another. Total cost $6.00 (not much, but still maddening nonetheless)!

Third: Our first night we stayed at the La Quinta. Eric always tries to stay at a La Quinta whenever he goes out of town so we earn points towards free nights. He had about 19,000 points earned. It seems like a fairly large number, and he has stayed for what seems like a huge amount of nights at La Quinta, however, did you know a hotel in Southern California will run you 15,000 points a night?!!!  And....at this particular La Quinta, you have to pay an upgrade fee of $10.00 if you want queen beds. Lame. But still a big savings. A room on a Thursday night would have normally cost us $95.80 (with taxes and fees), but we paid $12.25! Woot-Woot! (And he is currently out of town, staying at a La Quinta, so just think, in one more year we just MAY have enough points for another free room).

But best thing about staying at the La Quinta (other than the beds being really comfortable) is that you get FREE breakfast.

Bonus. And major savings!!

Fourth: Our second day we moved from the La Quinta to the Sheraton. It is kind of like always wearing clothes from Target, and then starting to wear those from Neiman Marcus. It was nice! Like resort for rich people nice.

Sade and Jackson on the balcony:

On the dates we stayed it would have cost us $600.00 (with taxes and resort fees) for the 2 nights. Plus $24.00 in parking. But for us it was FREE!!! However, nice resorts don't have things like free breakfast, free microwaves, and free water bottles, so La Quinta wins on those categories.

Fifth: LEGOLAND tickets! We received 4 free 2-day passes to Legoland, the waterpark, and the aquarium.

Total amount of 4 free park hopper tickets: $396!!! However, since we are a family of 5, I had to buy Sadie a child's ticket from Costco that cost me $70.00.

Sixth: Food and souvenirs from Legoland. Normally I would refuse to buy and food or souvenirs at Legoland, due to the extreme fleecing they inflict. However we had a FREE $100 Legoland gift card, so we ate lunch there both days, had ice cream, and bought a couple of small souvenirs. Total cost: $4.00 (we went over the $100 while having our second round of ice cream cones).

Seventh (AND MOST EXPENSIVE ASPECT OF OUR TRIP): Eating Out. Now I was fairly good on this trip, and brought multiple snacks, along with breakfast supplies for both days we were at the Sheraton. But we had to stop in Riverside to eat at Spaghetti Factory:

It used to be our favorite place to eat, but now Eric and I find it rather blah. But we also at at BJ's, which was enjoyable, Panda Express and Wendys (one our way home). Not bad, but still at a cost of $149.00. By the way, Wendys in California is hella more expensive than Wendys in Nevada. Seriously.

Anyway.....Now for the totals:

Total amount spent (gas, toll roads, La Quinta, Sadie's Legoland ticket, ice cream, food): $261.25

Total Amount Of Free Stuff (gas card, La Quinta, Sheraton, parking, Legoland tickets, Legoland gift card):

$1315.80!!!

Woo-Hoo!