Finger Lakes Winery Tours

So the family and I had a great time, despite the cold, camping this weekend.

I did a Whrrl story about our first day touring the wineries-so go take a look, you’ll feel as if you were there with us!

I’m not going to kid you-we spent several hundred dollars on wine, and got almost 5 full cases. In case you were wondering, we aren’t heavy drinkers or anything-the last time we bought that much it lasted a couple of years.

We did do several things that were frugal on this trip:

#1-We camped with our camper trailer at a State Park. This was much less expensive than a hotel.

#2-Because we were camping, we cooked our own food. We did not buy a single meal out for the entire 4 day weekend. Not only that, but we brought snacks with us to keep the kiddos occupied. Having looked at the tourist aimed prices at the wineries that did have eating establishments, well, we saved a ton.

#3-Because we were camping we could bring our puppy with us and not have to board her somewhere. Again-big savings.

To really have made this a much less expensive vacation we could have simply done the tastings and not bought the wine. At each winery the tastings ran anywhere from $1 to $3 and you typically sampled between 5 and 8 different wines.

Yankee Bill and I bought wine, but we didn’t crack a single bottle-it all stayed corked to be brought home. So technically we would have had the same fun if we had tasted and not bought at all! It was the act of tasting, comparing notes, thinking about what characteristics we enjoyed in each wine. . . even seeing the various locations and admiring all the labels. Those were what made the vacation.

If money had been tight we could simply have written down the names of the wines we had enjoyed and then bought them, a bottle at a time, at our local wine stores as we wanted them.

Have any of you ever been wine tasting? Do you have any frugal tips?

A Call For Frugal Camping Questions & Tips

Camping-an all American pastime. No offense to those of you from strange far away places, like Canada!*

This coming Monday’s show on Frugal Coast2Coast will be all about camping, both RV & Tent.  Between Lynnae and I we have both of those methods covered (although I won’t tell you which of us does which-you’ll have to wait and see!).  Camping is such a great topic, with so many frugal & budget benefits that I will also be covering it here on the blog as well.

So help me out! What are your best camping tips & tricks? How do you save time & money while having fun? On the flip side-are you new to camping? Leery to try it? What are you biggest camping questions or concerns? We’d love to cover them on the air and here on Frugal Upstate.

Just leave a comment!

*Ok, that’s an inside joke with a good friend who is a Canadian blogger (yes Merlene, I’m talking about you!). She says she always winds up feeling like a second class citizen from a 3rd world country and has taken to calling her homeland “Canukistan” in fun.  So I’m just tweaking her a bit! Love all my international followers, and love the vibrancy & differences we see when we compare different cultures.

Frugal Summer Fun for Kids Part II

Ah summer! There are so many fantastic things for kids can do in the summer.  As I talked about in in Frugal Summer Fun for Kids Part I the backyard can be a wonderful place full of inexpensive fun. . . .

Until it rains and you all are stuck inside for a week.

Or like my sister you live in the south where the weather is over 100 for days on end.

Sometimes you need some exciting activities that take you out of the house, but into the air conditioning!

Read a Book! Take kids of all ages to the library and check out some new books, videos or games.  See what kind of summer reading programs your state offers-just google “summer reading program (state)” and you’ll pull up plenty of information. The one here in NY is always themed for the whole state.  Most of these programs reward children & teens with a prize for books read.  Libraries aren’t the only source of reading programs. Barnes and Noble and Scholastic also have programs.

Watch a Movie.  Of course you can grab a DVD for free from your local library, rent a recent release from your local Redbox or subscribe to Netflix. . . but why not get out of the house, make it an event and enjoy some free air conditioning.  Most cities have a discount or dollar theatre that you could enjoy-but even better are the various FREE movies that are being offered to kids around the country.  Regal Cinemas and AMC Theatres both offer a free summer “movie camp” in select cities (see if they include yours!) and Cinemark offers a “10 Movies for $5″ deal.

Learn Something New. There are lots of national retail establishments that offer free classes for kids during the summer.  Bass Pro Shops are offering a full range of free seminars and classes  in their “Bass Pro Family Summer Camp“.  Apple is offering free apple computer classes this summer (wish I was young enough to take those!).  Micheal’s craft store has “The Knack”-a website designed for family craft fun that also lists their in-store free family events.  Check out your local library, community college or state park for free classes and activities that may be offered. Our library has craft classes for teens & tweens and basic computer classes for all ages. BCC (Broome Community College) offers a full slate of summer continuing education classes such as photography, herbs, gardening, photoshop & yoga. These classes aren’t free, but are reasonably priced and may be just the thing for a bored teen.

Hit the Lanes. Have you heard of the “Kids Bowl Free” program? This was a new one to me. . . You register on the site and kids can bowl 2 free games every day, all summer!  Adults can register and pay a one time fee for an all summer pass so they can play with the kids if they like.  I’m actually really disappointed that there are no bowling alleys near me offering this program.

Go to the Museum. There are many free and inexpensive museums out there.  I may live in a very small town, but within a 30 min drive we have a model train museum, an antique car museum, several art gallery/museums and a science museum.  Most of these have either nominal charges or are free to the public.  Target is sponsoring some free museum days nationally, as does Bank of America (must be a customer)-check and see if there are any in your area! Additionally in more metro areas museums may have free days, either monthly or annually. Do a google search for free museum and your town/city to see what pops up!

Next time (next week) I’ll share with you some fun indoor activities that you can do at home.  You can also read all about my fun outdoor ideas in Frugal Summer Fun for Kids Part I, or listen to all the fun summer ideas that Lynnae and I came up with on our Frugal Coast2Coast show about Summer Fun

Do you guys have any other great inexpensive fun ideas that will take you out of the house in the summer?