Vacation Spending

My family and I are on vacation in the western part of NC this week.  We love to ski, and skiing is very expensive, there are a few ways to save a few bucks on this wonderful sport though:

• Clothing - we buy our ski bibs, goggles, etc at yardsales through out the year.  The boys have bibs that cost $1 each and they worked fine.  We also have hand me down coats that fit well (thank you snippity!), and we purchased new waterproof ski mittens out of the 'sale box' at the local ski shop here for $13.
• Ski Days - go during the week, because the weekends are usually marked up $10-$15 dollars per person per day, ditto for the night skiing - opt to sleep instead. 
• Food - the resorts generally have lockers you can rent for .75-$1.50 each, so rent 2, put your shoes, etc in one and pack a lunch cooler to put in the other because a bottled soda is $2.25, a cheeseburger is $5, a grilled cheese is $3.50 and French fries are $3.50.  It's cheaper to pack the cooler and pay for the locker a couple of times if you need to go into it more than once than to even buy one soda!!!
• Purchase ahead - if you have a set week you go on vacation, many resorts will offer discounts for buying your tickets at least 2 weeks ahead
• Special discounts - the resort we ski at offers family value packages for skiing, and they also give you 50%-100% off of a child's lift ticket if you bring your receipt or proof of rental for hotel/condo locally

That's all I have for today - please enjoy your favorite sports, but don't go broke doing it!!  Plan ahead and save your hard earned money for other things, like more sports!