The school year is almost over and most of you are probably breathing a collective sigh of relief because you know you are going to get a break from driving kids to extracurricular activities and sporting events. Around these parts, there is no off-season! My son participates in a traveling basketball team when his school team is enjoying their off-season. This means that I am still one busy mom at the end of the school year and during the summer.
Those of you who have children who play sports know that it can become a huge expense. Aside from buying the proper safety equipment and athletic shoes, there is also the cost of traveling to away games, eating out when you are away, and travel expenses that you incur from having to take road trips and stay in hotels during travel tournaments, for those of us on traveling teams as well. Fortunately, I have picked up a few tricks over the years to help us budget during travel tournaments which I would love to share with all of you:
- Bring lots of healthy snacks for road trips and for young athletes to have at the hotel. Buying them at rest stops and while you are out of town can get expensive and, believe me, your kids will require this fuel to keep them energized while you are away from home.
- Browse sports venues by state using Hotels4Teams to find the closest hotels to where the team will be playing. It’s so much more cost efficient to stay as close to the game action as possible so you won’t spend too much money traveling back and forth from the hotel during games.
- Carpool as much as possible. We often will collaborate with other parents on the team to take turns driving to away tournaments in order to save money on gas and tolls every weekend.
Whether you are a team, an athlete, or a fan, there can be many costs associated with taking part in and enjoying travel tournaments during off-season. It’s important to plan ahead and take advantage of money-saving resources like team travel guides that can help your team relax and bond before or after the game. After all, who doesn’t like to win games and save a little money at the same time?
Let’s Discuss: What are some of the ways that you try to budget when it comes to your children participating in sports or travel tournaments?
Disclosure: This sponsored post is part of a blogging campaign in collaboration with Hotels4Teams. All opinions are 100% my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
© 2018, Tough Cookie Mommy. All rights reserved.
I remember struggling to get everyone there and fed when one or two of my kids played a team an hour away. Being on a travel team would have been impossible with so many kids.
With a toddler I don’t have to worry about traveling sports teams but I remember growing up the divide and conquer approach my parents took to get my siblings and I to sports games. We only play recreationally so no over night stays required.
Well the idea of finding the closest hotel using Hotels4Teams is amazing. Taking lots of healthy food along is also an amazing idea. Thanks for this amazing post!
Food is key. Bringing snacks and healthy breakfast options saves money for sure.
Athletes do eat a lot so packing plenty of healthy snacks are always good. My teen’s track team gets a whole pizza to themselves when traveling.
Oh man, not having any downtime would be rough for me. My favorite part of summers is relaxing evening with my kids. No fighting about homework, lots of laughing, games, and interacting. Swimming. I’m sure you have tons of time bonding on the road though.
We homeschool, but my daughter dances during the fall/winter/spring, and is on the swim team which is year round. She currently has swim meets locally, but as she advances, she will have them all around. I’ll have to keep this in mind in the future when we have to travel.
Great tips. Both of my kids were in travel sports and it was so expensive traveling all over Southern California! It was worth it though.
WE haven’t gotten to this point yet as my kids are really little. When I was younger though, I was a swimmer and we traveled for it so much! I know it has to be so important to budget for sports travel!
These sound like some great tips – I can imagine that it can get expensive when you are heading off to all these different tournaments.
It’s tough taking a bunch of kids out of town for tournaments and competitions, we always struggle with finding affordable accommodation for 5-6 kids, I’d have a hell of a time dealing with that many!
Budgeting when traveling is something I always keep in mind! Currently planning my next trip and these tips are very handy.
I did not know there was a program like this. My daughters don’t do sports but my son eventually will! Good to know!
My kids used to be competitive dancers so I completely relate! It got so expensive.
This isn’t easy, but very rewarding when you can budget on the road. We’re not there yet, but our boys are looking to join more sports next year.
Wow, I didn’t even realize a program like this existed. I’ll have to tell everyone about it since I know many of my friends’ kids are in sport programs.
I still want a Hotel for Aunties division of this since I don’t have kids yet. This is such a great concept I can’t wait to keep reading your journey with this ambassadorship!
Now this is very informative! I’m always budgeting for travel – very helpful.
Not an easy job at all. I can imagine that it can get expensive with all the matches. But anyway, it’s all worth it when you see your kid doing well on the pitch.
Very informative. My husband did a lot of traveling with teams when he was young.
Budgeting is alwasy important, especailly when you’re not in your hometown. I can imagine that all of the traveling can get pretty expensive. You have really great tips. I’ll have to keep these in mind when my son starts sports. Thanks for sharing!