Article By Marie Monroe

Money can be tight here in recent times and we all need to cut-back from time to time anyway 

 

So have yourself a stay- at-home vacation, get some much needed rest, and pretend you’re wealthy on a shoestring budget like I’ve been doing for a glorious week.

 

Here are some of the things I’ve been doing that have stretched the vacation dollar to the breaking point and showered me with all the good feelings of a luxurious go-out-of-town, hit-the-spa and charge-it-all break:

 

·      Tidy up the bedroom and stock it like a bed and breakfast - fresh linens everyday made up to fine hotel perfection.

·      Buy the stack of frivolous magazines at $5 a pop and gather up some books from the library … pile them within easy reach.

·      Stock the bathroom with new fluffy towels and organic toiletries with the perfect fragrance.

·      Pull out the aroma therapy and ambient lighting gear.  If you don’t have them, visit the local everything’s cheap store for unscented candles then head over to the chic place for a good and natural essential oil or incense.

·      Hook up the CD player and gather up the best of your best for bedside d.j.’ing.  Check CD’s out of the library.

·      Turn off the phones.  You are nobody’s 911.

·      Check the TV schedule well in advance and plan your viewing.  No surfing for surfing’s sake!  Make TV watching a limited and anticipated activity.  See the soap you haven’t watched since college.  Watch another daytime show you never see or one you typically miss because it’s past your bedtime.

·      Gather up the exotic foods you crave.  Hit the produce market.  Go to the whole foods store.  Bring home the gazillion dollar per pound cherries or ice cream.  Get some high-end chocolate, a pound of that gourmet coffee (and cream not the substitute white stuff).

·      Exercise without a time-limited workout.  Enjoy it!  If you belong to a gym, check out different schedules.  See a new crew.  Go to an interesting class you always miss.

·      Stretch in bed or on the couch.  Then turn over and sleep just like the pricey spa’s yoga teacher would suggest.

·      Walk your town.  Window shopping is a nearly lost art.  Go to the little shops you usually drive by.

·      Check out the ‘bohemian’ part of town.  And wear your best vacation gear while you do it.

·      Take your camera everywhere.

·      Look for the perfect ‘souvenir’ and bring it home.

·      Go to the nearest outlet mall out on the highway and mingle with tourists while nabbing a bargain or two.

·      Map out a scenic route and drive through the city not on the freeways.  Take different routes as you go about your stay-cation business.

·      Go to an art gallery, a museum or some other tourist hot spot for your town that you recommend to out of town visitors.

·      Go out to one luxurious and costly breakfast.  Alone is good!

·      Go out to one luxurious and costly dinner.  Alone is good, too!

·      Meet those friends for lunch that you never have time to meet.

·      Email everyone.  Make it a real note from you … not just passing along the latest cute dog video that is making the rounds.

·      Barring email, send notes just to say hello from vacationland. Tell them the things you’re usually too busy to tell.

·      Go to a first run movie during the day.  Buy the pricey snacks and savor them.

·      Rent a healthy stack of movies and sleep through them.

·      Schedule multiple massages - what’s $150 for 3 massages when you’ve not bought an airline ticket and you’re not racking up hotel and restaurant bills?

·      Get the pricey hair cut - again, think about those other expenses you’re saving on.

·      Drive for the sake of a day trip.  Stop along the way to see what’s caught your eye.

·      Sit on the porch.  Eat on the porch.  Nap on the porch.

·      Go to a baseball game.

·      Go to the nearest body of water and take a picnic or carry-out.

·      Read about your city in the touristy papers and check out something you’d never do otherwise that’s listed there.

·      Get one significant chore done for good measure.

·      Buy some new hobby supplies or get out the stuff you’ve been stashing for that perfect time.

·      Take photos on your jaunts, on your porch, even at home.

·      Get a ‘frivolous’ service - a facial, reflexology, car detailing, grocery delivery, take a cab! Hire a babysitter for no particular appointment or date - just because.

·      Add more to this list and have a glorious, restful, pampering time …

 

Dear Readers,

 

Hello from stay-cation-land!  I was just thinking about you and wanted to say that the sunrise was so beautiful this morning and I wish you were here.  The porch is crisp and cool and it’s a jacket this a.m. and shorts at noon.

 

Love,

Marie

 

 

 

 

“Laughter is an instant vacation.”
-Milton Berle

 

“If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life, that we give to the question of what to do with two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.”
-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

 

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