Real Happy Mom

Practical tips and encouragement for moms

Tips for Planning a Memorable Vacation (or Staycation) This Summer

Wouldn’t it be nice to plan a vacation?  But who has time to search for hotels and flights? Plus, gas prices are through the roof these days.

Looking to plan a vacation but you don’t have much time and don’t want to spend a lot of money?

This episode is for you.  In this episode, you’re going to learn the things to keep in mind when planning your next vacation or staycation with the kids. My guest shares things to consider so that you don’t break the bank. And have some fun and maybe even some downtime.  The best part is you can plan something memorable with your kids before the back-to-school season kicks off. 

LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | STITCHER

About Sasha

For moms who feel stuck and stagnant in life, Sasha Nicole teaches how to feel more confident and courageous through various courses, motivational videos, coaching, and keynote speeches. As a mental health advocate in the wellness industry for over ten years who not only survived severe postpartum depression and thrives with a mental health condition, it is her mission to assist others in living a healed and whole life while honing in on what truly makes you happy.  

Connect with Sasha

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Transcript of this episode

Toni-Ann Mayembe 0:07
You are listening to the real happy mom podcast, the weekly podcast for busy working moms to get inspiration, encouragement and practical tips for this journey called motherhood. My name is Toni-Ann and you are listening to Episode 187. Well, hey there and welcome back to another episode of The Real happy mom podcast. I think you’re gonna like this one today. Today I have my friend Sasha on she is going to be talking to us about how we can create a memorable vacation without breaking the bank. Now Sasha she is unknown for talking about many other things in particular about how to overcome postpartum depression, as well as some other great things involving confidence. But today, she is going to be sharing with us some tips on planning a vacation. Now she shares with us a couple of things that we should be keeping in mind when we’re planning this vacation. Some things to actually not forget about, in particular, when we’re planning a staycation, and some other ways that we can do some fun things with the kids without, again, breaking the bank, she shares with us a lot of really great things, again, that you can look at two days. So you can plan something super memorable, even if it’s just for a quick weekend trip or something that you can do locally in town. Now, this sounds like something that would definitely be of interest to you make sure you stay tuned to the full episode, because, like I said, she gives a lot of great tips, and I know it’s gonna be super helpful for you. But before we jump into this episode, just wanted to remind you about the real happy mom, Facebook community, we are here and we are waiting for you to join us inside of the Facebook community. There you’ll find a lot of other really fun prompts, as well as the monthly Trello training where I show you how to use Trello to just systematize and organize your life and make life a lot easier for you. And if you’re not familiar with Trello Trello is a practice or not practice a project management tool that is really helpful that a lot of times people tend to think is more so for business, or again for project management. But you can use Trello for so many things like from planning that your chores, planning their vacation, getting your week planned out and organize. Making a home management binder, all sorts of things can be done with Trello. And I show you how to do that inside of the Facebook community. So join me over there. So you can learn all about it. It’s completely free. And I just want to help you just get a little bit better with all the things that are going on as far as making it more systematized make it more organized. So that you can enjoy all the fun things going on in life, especially during the summertime. So join me over in the Facebook community is real happy mom.com/community You can join me over there and make sure to answer all three of the questions. I think it’s very all of those questions. Because if you don’t, I’m not gonna let you and I’m sorry. I want to make sure that you’re not just like some random bot or just some random person that’s not going to pay attention to things so and so the questions go over to Real happy mom.com/community to join me inside now. Alright, now that we have that out of the way, let’s go ahead and jump on in to this week’s episode with Sasha. All right, today on the podcast we have Sasha on and I’m super excited about this particular topic. So welcome to the podcast. Sasha is so good to have

Sasha 3:42
you. Thank you so much. I’m so happy to be here.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 3:45
Yes, yes. Now it is the summertime we are in the midst of all things summer and kids are out of school at this point. And if your kids aren’t out of school at this point, they’re about to be out of school. And one of the things that is on our mind is vacation, some of us can afford it, some of us not so much. And I wanted to talk to you a little bit about vacations and how we can kind of plan out some things even if it’s a little bit later in the game. But before we jump into our topic for today, I want to just share a little bit about you and what you do.

Sasha 4:17
Yes, so I’m Sasha Nicole, and I am you know, you could call me your friendly accountability partner. I am the woman who helps you if you’re stuck if you’re feeling if you’re not feeling courageous. If you’re not feeling confident if you are struggling with your mental health. I’m definitely the advocate and the partner for you to help assist you on that healing journey and to just help you overall being mentally well that is my mission and my passion is to help moms just find clarity, find courage, find confidence and live and walk in their truth and be and hone in on their happiness and what fulfills them in their life.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 4:51
Awesome, awesome. And one of the things I said that we will be talking about there’s a couple other things I want to touch on. But the big thing is about Vacations. So like I said, there’s a lot of moms that are wanting to do a vacation that probably can’t really afford, you know, nothing too extravagant, or can afford to do a vacation. But the way gas prices are looking is look a little crazy. So road trips are a little bit. It used to be like cheaper to do road trips. But now it’s like kind of like, so I just wanted you to talk to us a little bit about waiting that vacation that will work not only for our budget, but also for the kids. Because I think honestly, at the end of the day, we’re trying to create memories with our kids when we’re having these vacations. So what let’s just start off there, like, what are some of the things that that we should keep in mind are some of the things that you keep in mind when you’re actually starting to plan a vacation? Yeah, so

Sasha 5:47
some of the things that keep in mind, kind of like what you just said, when you when you talk about me and gas prices have increased, you know, we could have used to go on a road trip, or maybe you can get on a flight, and even the flights have tremendously increase. And I think we have to be mindful that, you know, we have to look around what currently exists around us. A lot of times, we don’t appreciate what’s what is in our own backyard. And so for me, I’m in the DC area. And there, every museum that isn’t DC more than I would say 95% are completely free. So that’s just an example of something that you can do, where you don’t have to pay where you don’t have to travel far. So museums are one of those things looking and Googling, like what is in your actual area that maybe you didn’t know about. There’s so many like parks and things that I had no idea existed, or that were rebuilt or redone, and have so many things that a child could do, that I just wasn’t aware of, or even like some of your harbors, where the water is depending on wherever you live at, like there’s a lot of things that they build that are completely kid friendly. And so I think we have to think about it from the perspective that it doesn’t necessarily have to be far it doesn’t necessarily have to be international, you can even find a way to create a memory at a hotel that’s not far from you. So for example, my daughter, she loves going to the pool. And you know, there were no pools really open at the time. But you know, now summertime, there’ll be a lot of pools, but you could go to a hotel that’s budget friendly, that has a pool and create a buttload of memories of just a regular pool that’s in your neighborhood that you don’t have to pay a lot for. So it’s just being mindful of like what currently exists around you what you can do, and definitely your local group on I love Groupon like there’s so many things that I’ve been able to find that I didn’t know, that I could do for the kids. Yes

Toni-Ann Mayembe 7:31
to Groupon like Groupon is my friend like when I was in school, that was like my thing. Because you know, when you’re in school, you don’t really get money like that. And so that’s how I created a lot of really fun memories with my husband and my friends used to tease me all the time. They’re like, Tony, and you’re always like doing something you’re going apple picking you’re going this and that it’s really just Groupon like, I’m not really like you know that extravagant. But Groupon does like save you quite a bit. So I’m glad you threw that one out there. And you mentioned something else, too, that I wanted you to unpack this a little bit for us. And that is, you know, just looking around us because I think a lot of times we forget, like our back door like or our backyard, I call it our backyard but just talking about the city or the town that we live in has a lot of really cool things. And it’s funny that you say that because I just recently got back from a trip to from Tallahassee, that which is where I’m from. And I remember driving, I was like, I don’t remember this stuff being here. Like when you come here like it was so much stuff. And I literally could probably take a whole day just going around to all the things that I didn’t even know were there. And you mentioned museums, but is there anything else that that you would say to pay attention to when it comes to looking to do like a staycation or something like that?

Sasha 8:48
Definitely, you know, pay attention to the parks or the farms that are around you. Like you mentioned how you went apple picking right there are a lot of farms in my area that are like within like a 20 mile driving radius that offer a ton of things for kids to do like they have tractor trailer rides, they have strawberry picking, they have things where like how you mentioned the apple picking but you can actually turn things into cider. They have a lot of different activities that are there for kids specifically made for kids and usually only cost about five to $10 to get in. So pay attention to your natural resources as well. So you know, those are the parks, those are the farms those are the water areas that you may have. Those are the things and looking at, you know things to do within if you usually do a search within that like every week, every month I’m telling you you’ll find like new pop up shops and pop up things that are coming to your town all the time. Different local boutiques or sometimes offer like the kids face painting are different. If you have those outside malls a lot of time, usually always during the summer have festivals that come every weekend where they’re doing a variety of different things for the kids. that you can do and take them and have a great time there.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 10:03
Yeah, I didn’t even think about the festivals because I know I always keep my eyes open in November and but never during the summertime for the festival. So that is a really good one. Because let me tell you those fall festivals, it’s like every church in the corner over here has one, but I didn’t think about during the summertime. So that’s a really good one. I like that one.

Sasha 10:24
Because think with the summer with a lot of the fruits like so for example, there is a lemon of they’re calling it like a lemon festival that’s going on near my house, where it’s just, I guess it’s the season for a lot of the lemons that are coming in. And so they’re doing something surrounding all lemons, and they’re bringing in all types of things for kids, that everything you could do with the lemons. It seems like like, oh, I wouldn’t ever think of that. Or that seems kind of silly, but it definitely gives you something to do. And it’s free like this, this festival is completely free.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 10:55
Nice, nice. Now, you gave us some guidance on some things, you know, here or locally to us that we can kind of open our eyes to and be more aware of that I think will make some great memories. If we’re not able to travel, and do you know, a traditional vacation, but let’s talk to the moms that actually have a little bit of money saved up and we can they can actually go somewhere maybe for a weekend or something like that. What tips do you have are planning a vacation with the kids? Because you know, we desperately need it. So what do you got for us there?

Sasha 11:28
I definitely think that so we always think of vacations having to be on the weekends. But if you’re a mom who maybe doesn’t work traditionally, maybe you’re a stay at home mom, or maybe you do work traditionally, and you have the PTO to be able to use really think about trying to go on a vacation that doesn’t necessarily fall within the weekend and maybe falls within like a Tuesday or a Wednesday where you could just take a few days, because the prices are significantly cheaper when you’re not doing it on the weekend. Because think about it, everybody is trying to do a vacation on the weekend. But if you do those odd days, you can sometimes save well over $100 or more just want a hotel for the night. And also some of the activities that you would have to pay for. So for example, I took my daughter to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge, everything was significantly cheaper during the week as opposed to the weekend. So just think about maybe altering those dates at times so that you can save money, and then pre booking trying to save on their early booking. Sometimes if you if you know in advance that hey, I have this money saved, I’m about to do something, you can get that 20 30% off by pre booking certain things in advance and doing them on odd days.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 12:39
Yeah, I didn’t even think about doing the doing it during the week. And it’s funny that you say that, because I noticed a lot of times I don’t know what it is about Tuesday. But Tuesday is one of those days, I noticed that people do like either like free or discounted stuff on Tuesdays. So I’m glad that you mentioned, you know, traveling, you know, not necessarily on the weekends, because I think a lot of times, at least for me, I’ll think like, okay, how can I make it a long weekend? Because I’m already off on Friday. So what if I took off on Monday and Tuesday and then make it an extra super long weekend? That kind of thing. But like you said, I could do like, you know, a Tuesday through Thursday, and do it that way. And I think that would definitely make it a lot better, too. Because not everybody is out because I promise. That’s the one thing about Fridays that I don’t like having my day off being Fridays, because it seems like everybody in their mom is off on Friday. And it’s like jam packed everywhere you go. So I love that you brought up you know, traveling on those off days.

Sasha 13:35
Absolutely. And like you said, even if you do choose to do the weekend, and you add that additional Monday and Tuesday, save all the paid activities for the Monday and Tuesday rather than the Friday or Saturday.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 13:45
Okay, got it. Got it. Got it. Now, I know about now that you’ve told me traveling on those updates, and then pre booking early booking, what would you say like as far as like, planning activities for the kids? Because let me just be honest, I think a lot of times we make things like overly complicated for the kids and like kids are so simple like they like like the simplest little things like they don’t get too excited about all the extra frilly stuff that we feel like we have to have in order to have like, a really great vacation like, what would you say to the mom that’s like really wanting to like do something special for the kids, but maybe just doing a little too much?

Sasha 14:24
You know what I think that you know, like you just mentioned kids, how we oftentimes even say about our men in our lives. They’re so simple, and we try to overcomplicate it by overcompensating for things that sometimes they really didn’t ask for. So sometimes you have to make sure that we’re listening to what the kid actually wants. So maybe taking time didn’t have give you an example girlfriend mom was planning a birthday for her daughter. And she started playing all of these birthday ideas as to what she thought would be this wonderful, great birthday. And I stopped her and I said, Well, have you asked her what she wanted for her birthday? She was saying, like, oh man, like the cost for this, and I have to do this. And I want to do all of that. And then I said, Well, what did she say that she wanted to do? And she was like, Oh, she said, Well, she said, she just wanted to go to the movies. I was like, well, the movie sounds a lot cheaper than a whole extravagant party that she didn’t really ask for. So I think sometimes we have to be mindful of like, what does our child actually want? What are they actually asking for? Because, for example, you could go to five and below and literally buy up half of the store for $100. And make the most incredible and special day for the child where they would love to just be able to go in a store, just pick up a ton of things and be able to buy them, use them and play with them. Even if it’s a one time thing, you’ve saved a lot of money by just asking and saying like, well, what is it that you want to do? What is it that you enjoy, and remember, like, sometimes, sometimes it’s things that they enjoy that really, you know, are cost effective, that could be art, and you could do a lot of things with art, that’s definitely cost effective. And that can really make a special memory that you could do together.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 16:03
Yes, yes, I totally agree with all of that, and especially with axing the kids, because I know that I have talked about it before on the podcast, like saying like how a lot of times we think like, oh, I have to spend time with my kid means like, you got to do all this extra stuff. And really like, I remember one time I just asked my son like, what do you want to do at Mommy like, and it was something I don’t even remember what it was. But it literally took me five minutes. And I’m thinking he’s not asking me to do something that’s going to take hours. So it’s really funny how a lot of times they really just want like simple things. And I’m glad that you brought that up to remember to talk to your kid and ask them like what they want to do. Because it will save you a lot of heartache, and I’m getting your feelings hurt, like I did thinking like, Oh, they’re gonna have so much fun doing this. What did we do, we went to, it’s like Top Golf, I forgot what they call it. But it’s one of those driving ranges where you just go and hit golf balls. And I found that kids were gonna love it, they hated it, like they couldn’t stand it, they were ready to go. And if you haven’t been there, like, it can add up pretty quick. When you’re at one of those places, like when you start ordering food and all that other stuff, you can easily get to $100 in like 20 minutes. And so it was like, Really, I could use that $100 into something else. But again, had I asked the kids like what you want to do, I probably wouldn’t have got my feelings hurt. But I’m glad that you brought that up. But I want to switch gears a little bit and ask you about, you know, things that we can do for ourselves. Because I think a lot of times we’re always thinking about others and thinking about the family that we often neglect ourselves in. We could definitely use some time for ourselves too, as well. So do you have any tips or any insight that you want to give us on how we can incorporate doing something for ourselves while we are on vacation or have time off for vacation?

Sasha 17:45
Yes, I love the self care component. I’m a big advocate for that. And I think we oftentimes think that self care has to look like an expensive spa, or, you know, we have to, you know, do this massage or this facial and don’t get me wrong, I love those things, those things are great. You also can find some great massages and stuff off of Groupon too, just to throw that in there again, or LivingSocial, whatever it is that you may use to find your coupons and things that you have that things that you’re interested in. But I think that you have to be mindful of, it doesn’t always have to look like that. So what that could mean is that I love candles, right? For example. And so when I just like light a whole bunch of candles and sit in the corner, and on my beanbag that I have and just read, that’s something that makes me feel really good. Or if I meditate, and I do that outside and just put my feet in the soil, things like a bit running of bathwater, like there’s so many things that we can do that doesn’t necessarily have to, you know, be this high end cause but that can still give us the high end feeling. So you can buy like certain products while you’re on vacation, maybe you want to try that natural product or try something from the Bath and Bodyworks that you felt like was a little bit luxurious. And there maybe you get a room that has a bathtub or if you’re renting a house that has a bathroom and you’ve run a nice bath and put candles in it and just relax and just read. I mean different things like that, that you can do that doesn’t that don’t take long, but that can still pamper yourself and give you a moment to pause, reflect and have some self care.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 19:12
Yes, yes. And I think that that is a good point. And just a moment to pause because I feel like especially in this day and age, it’s always go go go go go like we’re always off to something. So taking a moment just to you know, have a beat to just relax and do nothing I think is is really helpful so that we can collect our thoughts, get everything together and be ready to go back to the gogogo which is always waiting for us. I feel like

Sasha 19:37
yeah, and part of that pause is like really taking the moment for yourself. So I told my buddy No. For my birthday, I said you know, I just want a moment where no one talked to me just give me some time to me. She’s like, she’s like you don’t want me to say even Good morning. I was like you can say the morning but just don’t talk to me for the rest of the day. She was like That’s not nice. I said no, it’s my day. It’s about me. snubbing, we have to be mindful that it’s okay to think about us that it is your day. Sometimes it is about you. And it’s okay to let everyone know that, hey, I need a moment. And it’s not about you today. It’s about me.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 20:14
Yes, yes. Oh, my goodness, I’m sitting over here laughing because I’m like, Yeah, that sounds like some my son would tell me like, that’s nice. We need it. And like the mother, that is an introvert, I need some time to be quiet and not anyone talking to me. So I’m totally with you on that one. It’s

Sasha 20:31
great to say that we can’t feel bad or feel that mommy guilt, because we said, Hey, today is for me, I just did all of these days for you. We just did a ton of fun things. Let Mommy get a break, let mommy rest today, we have to be enforced that more enforce the moments where you know, you’ve done enough mom, and it’s time to take a break and just pause for a minute, even if it’s just for our two.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 20:52
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And especially on these vacations that we’re planning. I know. Like for me, a lot of times, like, I will jam pack the days and then I’ll be like, completely exhausted and kids are completely exhausted. And that’s never a good thing. But like you said, just having some time like carve out for yourself, even if it’s just to like do nothing and just have no one talked to you. I think we should remember to do that and leave some space in there for yourself. So very glad that you reminded us about that one. Now, you have given us a lot of really great tips. I’m ready now to go over to the drawing board. See, we can figure out and then also to look into group on because like, I haven’t looked at anything since Oh goodness, probably last summer. So it is definitely time for me to check out Groupon again. Definitely, for me to check out these museums and all the things that are here local to me. So thank you for those tips. But anything else that you want to share with us, when it comes to planning, vacations are things that we need to keep in mind when we’re getting things together for vacation?

Sasha 21:52
Oh, man, pack just enough, don’t overdo it. Except that things will go wrong. Understand that everything’s not gonna go as planned. I know, a lot of times, especially for us moms who are like those. I’m a spreadsheet mom, like I love putting the days with each thing that I’m going to do and the and the time, and I want it to go just as planned. But we have to be able to be mindful that everything’s not going to go the way that we thought about it and then include the kids, you know, sometimes X the X your kids, hey, what do you think about this? What do you want to do? I mean, you could sometimes save so much time and money by actually including the kids in what you’re planning to do, and having them go on that adventure with you. So I went on a sabbatical to New Orleans for a few months where I was trying to write and finish and writing things that I was doing. And I brought my daughter with me on that road trip all the way from Maryland down to New Orleans. And I really included her in every stop that I had, I mean, every state that we went to, we stopped and did something we tried it like something as simple as trying a new food where that that was known for that state and doing things like that it was just a way to create a very lasting memory that we had between us. So you know, explain everything that’s happening that’s going on and you know that that you’re seeing and that you’re doing and again, like try to pre book and re look at all the things that you’re doing so that you can create, as you mentioned earlier, create those lasting memories.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 23:17
Yes, yes, this is so good. So so good. Now Sasha, this is been really, really helpful. I know there’s moms that are like oh, I want to hear more but this Sasha lady has to share where can we find you online because I want to make sure that everyone knows where we can find you.

Sasha 23:32
So you can go to my website at WWW dot sealless influence that calm and that’s influence without the eye so fearless in fluence that calm and everywhere on there, you can look and find me Contact Us page my Instagram is the real Sasha Nicole so you can contact me there or follow me there. So fearless influence that calm or the real session the poll as well. And you’ll see all the things that I’m doing and if you’re ever struggling from postpartum depression, I also have a nonprofit at param evolution.org.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 24:02
Awesome. Sasha one last question. Before we go. Do you have a motivational quote or word of encouragement first real happy moms before we signed off?

Sasha 24:10
Absolutely. And I hate for it to seem like it’s cliche, but I have to just again, encourage moms to understand that not only are you enough, but the most valuable thing you can do as a parent is learn to manage yourself first. You have got to learn how to put yourself first and not feel bad about that because you are important. You are enough you are you are everything that your child needs. And you can’t you can’t expect your children to be well if you’re not well.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 24:38
Oh yes and amen to that. I like that one. That was really good. No, that does it for this week’s episode of The Real happy mom podcast. To find the links in Show Notes head on over to Real happy mom.com/ 187 You’ll find all the links that Sasha mentioned, as well as a cliff note version of this week’s episode. It makes sure you stay tuned for next week for another full episode. Thursday for mommy talk Thursday and Saturday for a quick tip. And I will make sure that you get some more of this wonderful goodness that is going to help you this summer. All right, I will check it out then make sure you take care to check in on next Tuesday. Take care and with Batula

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