So tomorrow we are leaving on our 9 day vacation to california to visit family. It will be the first time my hubby has taken a whole week off in four years so he is very excited for a much needed break. We've budgeted $1200 for this vacation and hopefully we can stick to it. We were going to use $2000 but with all these med bills we decided to cut it down a little and instead of taking it out of savings I just saved all of dh's overtime and bonus check. We are staying with my parents for most of the trip so we don't have to pay for lodging. We are going to spend a few days in Monterey so the little ones can see the ocean for the first time, but my parents are going with us and were generous enough to pay for our hotel room along with theirs. I figure we'll spend about $300 on gas as its an 8 hour drive from vegas to northern cali and then we'll need gas to get to monterey and back, and for any driving in town. Then about $100-$200 on entertainment.We want to take the kids on a boat ride in monterey plus we are giong to spend a day taking them to the zoo. Most of our budget will go to eating out. We have already made plans to eat out with my two sisters and their dh's one night and another we are going out with my best friend to meet her new fiance. Plus dh and i would like to go out alone one night and then the 3 days we are visiting monterey/ocean we will have to eat out and we would like to take my parents out to a nice dinner since they paid for our hotel room. I am going to take a notebook and keep track of our spending so we don't go crazy and go wayyy over budget without even realizing it! Anyways i am so excited to get out of town but must now spend the rest of the day cleaning and packing.