My wife and I are in a friendly debate about our travels. Over the past couple of trips we have taken, we seem to have experienced a pattern of needing to stop at local convenient stores (i.e. Rite-Aid, Walgreens, etc.) to pick up some necessities. It seems every vacation we have forgotten the Excedrin Migraine for my typical weekend throbbing from my change in sleep patterns, to infant Tylenol, or some other last minute need like contact solution or diapers. My Snapple fix does not fall into this category, of course. 🙂

My wife’s initial opinion was that we end up spending a lot of additional money (without the use of sales or coupons on vacations) because we did not plan and pack accordingly. I typically agree with this because we try and stock up on items at home when they are on sale and with the use of coupons. So if there is an extra crevasse in the vehicle, cram it in and hope it does not break.

My opinion though is that we can only travel with so much stuff. I am all about saving money if I know we have it at home; however, airlines now charge for baggage, or there is only so much we can fit in our vehicle, since we have been driving to more locations lately rather than flying.

Just to give an example from our recent trip to the Cape Cod region. We could have easily brought a week worth of diapers from home for each of our sons, who are in different sizes. It would have required bringing at least a half case of diapers for each child, all of which would take up a lot of space in our already crammed Chevy Equinox on long trips. By the time we put two car seats in the vehicle with the four of us, then factor in a double stroller in the back, the pack-n-play at the floor of the car seats, and a piece of luggage or two, it does not leave a lot of extra room. So for that trip we only brought enough diapers to get us through the first couple of days, and then we planned on stopping to purchase more to get us through the remainder of the trip.

Another great solution my wife came up with is to fill the laundry basket with all of our stuff. Then, as we dwindle down the supplies, we fill the basket with our dirty laundry. No more needing to keep the clean separated from the dirty in the luggage.
Traveling with little ones definitely presents its own set of challenges and logistics. As it is, our five-seat Equinox typically has one of the seats filled with stuff (either the front passenger seat or the seat besides the car seats in the back). Therefore, at some point in our travels it becomes inevitable that we will need to switch all of our stuff to the other seat so my wife can change seats. What does this all mean? We already travel with a LOT of stuff, and maybe it is more efficient to just pick stuff up along the way.

So while we both have valid opinions, and understand the others viewpoint, it is definitely a factor we have to plan for on trips based on how much space we have allocated. How do you plan for your vacations when having to travel with so much?