Atlanta to New York City on a budget

It's been over a week since I've blogged and it's because I've been traveling with my family.  I'm still on vacation but I thought I would share how we spent 3 days in New York City on less than $670 for a family of 3.

1.  Our plane ticket from Atlanta to Maryland (where my in-laws live) for three people was $160 round trip!  Using our AMEX Delta Skymile companion ticket and our skymiles, we only had to pay for one ticket.  Plus, we decided to fly on Christmas day which reduced the price of our ticket significantly!

2.  Once we got into Maryland, we borrowed our in-law's minivan and drove to New Jersey.  Gas cost $100.

3.  We booked a hotel in New Jersey to save on cost.  Our AMEX had a deal for if you spend $250 through Travelocity then you can get $50 off (see previous post).  So we booked a two night stay for $250 in New Jersey and paid $200.  This was a GREAT deal since most of the hotels in the city were at least $500 for one night and even in Jersey many of the hotels were between $200-300 for just one night because it was so close to New Years Eve.

4.  We took the train into New York City (which the 2 year old loved!) and we mostly walked in the city.  Thankfully EV was still free so we only had to pay for 2 round trip tickets for $30.  In the city we got on the cab only once and spent $14.

5.  Meals:
Day 1:  We had breakfast at the Oregon Dairy's Country Restaurant and Buffet in Lancaster, PA.  Jimmy loved it; I was not as excited.  We had the breakfast buffet and spent $22.
For lunch we had Boston Market and spent $9.00.  For dinner we ate at the outlet mall food court (not the most ideal and cost saving but it was time saving) and spent $30.

Day 2:  We had brunch in the city at a fabulous diner and used a scoutmob and spent $18 (best food, best deal!!).  We had a sandwich and cupcake snack in the afternoon at the Park Plaza Hotel and spent $15 (again not the most cost-saving but we had to get the cupcake!!).  Then we had dinner at Joe's Shanghai.  So good but complete splurge of $60--but totally worth it!!  We ordered the soup dumplings (yum!!!!), the crispy beef, and snow pea leaves.

Brunch:

Soup Dumplings:

Day 3:  We ate breakfast at McDonalds (not proud of this but we were hungry and did not have many options) and spent $11.  We ate lunch at church (free).  And by dinner we were back in Maryland and had dinner with the family.

So total spending:  $669

Quality time with the family:  Priceless

We could have done better in the food department and saved at least another $25 but all in all it was a wonderful trip!

*Note:  This does not include any entertainment or shopping.