Food-wise: I really appreciate pp's recommendation re: a "slush fund". We vacation with friends a lot (no kids, yet, though) & we plan a menu through an email chain before. Someone uses the menu to plan the grocery list, which we divide upon arrival (makes shopping a Breeze!). Depending on how booze evens out among the group, either add this to group list or have everyone purchase individually. I'd be wary of tracking/ sharing if you go with this option, though, just FYI.
Everyone gives their receipt to "accountant" of the group/ OP's Mom? I'd use ECB's idea to suggest purchasing specific wants/ needs (cough watermelon) separately.
Breakfast options: (Fruit, protein bars, eggs, toast). Maybe plan one big breakfast of French toast & pancakes or biscuits & gravy for one of your "On Your Own" lunch days.
Two lunches planned/ two lunches on your own (here are options, i.e. sandwich basics & chips or go out). Dinner two nights out, two nights on the grill. (Make sure to get sides approved. Popular among our group: Mac & Chs, salad, cheesy potatoes, grilled veggie kabobs, baked beans, grilled corn on the cob, veggie platter, fruit plate, cookies, brownies, etc...)
Again, I highly recommend planning your menu ahead of time through an email chain, that way everything's written down. Keep things light; don't forget this is a VACATION you're planning But from my group vacation experience, your pre-planning work will pay off marvelously!
SORRY SO LONG! I obviously have a lot to say about group vacations!
One note- depending on how you handle dinner, if you DON'T assign nights to different families, make sure you get people to sign up for cooking and cleaning!! Part of the reason we do it "one family/ one night" is so that the same people aren't stuck cooking and cleaning every night. Now, if there are people who truly enjoy cooking and WANT to handle it - great. But make sure no one gets stuck doing it because other people aren't stepping up.
And/or- whoever cooks, someone else agrees to clean.
Definitely some good thoughts on the food, thanks!
Luckily my Aunt loves to cook and has already volunteered. My Mom and other Aunt will help too. Adult kids (like me) will do dishes and clean up and help prep. I can only count on some of my cousins or their wives to help. Its just not worth the hassle.
I think for groceries, we will do a PP amount with anyone 12+ years age is an adult and start the grocery fund before we leave. I will also talk to my Mom and Aunts about meal planning so it makes their grocery trip easier.
Another thought too on the food front- what we do on both our (now extinct) friend trip and the extended family trip is that one family prepares dinner each night for everyone. And that includes the cost. They buy and prep everything for one night. So that's their expense for dinner all week and they only have to cook one night. It's worked well with both group trips.
This is how we split up groceries when we do family trips. Each family is responsible for a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner - what you spend is up to you when you choose what you are serving and you are responsible for preparing and serving. If on the rare occasion we are doing a joint contribution meal then everyone is assigned something to bring (i.e., spaghetti dinner would be pasta and sauce for one family, salad for another, bread for another, etc.; what you spend depends on what you choose to buy and we take into consideration if one family has more disposable funds then another and assign accordingly.)
Post by dianecourt on May 28, 2016 13:13:46 GMT -5
I feel badly for the Single Adult daughter of Sib A (your sister?). She's getting stuck in the room with teens and kids and there's no bathroom? Well, at least I hope it's a free trip for her!
This isn't very fair to the single adult and teenager who are sharing the room with 3 other kids. They are paying the same as a couple who has the room to themselves.
What is fair IMO is to split the total cost by the number of rooms (plus or minus grandpa). If a family is staying in one room, they pay the full room cost. The 'kid' room gets split in fifths, so the adult and teenager that is staying in the room is going to pay 1/5 the room cost each and they pay the same as each of the kids.
ETA: And if the kid room doesn't have its own bath, I think that that room should get a discount.
I feel badly for the Single Adult daughter of Sib A (your sister?). She's getting stuck in the room with teens and kids and there's no bathroom? Well, at least I hope it's a free trip for her!
Yep she is. She said she is ok as long as she gets her own bed. I think we are going to pay per room, so she will pay less which is good since she's in med school. Also one of the other people in the room is 22. Everyone in that room will be 12 and older.
I feel badly for the Single Adult daughter of Sib A (your sister?). She's getting stuck in the room with teens and kids and there's no bathroom? Well, at least I hope it's a free trip for her!
Yep she is. She said she is ok as long as she gets her own bed. I think we are going to pay per room, so she will pay less which is good since she's in med school. Also one of the other people in the room is 22. Everyone in that room will be 12 and older.
You know your family, of course! Maybe if I were still <30 I could imagine sleeping with teenagers, but knowing what I do, it's devices and laughing and not enough to even want make me pay my share per person. I sincerely hope she, and the adult male cousin, are allowed to pay significantly less, because that, plus no bathroom?
Yep she is. She said she is ok as long as she gets her own bed. I think we are going to pay per room, so she will pay less which is good since she's in med school. Also one of the other people in the room is 22. Everyone in that room will be 12 and older.
You know your family, of course! Maybe if I were still <30 I could imagine sleeping with teenagers, but knowing what I do, it's devices and laughing and not enough to even want make me pay my share per person. I sincerely hope she, and the adult male cousin, are allowed to pay significantly less, because that, plus no bathroom?
Yup I think they will pay around $300 a person instead of the normal $600? Also it has a 1/2 bath attached to the room but my parents will let her use their shower.
Also unfortunately there are no other options for them to stay as all the rooms are taken and this was the biggest house I could find in the area we wanted.
Are you confirmed on this house? I find vacations like this work better when either everyone can pay their own way directly (like a cruise or B&B) or one person (gpa) pays for a big house.
Are you confirmed on this house? I find vacations like this work better when either everyone can pay their own way directly (like a cruise or B&B) or one person (gpa) pays for a big house.
I am not worried about people not paying. For instance sib C is paying for all her family to go. It's just a matter of figuring out how much each Sib family owes.
Post by jennistarr1 on May 31, 2016 13:02:24 GMT -5
In my opinion, each adult that gets some sort of privacy should share the cost. By my calculations, that is 15 adults so 733 per person. Or to account for some of the people in room 5, I would say 700 per person (grandpa, 1400 per couple in own bedroom even if they have kids in there). That would leave 500$ divided by the 5 people in room 5 so you'll add on 100$ to each sibling family for each of these people.
That's really not far off your per room rate and makes a little more sense to me.