Yesterday, after the baby’s morning nap I decided I had waited long enough to get my beignets. See, they were the real reason I came to New Orleans. With the kids in the double stroller I rolled into Cafe du Monde, only to realize that my soccer mom stroller was too big for the place. I stopped a waitress and asked if I could order with her and she said I had to go to the counter. Then she looked at the monster stroller and the two kids and took pity on me. $8 later I walked away with my bag of beignets and iced coffee. It could have been less but I tipped her generously for taking my order. I walked across the street to Jackson Square to enjoy my treat.

We skipped lunch because of the late treat. So we had an early dinner of oyster poboy and seafood gumbo for $12. Total for this day: $20
New Running total: $303.58

I am not sure whether you can appreciate the enormous muffaletta in the picture. It served for a very filling lunch and dinner for me on Sunday.
We spent nothing on breakfast since I was still too full from the day before and my husband shared his breakfast with our three year old. Lunch and dinner for me was the muffaletta pictured above. We ordered an equally big chicken sandwich for my son. Cost of lunch and dinner $14. In the afternoon we went to the River Walk Mall and got a fruit shake for my son and I. Cost $6.70
We also bought some fudge $7 (made right in front of us) and a t-shirt= $10.
New total: $283.58

Yesterday we had to wrap our visit to baton Rouge. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel, since breakfast is free for kids and we also have a $5 off coupon to use at the hotel restaurant. Total bill $14.68
Then we decided our visit wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t take a drive down Highland Road. Drive down this road and you will discover the distinct architecture of Louisiana Homes. You will also drive by Mount Hope Plantation, antebellum home built around 1817.
We also had to go back and check if our favorite hot dog joint is still there, and it is:

Finding the best Chicago style hot dogs in Baton Rouge is something my husband a Chicago native can’t understand.
Lunch was a real treat: Crawfish boil.

We were very thankful my husband’s old boss graciously treated our family to this. Cost of lunch: $0
Soon afterwards we left for New Orleans. Dinner was pupusas at The Pupuseria Divino Corazon in the West Bank. This place has been written up twice on Food and Wine magazine and serves authentic Central American food. When we were students at LSU we would drive down to New Orleans just to eat here. This was back when the gallon of gas was around $1.35. We caught up with a friend from New Orleans. Cost of Dinner for four: $55. Good thing lunch was free.

Total cost so far: $220.88. I have also forgotten to add souvenirs we have bought: $25.
New Total cost: $245.88

Three days have gone by, four more to go. I am hoping we will be spending less the next few days. If anything because my husband starts attending his conference on Sunday and then his food expenses should be covered by his employer.

Friday we tried to relive the glory days by visiting our old campus. We still have a couple of friends and professors we wanted to visit.
The day started with breakfast at the local diner: Louie’s. Breakfast for 3: $21 for coffee, a big omelet and chocolate chip waffles.
After visiting friends, we decided to hit Kamado’s the sushi restaurant where we had many dates together. That itself should tell you it was not a cheap lunch. But because we went for lunch we were able to get the lunch specials which are priced cheaper. Lunch for three: $55! But we had to have the Acadian roll. This roll is made with crawfish and we have not been able to find it anywhere else we have been. On a good note my son enjoyed Miso soup.
Then for dinner, we had to have some crawfish etouffee and the best we ever has was at The Chimes just outside the South gates of the LSU campus. Total Cost $21. We ordered in so we saved on the costs of drinks and tip.

Frugal Flops: A visit to Walmart to get incidentals $18.71. I noticed the Walmart prices in this college town are higher than at the one in my small town.
Frugal Victories: We were able to replace the baby floater we forgot at home hopefully for little out of pocket ($5). We found the same floater at a Walgreens down here and I used my Walgreens gift card to pay for it in part. I still have the receipt for the other one so I will return it when we get home.

Total spent so far: $151.20

Who knew that trying to save money by traveling with an infant in arms was detrimental to your health?
We are in Louisiana and for two hours yesterday I didn’t think that was possible. After taxing on the runway, waiting for 12 other planes to take off, when our turn came up the pilot found out one engine was not working. So we had to go back to the gate and wait for mechanics to fix the problem. That was one hour and forty five minutes added to the already two and a half hours we were supposed to be on the plane. Holding a six month old while trying to keep him and his three year old brother entertained was not fun.
Enough complaining, these were our expenses for our traveling day:
Breakfast: $10 for bagels, lox and cream cheese
Lunch: $8 fast food
Dinner: $ 12.49 Fast food again, not the healthiest I know but all we wanted was to get to the hotel to go to bed.
Total spent so far: $30.49

Frugal flops so far: we forgot to pack the infant pool floater. I had bought this one using a register rewards at Walgreens so its cost was zero out of pocket for us. We also left my three year old’s sippy cup; we are going to have to replace that as well.
Frugal Victories: Our laptop, thank God for the DVD player it has and helping keep the three year old entertained.

We are out of our minds! Today we are on our way to Louisiana with two kids in tow! We will be there for a whole week of visiting the place where we lived for many years. We have been wanting to travel back since we left in 2003. But it isn’t until now that we are able do it for cheap.

My husband is going there for a conference he has to attend and we are flying two days earlier to have some chance to visit friends. We had to pay for two tickets. My husband’s is paid for his job and we have an infant in arms. Hotel expenses are paid in part by his job and reward nights I earned when I had a traveling job. Car rental of two days and food for the kids and I will be paid by us.

Because I need a “project” while I am traveling, I thought it would be fun to track our expenses while we are in New Orleans. Since we will be taking our new laptop I am hoping I can give you a day by day update of our trip and expenses. These are my good intentions in any case, we will see what happens as the week unfolds.

Come back to visit to see how we are doing.

We leave for New Orleans tomorrow. I have been busy packing since yesterday. To cut down on traveling expenses we are doing some BYOS (bring your own snack) and BYOBS (bring your own baby supplies).

We will be gone for seven days. So I am taking diapers (for two) for seven days plus enough for a couple of extra days. Just in case, I am also bringing a coupon for a free jumbo pack of diapers. I got this coupon by redeeming the pampers codes I had accumulated. By the way if you accumulate Pampers Gift to grow you can do this too. You need I think 125 points. If you don’t have that many, and don’t think you will ever have that many, you can also donate your points to provide vaccines in a developing country. For every “Gifts to Grow” point donated from April 30th to June 30th 2008, Pampers will donate US $.05 to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to provide one tetanus vaccine to protect a pregnant woman in the developing world, up to US $20,000.

Back to topic here, I am also packing enough snacks to have while we are there. I usually make my own baby food, but that won’t be practical while we are gone. I stacked some Target coupons with manufacturer coupons to get the baby food pictured free. The Soyjoy is more than free at CVS this week and I actually like it. I am trying to take as much as it is practical for us to take to minimize our expenses there.

The bag for my kids stuff is bigger than the bags my husband and I are bringing. I am not surprised. Do you have any tips for packing and traveling by plane with little kids? I need activities to do with a preschooler on a laptop.