Trips on a Budget

Every October we travel with my extended family to TN for a long weekend filled with shopping, fun, and memories. We have participated in this tradition for 13 years now, and we know a year in advance when, where and how much it will be. Do you think we are ever really financially prepared for this event? Well of course not, we are normal people remember? Every year we say "next year we will put money back so when we come down we will have the funds necessary to shop til we drop, and let the kids run wild on go-carts, and roller coasters" then life happens and before you know it we are leaving in 2 days for our trip, it's not been paid for, and we have no money for the fun stuff, not even enough to eat out. This is where we used to mess up every year, we would shop (a little), and let the kids play (a little) then come home and find that we had spent bill money on our trip, and the cycle goes on and on....... Creatures of habit remember? What does Dave say? "Finances are 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge" I want to recap our trip from a financial perspective.
The Good;
Brian and I discussed the money plan twice before we left for our trip. We both decided what activities and shopping we wanted to do, and we planned our meals too. I am proud of us for doing this, I think it was a big help this year. We did have our trip paid for prior to us leaving, that's a plus too! We also had a decent amount of cash on us, and we planned on using cash only. We collaborated on what activities we thought the kids and our pocket book would enjoy. We stuck to the eating out plan.
The Bad;
We did use cash on almost everything we purchased, however there were a few stores we used our debit card in, and before we knew it we had spent much more than we had planned on. We bought clothes for the kids mostly, and both Brian and I got a few items of clothing too. Nothing elaborate, but things that we needed. However, we should have saved more money. I underestimated how much money it takes to buy clothes these days. We ran out of a few food items that required us stopping at the store to get a few things.
The Overall;
Mostly I am proud of us, and how we managed our trip this year. I added our total expenses up for this year, and plan on increasing our budget for next year's trip by double. One day we will get this process down to a science, but I cannot tell you how proud I am of both my husband and I. Our behavior is changing for the better!