Seattle Series: 6 days under $500

This summer I spent almost a month in Seattle, first with my friends, then with my family. I experienced Seattle as a local and as a tourist, and when I went with my friends, we were able to stay in Seattle for 6 days for under $500!! Read on to learn the two BIGGEST tips that will save you hundreds of dollars.

If you ever need advice on how to vacation on a budget, the best person to ask would be a broke about-to-be college student, who has been saving up most of high school to pay for their senior trip (aka me) but still had minimum funds **frantically waves hands up**. We left on a 6AM flight the morning after graduation, our eyes heavy with sleep, our hands clutching suitcases which had been holding diplomas a mere 8 hours ago.

1. The ONLY way that this was possible was because instead of staying in a hotel, we couchsurfed. Hotels and other living arrangements are notoriously expensive, and just one night in a hotel would have cost us over $300. If you aren’t familiar with what couchsurfing is, it’s basically a website (www.couchsurfing.com) setup like a hybrid between facebook and ebay. People open up their houses to people on the website for people who love to travel but maybe don’t have enough funds to stay at a hotel for ZERO fee. Although I am aware of the dangers that come with sleeping on a random person’s sofa, most people on the website are honest, genuine people with the best intentions. In our case, we were extremely lucky to be hosted by *Julie, who let us crash on her living room couch and her floor, as well as cooking us our first meal there. In exchange we bought her roses and macarons. We honestly owe the success of our trip to her, because if she hadn’t stepped up we DEFINATLEY could not have afforded to go. 
2. Prior to going to Seattle, I had never stepped foot on public transportation, but that is honestly the BEST way to get around Seattle. Later in the summer, when I went back to Seattle with my family, we a the car which honestly stressed out my dad SO much, because not only was parking ridiculous (26$ for a day?!), sketchy (the parking lots bear a high resemblance to dumpsters)- the streets are very narrow, very steep, and very full of downtown Seattle business people with somewhere to be. There are bus stops at every couple blocks and you can reuse your pass within a 2 hour time frame (one ticket is $1.50). In our experience Seattle bus riders were polite, kind, and if four newly graduated high school girls in dresses, tourist maps and designer purses could ride the metro at 11PM at night without getting whistled at or jumped, I promise you that you will most likely be okay.

These seem so simple, but when I went back with my family the second time, each day was costing us over $400, because we were renting an Air B&B, renting a car, paying for parking ($30 FOR ALL DAY DOWNTOWN PARKING?!?), and it was just neither time or money efficient. 

Stay tuned for more in the Seattle Series about my favorite places to go visit and eat, and more Seattle information!!

quality family selfies on top of the space needle

highly embarrassing but SELFIE STICK PHOTO in Gasworks Park.

polaroid picture frame diy

For one of my best friend's birthday, I knew that I wanted to make her something personable that she could take with her to college because uhm WE ARE OFFICIALLY SECOND SEMESTER SENIORS!!! This is a great present to make because it is not that difficult to make (to be honest the hardest part was finding all the material), but the end result was super cute and she really liked it. 

Materials:

Shadow box picture frame

Tiny wooden clothes pins (the ones used for scrapbooking)

Ribbon

Scrapbook paper to line the back ( I actually found a thin sheet of scrapbooking cork that I used instead!)

Hot glue/craft glue/scissors

Pictures cropped to square size

Step 1: Cut your pictures out of the paper into a Polaroid shape. All this means is that you leave a wider white border at the bottom of each picture.

Step 2: Remove the backing of your picture frame and trace it on your scrapbook paper/cork. Cut to size.

Step 3: Measure out ribbon and glue the ends to the other side of your scrapbook/cork lining, then glue the non-ribbon side of the scrapbook/cork to the back of your picture frame.

Step 4: Clip on your pictures onto the ribbon and arrange to your desire

Step 5: Place the whole thing back into the frame and ta-da! Wasn't that simple?

TIP: If you cannot find a shadow box frame, an alternative is to use a regular picture frame and just remove the glass! The point of using a shadow box frame is so you can place three dimensional items inside the frame, like the clothespins.