First summer of travel ball

Arrange for a team cookout one night each weekend at a local park or some hotels have grills or allow you to use your own at the pool. $10 per family buys alot of "grillables" - meat - corn on cob - kabob veggies - and maybe even an adult bev or two. We have done this over our many years of travel ball and it works fairly well.

Also - in many restarants take out comes in larger serving sizes than eat in. A family of 4 (even with 2013's appetite) can often share 2 or 3 entrees. Take out also means no tips and you provide your own drinks. A 50$ meal becomes a 25 to 30 dollar meal.

We also travelled with a family that was into smoothies and always travelled with fruit / yogurt / and a blender. Seemed to reduce expenses for them.

Good luck and welcome to the world of insanity we call travel ball.

Eat breakfast as late as possible, game times allowing, and grab an extra banana or two on the way out for mid day snack.

Take snacks for the mid day meal - trail mix, nuts, oranges, apples. Most times it is too hot to eat any prepared food anyway in the middle of the day. If you need something heartier, a footlong Subway sandwiches are a bargain that can be split for two.

Buy rotisserie chicken at grocery stores at your destination. Also, grilled chicken you make ahead of time will keep nicely for a day or so in a cooler.

If your looking for a wide food selection at a fair quality level and decent bargain, a Ryan's or Golden Corral type place are good for a big feed during the weekend.

Chinese takeout is one of those places YesReally indicated that provide a lot of food for the price.

Just some ideas, have fun - and remember you have to consider that you would have to eat something had you stayed home...

Peanut Butter travels VERY good.

Find someone who shares your pain. Perhaps one weekend you could have someone stay with you with the caveat that the following weekend they take care of your son. Maybe you can do this a couple times and save some serious $$$

All great ideas - we really appreciate them! I'm sure we'll use them all to some degree.

Mark B: I should have mentioned that not attending a tournament is not an option for our family.

Instead of expensive hotels, check out camp grounds, we started with hotels then transferred to camp grounds and it made the weekend tournaments for fun. Other familys and players woukd come to the camp ground at night for camp fires and other stuff, better then having players confined to hotel. Fun for the whoel family.

quote:

Originally posted by 2013 Parent:
Hi everyone.
I also posted this in the "travel recommendations" area but didn't know if that was really appropriate.

I'm hoping to get some information from the veterans. This is the first season for 2013 and our family with travel ball.

We'll travel to college campuses in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, ranging 2-3 hours away from home. Eight tournaments, each Thursday - Sunday.

So, our last name is not Trump, and we'll be dishing out about $400 a week in hotels, and let's not even talk about the gas pump. Each hotel offers a continental breakfast (thanks, Coach!), but we cannot eat out for dinner every night.

If anyone has recommendations on cooler-friendly meal ideas, we would love to hear them. Obviously sandwiches, fruits, and veggie trays will be part of the plan, but we would really appreciate more ideas from folks who've been there.

Thanks everyone!

My son really didn't travel (out of state) until senior summer, though I realize that many of you start this process earlier. When he did, the fees we paid included travel by bus for all of the team, food, the players had to room together, and this greatly cut down on the need for parents to feel the need to be at every game. IMO, I'd much rather spend money on a really good program and have to miss a few games for myself, rather than feel the need to travel with him. Plus college was right around the corner, a huge expense even with a good scholarship.
I would have suggested the same idea as MarkB but you seem to indicate that remaining home is not an option. My thought is that if the player is still too young to go without mom or dad, then he's just not ready. My son traveled frequently in HS to tournies and games without mom or dad, and this really helped in the process of going off to college (several states away).

This is not dis on you, but if parents really can't afford the added expense to travel with the team, can't send him along on his own then don't do it until it really counts, not because everyone else is doing it.

JMO.

We get refrigerators in our room whenever possible--call ahead sometimes some rooms have them some do not--luck of the draw--we started requesting them-- I feel you pain I have 5 children my travel ball player is now 17 playing since 12--we live in Illinois we have been to Georgia 3 x, New York, Delaware, Indiana 3x, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri 3-4x, not counting the many in-state tournaments that are over an hour drive---Many times spending tons of money only to be rained out . But I will add that we will miss it when its over we have so enjoyed watching all the boys grow and mature. My son has been on the same team threw all the years though many faces have changed (I still follow the highschool careers of all previous players) I so enjoy watching them play and have fun together. My 4 daughters enjoy always having a pool to swim in at the hotel

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One year we had our two boys playing in high school and also on travel teams and our two daughters playing on travel softball teams. My wife totalled up all of the games that were on their schedules that year...350!

I can't even come close to remembering how many games my wife and I attended that year. It was a blur...it was fun!

How many games this week honey?......This week? Let me check. A dozen or so!

.

quote:

Originally posted by Baseball Dad 46:
We get refrigerators in our room whenever possible--call ahead sometimes some rooms have them some do not--luck of the draw--we started requesting them-- I feel you pain I have 5 children my travel ball player is now 17 playing since 12--we live in Illinois we have been to Georgia 3 x, New York, Delaware, Indiana 3x, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri 3-4x, not counting the many in-state tournaments that are over an hour drive---Many times spending tons of money only to be rained out . But I will add that we will miss it when its over we have so enjoyed watching all the boys grow and mature. My son has been on the same team threw all the years though many faces have changed (I still follow the highschool careers of all previous players) I so enjoy watching them play and have fun together. My 4 daughters enjoy always having a pool to swim in at the hotel

Thanks very much for the suggestion.

quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
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One year we had our two boys playing in high school and also on travel teams and our two daughters playing on travel softball teams. My wife totalled up all of the games that were on their schedules that year...350!

I can't even come close to remembering how many games my wife and I attended that year. It was a blur...it was fun!

How many games this week honey?......This week? Let me check. A dozen or so!

.

Perhaps it's a regional thing. Transportation costs are not included in our fees, and all parents attend all tournaments. It's not that our son is different and needs his parents for some reason.

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It's the same in our region. With all four playing it was a strain financially, but fun! Obviously we couldn't attend all of the games.

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Yes. Lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Cheese sticks--you know, mozzarella or cheddar--and fruit----and cheese and crackers----and bread and ham/salami for sandwiches.....

I like the idea of rotisserie chicken. Yummy.

We supported the snack bar, too, at many of the tournaments. Some of them were quite tasty--with local-type food.

In the past couple of years, a parent or two would organize dinners together, but not out----someone would bring meat to grill and a grill (we would divvy up the cost) and we would bring stuff to add to it. Ordering pizza as a team was kind of cheap, too.

I think as costs go up, as well as gas, there will be more of this sharing and figuring out ways to travel on the cheap. Look forward to other suggestions!

quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
.

One year we had our two boys playing in high school and also on travel teams and our two daughters playing on travel softball teams. My wife totalled up all of the games that were on their schedules that year...350!

I can't even come close to remembering how many games my wife and I attended that year. It was a blur...it was fun!

How many games this week honey?......This week? Let me check. A dozen or so!

.

I had two playing at the same time. We were always going on opposite directions. At the time I had two goals in life 1) Never again stand in a porta potty on a 90 degree day late on Sunday afternoon and 2) get some on Saturday night.

Back to the subject at hand. Bring a small grill and look for places (parks) where you can cook. Bring a toaster oven for the room. I'm all for forgiveness over permission. Open the window to vent the room.

Look for buffet dinners. Golden Corrall, Chineese Buffett, any of the "All you can eat places". Our team charges one price and covers all the players expenses. It's not cheap but it gives the parents flexibility to attend some events but they do no have to attend all.

We gave our boys an allowance for the weekend, tried to teach them how to stretch a dollar and be accountable for their own money. Bring lots of beer and bottled water. Get up early every morning and fill you coolers with ice from the hotel, if you wait they'll all be empty. Fill the fridge with lunch meat, mustard and water when you check in. Microwave breakfast are good if they don't have the continental breakfast, bring a small micro if you have to, hell bring a little fridge for your room if you have one. Did I mention bring lots of beer. Make sure you've got a portable tent as well, the bigger the better and bungy cord it to a dolly, easier to get it to some of the remote fields you will be on. Coolers on wheels that double as a seat work well too, and bring lots of beer. When your skin is pruned from the night trips in the hotel pool and you're tired of drinking beer, tequila hits the spot, make sure it's iced down in the cooler though, very refreshing when it's freezing cold.

^^^Sounds like you enjoy drinking a lot^^^

quote:

Originally posted by B Holsombach:
We gave our boys an allowance for the weekend, tried to teach them how to stretch a dollar and be accountable for their own money. Bring lots of beer and bottled water. Get up early every morning and fill you coolers with ice from the hotel, if you wait they'll all be empty. Fill the fridge with lunch meat, mustard and water when you check in. Microwave breakfast are good if they don't have the continental breakfast, bring a small micro if you have to, hell bring a little fridge for your room if you have one. Did I mention bring lots of beer. Make sure you've got a portable tent as well, the bigger the better and bungy cord it to a dolly, easier to get it to some of the remote fields you will be on. Coolers on wheels that double as a seat work well too, and bring lots of beer. When your skin is pruned from the night trips in the hotel pool and you're tired of drinking beer, tequila hits the spot, make sure it's iced down in the cooler though, very refreshing when it's freezing cold.

We know most of the other team parents . . . we have plans in place for the adult beverages.

I do need to double check with each individual hotel about a fridge and microwave.

Thanks!