Each year since 2018, our family has taken a trip. It’s never anything super fancy, but it’s a week in the summer when we go somewhere we’ve never been and make memories.

We drive to our destination each year, meaning we choose places within a 10-hour radius of Starkville. Those can still be some pretty long, hard drives, but that window opens up enough potential destinations to keep it interesting. It also eliminates a lot of really cool places we’d like to see.

Pfeiffer, 8, tired of the long drives and the limited options, offered up her own resources recently at dinner to combat the problem.

“We need to fly places for vacation,” she mused. “Look, I’ve got $222. What does that get us?”

Pfeiffer has hoarded years’ worth of birthday and Christmas money because 8-year-olds don’t really buy much for themselves. Also, she had made $2 that day helping her grandmother with some chores and had just counted all of her money anew.

“Well, Pfeiffer, we’re not using your money for this,” I explained. “But that amount might get one of us to wherever we’re going and wouldn’t even pay for that person’s ticket home.”

She was appalled, demanding to know more about the cost of air travel. For our family of five, we’d have to spend a couple grand – on the low end – for roundtrip tickets. As I was offering this as the reason we drive, my wife Amelia dropped a bomb on the conversation.

“If we don’t eat out for a year, that will be more than enough to cover those tickets,” she said.

I looked at her, puzzled at first, then said, “Let’s do it.”

Eating out, for our family, is a real problem. It’s silly because Amelia and I can both cook – in the same way Usain Bolt and the third fastest guy on your high school’s track team can both “run,” but I digress (my wife is a much better cook than me).

But both of us work. Both of us get home late in the evening. And by the time we drag ourselves in the house from loading our respective 16 tons for the day, the siren song of the DoorDash app calls rather loudly. The problem is, it adds up.

Eating out or having food delivered for our family costs between $50 and $100 a meal, depending on the fare. Just doing that a half-dozen times a month is costly. Add what has become my near daily $15 to $20 for lunch, and now we’re talking stupid money – for us, at least.

So, Amelia’s challenge is not only helpful, it suits our personalities well. For me, I’m generally all-or-nothing. If I’m doing something, I’m doing it all the way. Try talking to me about growing tomatoes sometime, and you’ll see what I mean. Things like “cutting back” or “easing into” something just don’t work for me.

For Amelia, she needs to know what she’s shooting at. Is there a tangible way we can track progress? Is there a reward at the end of the rainbow?

That’s just how we’re built, and to paraphrase the war philosopher Sun Tzu, knowing yourself gets you halfway home.

We’ve agreed to terms, with protests coming from only one of the children (Hey, two out of three ain’t bad). Then we came up with a plan that sets us up for success. We use the weekend to cook all the meat for the following week, and the first one home on weekday evenings warms some meat up and adds sides. Amelia and I take leftovers for lunches.

We’re a little more than a week into this plan, but it’s working out pretty well. If we keep it up, Pfeiffer may spend some time next summer trying to rook her sisters, and possibly a few strangers, out of their little bag of pretzels.

Zack Plair is managing editor of The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.

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