Rules for a Staycation

With summer around the corner, it’s as good a time as ever to start thinking about where you’ll be spending your summer vacation. However, some of you will be thinking about where you won’t be spending your vacation thanks to a lack of funds.

But you shouldn’t let that paid time off go to waste if you have it. There are ways to have a vacation-like experience in your own backyard.

Sleep In

This one cannot be stressed enough because it is the most obvious.

Regardless of what your work schedule is, whether it’s the graveyard shift or the old nine-to-five, chances are you’re probably not getting the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Well, now’s your chance to get that amount and possibly more.

This is arguably the coolest thing about a staycation because you don’t have to worry about getting to the theme park early or those aforementioned lame museums. This will also come in handy when you…

Stay up as Late as You Want

Whether it’s because you’re checking out a local hot spot or you’ve always just wanted to watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon all the way through, now you don’t have to have a set bedtime.

Always wanted to do karaoke night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at your local Irish pub? Now you can. Wanted to watch a whole two-hour block of Girls Gone Wild infomercials?

Nothing is going to stop you. You, quite literally, have all night.

Explore the Relative Unknown

Now that you have no self-imposed curfew, bedtime, or wakeup time for the week, that doesn’t mean you should vampire it and stay indoors until the sun goes down throughout your staycation.

Regardless of where you live, chances are there is somewhere you’ve always wanted to go to in your area that you’ve just never had the opportunity to go, whether it’s some sort of local landmark, a place where a famous person got shot, or that new Chik-fil-A down the street. Just make sure it’s not a museum. Nothing against museums, but that’s something you save for when a relative is in town or if you’re trying to impress a nerdy member of the opposite sex.

And if you think you’ve seen everything there is to see about your area, run a quick Internet search or go around asking people what the best-kept secret in town is. You’re bound to hear about something interesting. Oh, and if some guy tells you the “best-kept secret” is where he buried the bodies, you should contact the authorities immediately.

Freestyle

By now you’ve figured out that you’re pretty much free to do anything you’d like to do — just as long as it’s not a museum. You can use this time to just focus on yourself or think about where your life started going downhill.

Also, if you have fellow broke friends, you can even plan to staycation together. How awesome would a week of partying locally with all your buddies be?

Again, it’s up to you. Just don’t let that paid time off go to waste. Everyone can use some time off work, especially if being there makes you want to shove a pen in your ear.

Joshua Williams

Joshua is a freelance writer with years of experience blogging about business and finance, and a whole host of other things too. When he's not writing, he enjoys camping with his dog, a golden retriever named Oakley.