The dreadful February weather has Ball State students counting down the minutes until the start of Spring Break. The mid-March, week-long hiatus gives some the opportunity to lay out on the sunny beaches in the southernmost states, as well as internationally. But a few students are choosing to stay in and save the little money they have.
"I'm not going anywhere this spring break," Courtney Gainey, a junior marketing major from Cincinnati, said. "Being a student living off-campus, as well as working on-campus making minimum wage, it's just not going to happen."
Gainey said he'd like to find a cost-efficient trip.
"But I don't have any family members in those warm areas right now," she said.
Jillian Singleton, a senior from Chicago, is taking advantage of that idea.
"I'm headed to Atlanta with a few of my roommates for spring break. We all have dependable cars so we don't have to fly, and we have family that we can stay with so we don't have to pay for a hotel," Singleton said.
While freshman English education major Dana Christie has been working, she's been keeping Spring Break in mind. She is planning on going to Texas to visit her friend Sarah.
"I have been saving a quarter of each paycheck for the past 2 months and will continue to do so until I leave," she said.
Singleton said waiting until the last minute to plan your trip can cost you in the long run.
"We waited until the last minute to decide if we were even going anywhere, and once we started researching locations, plane tickets were way overpriced and hotels were booked solid."
Some of the cheapest locations for the upcoming Spring Break, according to moneycrashers.com, include international travel to the Caribbean or Mexico, including South Padre, Texas, which is 5 miles outside of Mexico by water.
Chad DeWeese is anxiously waiting to go to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for spring break. He feels that he has a special reason for going all out for this particular trip.
"With this possibly being my last spring break ever, I wanted to make it a trip to remember. Cabo San Lucas isn't too expensive, but it's not cheap either. I decided based on location and not price," he said.
Other students are planning to save up for bigger trips over the summer.
"I'm not going anywhere over spring break, because I am going to Europe in May and need to save money for that by working," Vashti Britt, sophomore nursing major, said.
While the economic recession is looming over the heads of college students, whether they are planning an international trip or a "stay-cation," they have decided to find a way to have fun.
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