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Camping on a Budget; Obama in the Czech Republic; Georgia Aquarium

Aired April 04, 2009 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama has arrived in the Czech Republic after a NATO meeting in France. NATO allies agreed to send 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Hello, again. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

So for weeks we've been focusing on hard times, unemployment, foreclosures, paying for education, difficult stuff. Well, this hour we're looking for a little relief. Everyone is. We posed the question: how do you have a good time on a tight budget? Well, get ready to plan a vacation getaway that won't actually break the bank. We have a teen who shares her secret to doing prom on a budget. And if money troubles have you saying no to your kids or to yourself about those favorite foods, we have some practical advice to help ease the guilt.

So first, let's take a little trip. Perhaps you love to scuba dive, but you don't have the money for a huge trip. Well, I found an aquarium coming to the rescue. It's just one of many catering to land-locked divers. So I decided to dive in as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): How does one cheap trip to the depths of the wildlife-rich Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean sound without getting sand in your toes or breaking the bank? Three oceans poured into one football field-sized tank. Just big enough for the world's largest fish, the most menacing mouths, graceful underwater giants, and you.

Take a dive into Atlanta's Georgia Aquarium.

Why are you doing this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an opportunity for us to do something together.

WHITFIELD: The Schaier boys, brothers Don, Mike ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a once in a lifetime experience. We can't wait for it.

WHITFIELD: Chris and his teenage son William wanted to spring break together, but weren't sure they could afford it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The four of us have never dove together before. WHITFIELD: One lives in Alexandria, Virginia, another in Tampa, and this father and son in Jacksonville, Florida. So they met half way, in Atlanta, for what they consider their cheapest but most thrilling dive vacation ever.

WILLIAM SCHAIER, SCUBA DIVER: (Inaudible) Not so much. Don't want to get right in their faces.

CHRIS SCHAIER, SCUBA DIVER: Just the aquarium itself and the dive will probably run us about $500 to $600 for the two of us.

WHITFIELD: OK. And what are you excited about seeing in here?

C. SCHAIER: Everything. Sharks, whales, having a good time.

WHITFIELD: You got butterflies yet, William? What kind of signals are you guys going to be giving each other down there? How are you going to communicate? Or is it just ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This means it's OK.

WHITFIELD: Everything is OK?

For certified divers 12 or over, a 30-minute, 30 foot dive will run you $325. Swim only, no certification necessary, $225. This is a lot better than Mexico, right?

HEATHER GRIERSON, SCUBA DIVER: Absolutely. And I can afford this.

WHITFIELD: Heather Grierson kissed her planned $1,000 summer dive trip to Mexico good-bye. With gas cheap these days, she drove up from Melbourne, Florida, along with her tent.

GRIERSON: I'm doing low budget, camping at Stone Mountain and doing this. So I'm getting out of it for probably 550.

WHITFIELD: Before the big payoff ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not only do we have 12 sharks, but we have six huge sand tiger sharks.

WHITFIELD: A classroom setting briefing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We also have three hammerhead sharks.

WHITFIELD: And if you still have the nerve, suit up. Class photo and time to get wet.

GRIERSON: So excited.

WHITFIELD (on camera): I couldn't resist a getaway of this caliber without having to travel with all this equipment. They supply it for you here without having to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles away to the deep.

(voice-over): To come within feet of any one of the four 20-foot-long whale sharks, a 10 foot manta ray, the only aquarium in the world with both species. All untamed but well fed. Hammerheads, lots of stingrays and guitar and sawfish. Reaching out to them forbidden, the fish however may approach within inches. Guides keep watch. All this cool marine life, every direction I looked, the funny thing, when I swam by the spectator windows us silly divers became the main attraction.

Of course, the dive is magnificent. Perhaps you just want to swim with these gentle giants. And if you're lucky, you can be here for the feeding. The whale sharks especially like dining near the surface. Remember Heather Grierson? Dive over, she has something else in mind. Would you do this again?

GRIERSON: Definitely. Bring the magaritas (ph).

WHITFIELD: The best part for 14-year-old William, walking away with a fist full of treasure finds and the memory of a lifetime, made during their downsized family vacation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, that was some cool stuff.

So, when Twitter actually recently posed the question: How is the economy affecting your vacation plans this year? They actually got 115 responses almost immediately. Roughly one third says they'll be looking for bargains. Thirteen out of the 115 said they won't be taking vacations at all. And 16 said they would stay close to home on what's called a staycation.

So Matt Wixon wrote a book on staycations. It's called "The Great American Staycation: How to make a vacation at home fun for the whole family and your wallet."

He's joining us from Dallas. And of course here in Atlanta, right in the studio, Josh Levs is also fielding your e-mail questions and your comments about how you're making your plans the for fun. So, Matt, let me begin with you. Staycation.

I think everyone understands it, now it is part of the American lexicon, staying close to home. How do you suggest people go about it so that they're not bored out of their gourd?

MATT WIXON, "THE GREAT AMERICAN STAYCATION": Well, I think the big thing is you have to plan ahead. People think of staycations as, eh, I'm going to spend my time at home. When the time comes, I will try to do fun things when the time comes. If you do that, you're basically looking for disaster.

WHITFIELD: So you're saying really, you have to make the fun part a priority. You almost need to reintroduce yourself to your city. In fact, look at your city as a tourist would do, and then once you do that, what do you do and how do you find the cool things to do?

MIXON: Well, I think a really good first stop is the local city visitors tour and tourism bureau. Because, you know, their goal is to attract tourist dollars. And they've almost embraced staycations, too, now because they're not necessarily getting the tourism dollars. They want them from the local residents. They know the packages that are offered locally, the best deals, and the best things for people coming into the town are getting.

WHITFIELD: A lot of times as a tourist in a city you go to the convention bureau, etc, they offer discounts for people who are from out of town. So how do you take advantage of those discounts if you're an in-towner?

MIXON: A lot of those places are now giving discounts to in-towners.

WHITFIELD: You have to ask for them, though?

MIXON: Absolutely. You have to contact them directly and tell them this is what I want to do. And a lot of times they're going to work with you. I wouldn't say they're desperate. But obviously the economy is hitting them very hard as far as trying to attract people. So they're willing to deal with you, too. Tell them what you want to do, what your plans are, that you're a local resident, and they'll probably make a deal for you.

WHITFIELD: OK. Well, we invited people to be a part of the conversation, throw out questions, maybe even give us comments about how they are going about spring break and even plans for summer break, and so Josh Levs has been receiving all kinds of interesting input from people via Facebook, e-mails, iReports, what do you have?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have it all, Fred. We're getting literally all the above. We have got the Facebooks, we've got the iReports. A lot of good Facebooks today.

WHITFIELD: OK. Good.

LEVS: Let's jump in. I want to show you photos that we are starting off here from iReports. Really beautiful photos. People saying you can have fun for free. We're going to zoom in on the board here. Check this out. This is really nice. This is from Jill in Atlanta who says, this is Upstate South Carolina. She says a lot of people don't realize that pretty much in your backyard, you can get to places for free. Look at that. Beautiful. All this in upstate South Carolina. This is part of an assignment we've had going on at ireport.com. Thrifty and Thriving. And you can see people have been weighing in all over the place.

Let me show you one more that's a part of this that I really like. This is someone who recently went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art who says you can go on a free day and see a lot of interesting history, a lot of interesting art there. So people weighing in.

WHITFIELD: People sometimes overlook or take for granted their museum. They figure, you know what, I've seen it all. A lot of the museums are offering new programs and new fun things to do to reintroduce you to it.

LEVS: And a lot of people don't realize there are free days for these places inside your town. You just have to call and find out when they are.

WHITFIELD: Good. Got anymore?

LEVS: I do. Have a little more time?

WHITFIELD: We do.

LEVS: OK. Cool. Because we're going to be interactive this entire hour. And we're following your Facebook questions as we go. Let's come over here for a second.

WHITFIELD: Maybe ask question to our Matt. If we've got them.

LEVS: Let me check if we have questions for Matt. We have people saying these are the things I do. You can hear him say if he thinks it's something that applies to a lot of people. This one says "I love to check out favorite local spot Web sites for specials for half price wine specials."

More than a dozen people saying when they called and started asking questions at their favorite restaurants they found out there are discount nights they didn't know about.

Here's someone else saying, "We retired July 2008, whoops, now my husband enjoys reading non-fiction from the library. It's free."

So you've got your Facebook page, fredrickawhitfieldcnn you've got mine, joshlevscnn. And I'll tell you something, we are going to keep an eye on that all hour long. And we'll keep coming here. Questions, stories, the works.

WHITFIELD: Excellent. And Matt, we're going to see you again a little later on in the hour as well. Well, all this getting to know the city all over again kind of makes me hungry. How about for you? Well, how do you still dine on the cheap without compromising all that yummy flavor?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So much tough news these days. We wanted you to think about good times and perhaps on a budget. We talked about a little bit of travel. Now we're going to talk about food. I don't know if you're like me. When I travel or when I vacation, I think about my stomach first. So a daily challenge when money is very tight is how to eat healthy and not only stay on budget but also not feel deprived.

So Betsy Dietsch is a registered dietician. She is here in Atlanta and with us now to give us an idea of - we've got that staycation. How do we still eat well but stay within our budget. Because food is very expensive. We all feel it when we go to the grocery store every day. What do we look out for?

BETSY DIETSCH, DIETICIAN: I have four tips that I follow myself. Because my budget is tighter than ever these days. The first tip is to make a plan. So what I do is every Sunday afternoon I plan out what I'm going to have for the whole week. So if you have a staycation, plan what you'll eat for the whole week and then make a list and stick to it.

Studies show that Americans spend two dollars for every minute that they are in the grocery store. So if you have a list and stick to it, you're going to be spending less time and money in the store.

WHITFIELD: You have to know what to put on the list. If you're I thinking vacation or spend some time at home and I want to have a good time meal wise, you start thinking about all of those foods, especially the junk foods that always cost a lot more than the practical healthy stuff. How do you get rid of that?

DIETSCH: That's why you plan ahead and choose nutrient-rich food. Those are going to be foods that are higher in vitamins and minerals and lower in calories.

WHITFIELD: Ok. But it's not sounding fun to me.

DIETSCH: Oh, it's fun.

WHITFIELD: It is?

DIETSCH: There's things like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and beans and low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese. Those are all fun choices.

WHITFIELD: Junior is not going to be happy.

DIETSCH: He will be very happy.

WHITFIELD: I think a lot of kids at home are thinking I want some Doritos, I want chips and I want Coca-Cola. And that stuff usually costs a little bit extra.

DIETSCH: Right, well ...

WHITFIELD: And now I've got to convince them to substitute.

DIETSCH: Right. And when you're thinking about beverages, sports drinks are so popular these days with our kids. I read a statistic that 84 percent of America's youth drinks at least one sports beverage a day.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

DIETSCH: So flavored milk is a great option. Kids love flavored milk.

WHITFIELD: Chocolate milk, strawberry milk.

DIETSCH: Chocolate milk, strawberry milk, vanilla milk. And you have nine essential vitamins and minerals. And it's less than 25 cents for an eight-ounce glass.

WHITFIELD: OK. Delicious, nutritious and cheap. And so you made what we might consider a gourmet meal. Something we might spend $10 or $15 at a restaurant. DIETSCH: Yes. This male that I've made here is a nutrient-rich meal.

WHITFIELD: Why is that?

DIETSCH: It's nutrient rich because I made it with whole grain tortillas. These are beef fajita quesadillas. I've used low fat shredded cheddar cheese and I've used lean meat and I've got some nice peppers there and we also have some coleslaw, some fresh fruit salad. What children don't children love pineapple and strawberries. Then I have a yogurt salsa dip. This meal only costs me $3 to make, under $3 to make.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

DIETSCH: If you were to go to a sit-down restaurant, this comparable meal would be over $9. That's not including your tax, your tip, or your beverage.

WHITFIELD: Well, quickly speaking of restaurants. People take a little time to themselves or they want to treat themselves, they do want to go to a restaurant. These days a lot of restaurants are offering deals if you ask, right?

DIETSCH: That's correct. A lot of ones do have meals and you can even eat healthy at a restaurant, too. You can choose those nutrient rich foods. They have whole grains and kids' fruit cups.

WHITFIELD: (Inaudible) and ladies night ...

DIETSCH: I've seen specials where they do like meals for under $10. Some of the national chains.

WHITFIELD OK, do we have time to hear from josh on any kind of e- mails or -- all right, Josh. What are people asking or saying? What are they inquiring about as it pertains to food?

LEVS: You know what I love about this hour, Fred? I really love how we get just this stuff and we throw it out there. Let me just ...

WHITFIELD: Like the spaghetti on the wall, right? Speaking of food?

LEVS: We were just talking about this. It's great timing. Before the break. A bunch of people saying the same thing. Half-priced meals at great restaurants. Do you guys know, do have an idea, do you know, is there a really good chance that your favorite restaurant, the best restaurants in towns will have specific nights. Now all of the sudden everyone is asking, is this the case? Is that true?

WHITFIELD: What do you think Betsy?

DIETSCH: I would check with local restaurants. I have heard different national chain restaurants have been doing like ten meals under $10 or things like that. I would check with the grocery store - I mean with that restaurant.

WHITFIELD: Not on the weekend because that is usually peak and they want to take advantage of full prices. Maybe during the week?

DIETSCH: Maybe during the week. Maybe check during the week.

WHITFIELD: OK. What else you got, Josh?

LEVS: We've got a few people pointing to a Web site called restaurants.com. I'll put it up later but they say you can get discounts through there. Let's zoom in for a second. I just want to show everyone in case you're just joining us the kinds of things we're getting this hour. I'm just told we have a video. Lest take a look at this, Fred. This iReport video talking about food. Take a look. Take a look.

WHITFIELD: OK.

LEVS: All right. Not about food.

WHITFIELD: You know, if that's Santa Monica, we know you can find food there, right?

LEVS: I'll tell you something good about this. You and I were talking earlier. We're getting all these iReport videos about what people are doing to have fun for free. Partt of the assignment, thrifty and thriving in this economy, is what they're calling it. At first when I saw that beach I was thinking, OK, it's a picture of a beach. But then I started to realize what we're seeing is someone saying forget all the stuff you have to pay for, go to the beautiful places around you. And now we have the food video.

WHITFIELD: Yay!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Real Vermont sugar house where they're making maple syrup right now. They're boiling down the sap inside, and pretty soon it will be fresh maple syrup.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: Paul Tomasi, Belvedere, Vermont has sent us this iReport. He went to this where they're making this maple syrup.

WHITFIELD: That would be up my alley. I would be into it.

LEVS: I love this stuff. So cool. These are going to keep coming in. You have ireport.com, Facebook page for Fredricka Whitfield and me. Keep them coming, we're going to get in everything we can no matter what order.

WHITFIELD: Perfect, perfect. Betsy, we appreciate your input as well. Betsy, Josh, you remember your prom days, right, and how much money it may have cost to get the dress, the tux, the food. We understand on average it may cost young kids somewhere between $500 and $1,000 for prom these days? No, no. We're going to come back and tell you how to do for $200 or maybe even less than that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK. Do you remember what prom was like? Well, it is prom season. Take a look right here. This is Dillon Curow (ph). And he happens to be the son of one of our writers here. And the reason we're showcasing him and his date there, prom season is under way. Look how dapper they look. And guess what? They did it on the cheap. A lot of students are doing so right now. We understand that Dillon was able to rent his tux, get his shoes, his tie, all that for $169.

And because he and about 18 other couples were so inventive, they all decided to rent a bus together, and is that meant that it boiled down to just about what? $50 a person. In order to get that bus. So they all were able to do this prom on a very tight budget. They had dinner for just $17 a person by going to a popular restaurant. Everybody knows the Hard Rock Cafe. They had a great time. And I understand a lot of high school students are doing it just like this. They're trying to figure out smart, inventive ways to do prom on the cheap without compromising their good fun.

So, right here in Atlanta I'm joined by Alex Patafio and Chris Patafio. Alex, being the high school junior, right? You just did prom. There's your beautiful dress. You and others did it on the cheap. How did you do it?

ALEX PATAFIO, PLANNED PROM FOR 28 PEOPLE: Well, it's really about finding a good group of people who have a common goal of what they really want out of prom. And when I first signed on to do this, I was nervous and I didn't know how I was going to get it.

WHITFIELD: You kind of became the planner?

A. PATAFIO: Yeah.

WHITFIELD: How did you begin? This isn't something that's, you know, your expertise. It's prom for the first time. And then you threw it all together. How?

A. PATAFIO: Well, my parents, they helped me so much.

WHITFIELD: That's where you come in, Chris.

A. PATAFIO: But, anyway, the whole like aspect of it was that we wanted to give people the best prom for the least amount of money because we had so many different people in our group catering to a bunch of different budgets that everybody need and food allergies and a whole bunch of things like that. So Facebook really helped. We made a Facebook group. And the people who joined the group, I would send out messages. And we would put things up to a vote. So majority ruled on every decision we made.

WHITFIELD: Let's check off some of the things that you all eventually would agree upon. A, you have got this gorgeous dress that you got for a bargain. How did you find it?

A. PATAFIO: I went to a place called Rivera Prom. They have lots of dresses that suit everybody's budget. They have dresses that go from $100 up to like $600. So this one was $218. This is actually -- that's a pretty legitimate price.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. So, Chris, did you find that to be a bargain? $200 is still pretty steep for a dress. But at the same time we hear a lot of young people are going for vintage, they're borrowing dresses, they're looking for ways the cut the costs. How did you chime in here?

CHRIS PATAFIO, ALEX'S FATHER: Well, first my wife set my expectations up for what the dress would cost. We're so proud of Alex. She's not used to doing things on the cheap. This is a good experience for her to think about a budget. And we were happy with what she chose, it fit with what we were willing to spend and it was ...

WHITFIELD: I hear because you're well traveled, you had the contact, came up with the idea of a bus. And everyone can share. Because a lot of kids are thinking limos. But that's pretty expensive.

A. PATAFIO: Yeah. The bus was the only thing that would really hold the amount of people that we had. So we needed one vehicle that would transport like 30 kids.

WHITFIELD: How much did it end up being per person on the bus?

C. PATAFIO: It ended up being $50 per person. We used a local company. Cooper Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: And look at the great group picture.

C. PATAFIO: An exception company. We got the best of both worlds. It was a bus that held 28 kids. And it was like a limousine inside. Flat screens and lights. The kids had a blast. The driver was ready for fun.

WHITFIELD: We heard from our dietitian the last segment, you call a restaurant and ask them if they're offering these deals. And you actually did that for prom and you scored.

A. PATAFIO: I did. We went to Hard Rock Cafe. They have fixed menus per price range. They have a menu that goes from $15 all the way up to a menu that costs $30. We picked one to suit everybody's budget in the group. Everybody voted. It came out to be only $17 a head for dinner.

WHITFIELD: So do you feel even better about your prom experience knowing it was so economical? Is that up there with the great memories of, you know ...

A. PATAFIO: Definitely.

WHITFIELD: ... the whole date.

C. PATAFIO: I agree.

WHITFIELD: I know you're happy. Prom, okay by me. Josh Levs is here. He's been fielding e-mails, comments, questions from people. I have a feeling that people have a lot of questions about how to make my prom like Alex's?

LEVS: They do. In fact, can I show you something? Check this out. Let's zoom in on the board. We have a story here from Gerri Willis on cnn.com, doing prom right. How to save money on prom. Take a look at this for a second. What you were saying just now pretty much matches what we have here.

I want to zoom through with this. Tell me if you disagree with anything. You get a little help from friends. Getting a lot of people together. Get the group rate, ditch the old school traditions, roll in big style. This specifically says get an RV or a bus together. I'm loving this. The last one applies to people more like you and me, Fred. All the rest of us in the world. Relive your prom if you want to help out the kids, maybe act as a chaperon, a chance to enjoy yourself. Do you like all these, Alex? Do these work for you?

A. PATAFIO: Definitely.

WHITFIELD: It looks like you did all those things. Is there any one particular thing you all didn't do that you said you know what, if there's a next time or a recommendation i would like to make it would be ...

A. PATAFIO: Really, honestly there was not anything. It was really well thought out. My group helped me 100 percent. It was a great night. I really wouldn't have changed anything about it.

WHITFIELD: Fantastic. How about for you, Chris.

C. PATAFIO: The only drawback was it was pouring rain that day.

A. PATAFIO: I forgot about that.

C. PATAFIO: We had the after party at our house as well. About 13 kids there and it was probably one of the best parties ever. Well- behaved, no problems.

WHITFIELD: Good. That was a great prom night. All right, thanks so much. Something the entire family was able to get involved in. Alex and Chris Patafio, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

C. PATAFIO: Thanks.

A. PATAFIO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Of course, after prom season, that also means summer vacations are on the way. How families are taking rather drastic moves in order to cut back and plan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: OK, we're talking about good times on a budget. Can you have a really great time without breaking the bank? Yes, especially if you go back to the basics. That's what we're focusing on this entire hour, "Good Times on a Budget."

A lot of folks are going back to the basics like camping. Isn't that beautiful right there? That is Stone Mountain, Georgia. One of our own producers, Eddie Williams, decided to rough it by taking his five- year-old twins, Kennedy and Kaylen (ph), camping this weekend on their Spring Break. And he's also brought along his -- there Eddie Williams there -- College-aged son Nicholas as well.

They've been able to do it on a dime. Just get a load of this, he invested in -- there are the cute five-year-old twins. He invested in a camp site rental, which cost about 79 dollars. You see the score card of what he spent. Propane stove for 69 dollars. Propane for 15 dollars. A tent, 120 dollars, which he said, I can use again. A tarp for the tent to try to stay dry, in case it rains, two air mattresses. The sacrificial lamb that he is, the kids get to sleep on the mattress. He's sleeping on the ground. He invested 70 dollars for that.

Two camping lamps, 75 dollars. Total cost, 435 dollars for a great weekend with his kids camping. And Eddie Williams is taking a break from his Spring Break of camping with the girls and the son, and he's on the phone with us now to tell us how this venture has come along. Eddie, was it everything you expected?

EDDIE WILLIAMS, CNN PRODUCER: We've been blessed with incredible weather. It's 75 degrees out there. Hold on, wait a minute. No, I'm not sleeping on the ground. I don't do that.

WHITFIELD: I thought you might like that.

WILLIAMS: I'm on the air mattress, OK?

WHITFIELD: Where are the girls?

WILLIAMS: They're right -- I have two of them. I have two queens. Two queen air mattresses.

WHITFIELD: So you're snuggling up. That's cute.

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. You were talking about prom. When I went to the prom, I convinced my girlfriend to wear my mother's wedding dress. That's how you go to -- OK, I'm kidding.

WHITFIELD: OK, I was going to say. Wow, really, let's get her on the line. There you are. You did some fishing. You also had a fire going. Come on, Eddie, be honest. I know the industrious guy that you are not, you did not build that fire.

WILLIAMS: Oh, Absolutely. Actually, we're building another one right now as we speak. We're gathering twigs right now. The logs out here, they sell them for you, like four dollars a bundle. If you buy that same bundle of logs from Krogers, it's like eight or nine dollars. They sell them cheaper for you at the camp site. They're not out here to gouge you. They're out here to allow you to have a good time. WHITFIELD: You're finding that you all are not alone. Camping is big right now.

WILLIAMS: It's so loud.

WHITFIELD: It's very crowded, isn't it?

WILLIAMS: This is the first major weekend of camping at Stone Mountain, any urban setting in this part of the country. So you really have about a month or a month and a half ahead of time have to reserve your spot, because it's pretty much sold out. Especially if you want a spot on the lake, where we are.

WHITFIELD: Oh, go ahead.

WILLIAMS: And that's what I did.

WHITFIELD: Oh, Eddie, father of the year. Producer extraordinary and father of the year. Man, oh man. I know, I'm pumping you up. You're going to come back with a huge head, aren't you?

WILLIAMS: Another thing, in order for me to upload those pictures, I had to leave the campsite. Normally they have excellent wi-fi here, right, but it was a little down this morning. I had to leave the campsite to upload pictures. What that means --

WHITFIELD: Just to get us pictures.

(CROSS TALK)

WILLIAMS: What that means is the time I was away from my children, you're going to pay for. You owe me lunch.

WHITFIELD: I owe you lunch.

WILLIAMS: We're doing things cheap. You're paying me back.

WHITFIELD: I'm so glad you shared your Spring Break with us. Thanks so much, Eddie.

WILLIAMS: Wait a minute. Did you show the picture of me cooking with my sunglasses on?

WHITFIELD: We saw that. We were wondering, is he ever going to take those sunglasses off?

(CROSS TALK)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much. This has been revealing in so many ways. You know what kind of relationship we all have now. We love to rib Eddie. He did great. Congrats to he and the girls for having a great time. Matt Wixon is back with us. He wrote "The Great American Stay- Cation." The premise being, camping and all kinds of other things make for a really great, inventive and budgetary vacations. He's joining us from Dallas. Josh is here with e-mail questions and comments. It looks like, Matt, Eddie did it right. He was very conscious about trying to do this without spending a lot of money. What other advice do you have for folks who want to do something like what he did?

MATT WIXON, AUTHOR, "THE GREAT AMERICAN STAYCATION": I'm glad he brought up camping. That's a fantastic idea. In fact, you know, there's wildlife viewing areas. You can find those on the Internet. A lot of times they're near the camp site. There's things to do as far as hiking and biking, that sort of thing, on those days.

As far as other things, especially for families, it's, again, maximizing your hometown. You find the historic districts in your home towns, the factory tours, the museums, art, history, science, kids. You have minor league and major league sporting events, but you also have stadium tours and entertainment venue tours.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yes. I guess people -- generally, you think stadiums, you think I want to go to a game. You could really enjoy the ballpark if there isn't a game going on.

WIXON: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: How do you find out about that?

WIXON: Well, usually it's affiliated with the sports team. If there's a sports team at a venue, then you just go to their website and they'll talk about the tours. Just about all of them offer them.

WHITFIELD: All right, say you're not the out-doorsy type. Who doesn't love going to the beach? What suggestions do you have where people can try to enjoy the outdoors, if ordinarily it doesn't seem like their thing?

WIXON: You know, if it's just hiking and biking -- not everybody wants to bike. There are easy hiking trails. You can find those online, too.

WHITFIELD: And that's free, often times. Right?

WIXON: Right, right. So there's lots of those kinds of opportunities. Then there's even like sunset cruises and harbor tours, those kind of things. If you can't afford the full-blown cruise right now, you can get a sunset cruise or a dinner cruise. You can get outdoors, like you said, without having to pitch a tent and build a campfire.

WHITFIELD: OK, Josh is back with us, of course. He's got Facebook, e-mail, CNN -- Weekends@CNN.com. What are people saying? Camping, outdoors and all that?

LEVS: They're giving us a lot of ideas that Matt -- just what you were talking about there. Some campers, some less high-tech. Zoom in on this screen. I want to show you an interesting i-Report photos we've got here from an i-Reporter having a day on Lake Erie, talking about how much fun you can have there for free. Let's take a look at one of the e-mails. I want you to see this. This is from Steve in Michigan. "Memorial Day weekend, we're going to St. Joseph, Michigan. Our hotel has suites with free grills, full- size fridges. They bring their steaks and other food from home. They cook it in the hotel, rent bicycles to ride around town and near the shore."

Now, not everyone goes quite so hi-tech. Take a look at this i-Report video we have of a unique form of enjoying the spring by sledding. Take a look.

WHITFIELD: You're kidding. That's cute.

LEVS: Yes, the story she has is she took a metal sign that had been discarded and decided why not. And apparently had hours of fun doing that. This is from Veronica. You can obviously find ways to have fun outdoors if you're not the semi-hardcore camper that Eddie Williams pretends to be.

I'll tell you what, we've got one more second. Let's just go back to the Facebook pages. These are on fire. People are coming to us on Facebook, all over the place. You have Fred's page, FredrickaWhitfieldCNN and mine, JoshLevsCNN.

This one is from Jeff Clark, who says he is just going biking around New Haven, maybe a little hike. Then he's going to have the neighbors over with the outdoor stone fire place at full burn.

WHITFIELD: That's beautiful. I've lived in New Haven. It's a gorgeous biking city.

LEVS: Me, too. That's cool.

WHITFIELD: Really?

(CROSS TALK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Very good. Matt, we're going to talk to you again in a second, and Josh as well, because, of course, words like recession, that doesn't mean a whole lot, to kids especially. Skipping vacations or presents for children can be heartbreaking for the parents. So Deborah Feyerick reports how moms and dads are using this crisis to actually teach their kids the value of a dollar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Annie Platt decided to quit her part-time job as an accountant to build her parenting web business, the mother of two knew it would be a big change.

(on camera): Is this the first time you and your husband really had to put together a budget?

AMY PLATT, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: Yes, absolutely.

FEYERICK: Is that crazy a little bit?

PLATT: yes. Almost everything in our daily lives we now think of the cost. Whereas before we were like, yes, we can go out for lunch or go out for dinner.

FEYERICK (voice-over): She and her husband stopped using debit cards, started cutting coupons, switched to a cheaper SUV, even gave up their full-time babysitter.

PLATT: It's a big adjustment for people who never really were on a strict budget before.

FEYERICK: Moms and dads across the country are making recession- driven choices. A survey by MomCentral.com found money alone is not the issue.

STACY DEBROFF, FOUNDER, MOMCENTRAL.COM: They've also been wrestling with how to explain the current economic environment to kids, from mortgage payments to losing jobs to financial stability for a family, to just saying no to younger kids, that they can't have the toy in the store.

FEYERICK: Even six-year-old Aaron Platt is learning about cutting back, taking extra care of his birthday money.

AARON PLATT, SON OF AMY PLATT: I put it in my wallet. I put my wallet in my secret drawer.

FEYERICK (on camera): What are you trying to teach your kids? What are you trying to instill in them?

PLATT: Not to be wasteful. To really think about purchases that you're making. He seems to get it. He has more of a responsibility with money I think than a six-year-old would.

DEBROFF: There is definitely a silver lining because we have engaged kids in a dialogue that we have, up until now, sequestered them from.

FEYERICK: Now Amy is helping other moms make cuts. The Long Island parenting website offers advice and discounts on kid-friendly activities.

(on camera): Given the changes that you've made, do you find yourself saving a little bit of money? Or are you --

PLATT: No.

FEYERICK: You're not?

PLATT: We're not saving. But we're paying everything that needs to be paid.

FEYERICK: As long as you can cover your bills, you're happy?

PLATT: For sure.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Long Island.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So you don't have the money for a summer vacation, but are like, get me out of the house. You want to send them to summer camp. Scholarships anyone?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Summer camp is so expensive. Sometimes it's out of reach. These days, they actually have payment plans. There are scholarships and even grants that are being made available. So let's delve into that a little bit more. How do we make sure the whole family has a good time this summer?

Peg Smith is with us now to help us understand all of our options as it pertains to summer camp for our kids. She's with the American Camp Association, joining us from Indianapolis, good to see you.

PEG SMITH, AMERICAN CAMP ASSOCIATION: Hello.

WHITFIELD: OK, summer camp, this is a new one on me. Not the summer camp part, because I did it as a kid. But tuition for summer camp, scholarships, grants. How do you find out about that?

SMITH: The first thing I tell parents is to go to CampParents.org and start your research there. That will lead you to another site that's called Find a Camp. You can search by location, by cost, by activity, by type of camp. There are many options available to families.

WHITFIELD: Camp is very expensive in some parts, especially depending on what part of the country you're talking about. When you get a bit of a discount, or can you ask for a discount, or is that asking for a scholarship?

SMITH: The first thing I would say to you, there's a camp for every child, and there's a camp for every family budget. Yes, there are a lot of variables in terms of the type of camp and the kinds of programming and the region. But it's also important that you can ask those financial questions as well. What kind of discounts are available? Are there scholarships? What kind of payment plans?

Don't assume you can't afford to send your child to camp. You can.

WHITFIELD: OK. How do folks -- what's the first step? What do folks do to find out about these, I guess, perks, and certain camps that might be available in their area?

SMITH: Well, what we're finding, a couple of things. One, parents are really attending a lot of camp fairs. Camp fairs can be found somewhere in your town, often times at a local mall. Sometimes universities will have camp fairs. The attendance is actually up at the camp fairs. Parents are going in, really trying to find out the answers to their questions.

The other is what I said, CampParents.org. When you go to that site to find a camp site, often it will be indicated whether that camp offers scholarships. So in your search, you can find that out. The best thing to do, pick up the phone and call.

WHITFIELD: You've given us great websites. CampParents.org. And there are camp fairs. Josh, I want to bring you in on this. Did you know -- we know about the job fairs. We've been covering those. But camp fairs now, too. What are people asking or inquiring about via e- mail or Facebook.

LEVS: Yes, we're taking a look at that webpage right there, CampParents.org. There it is. You can see how to go about using it, if you want to do it.

So, Fred, we are getting a lot of interesting things about ways to have a great time with your kids, fun things you can do for free. Let's take a look at a few of them from i-Reports. This is a twilight party they had a great time with. The kids said they were able to go to this. It didn't cost much. In fact, they did something called a pint for a pint, where you could get -- if someone donate ad pint of blood, they got a pint of ice cream.

Anyway, total fun. Free impromptu fire pit party, this is from Luis Layal (ph). They are just having fun at their own place.

Look at this, recycled water bottle rocket. Fun, fun, fun. This is from Tim Hayes, who writes us often. He said it was his son's birthday. Even though they couldn't spend a lot of money, they found a website online that taught them how he could make a water bottle rocket launcher. I'm loving this.

WHITFIELD: That's fun. Good times.

LEVS: We have a little time left. Can I do one more e-mail?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEVS: We have a lot of e-mails, a lot of Facebook. Zoom back in for the big kids out there who want to have your own kind of camp fun. This was from Jonathan Allison, Montreal, Canada, organize a weekend with friends. They camped and hiked Hurricane Mountain, one of 46 high peaks over 4,000 feet in the region. "So much fun. My friends are now on my case to get more hiking weekends organized."

Fred, I'll tell you something, we've heard about a lot of ideas, a lot of websites, a lot of places to check out online. I've got my page here, Josh Levs CNN. We have your page at Facebook, Fredericka Whitfield CNN. I'm going to take everything we've been here, post links up there right now.

WHITFIELD: Yes. It's hard to get all this down. We covered a lot of grounds, vacations, stay-cations, eating on a budget, summer camp, prom night, all that good stuff. Peg Smith, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Josh Levs, appreciate that as well.

Some final thoughts on good times on a budget right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We hope you got some great tips on "Good Times on a Budget." Our many thanks to Matt Wixon about stay-cations, Peg Smith about summer camps, Josh Levs fielding all your emails and questions. Alex and Chris who helped us figure out how to do prom on the cheap. And our producer Eddie Williams, who took us camping with his and his kids. And Betsy, who helped us still eat on a budget.

Next weekend, we're going to focus on how you are stimulating the economy. Meantime, new technology is now helping to save lives in the battle zone. CNN's Deborah Feyerick reports from the edge of discovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK (voice-over): Cameras come with a lot of fancy accessories these days. Here's a new one, wings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unmanned aircraft are essentially flying cameras.

FEYERICK: Meet the newest eyes in the sky. They might look like simple remote controlled airplanes, but these hi-tech devices are equipped with GPS, infrared cameras, and are fast becoming a crucial tool in military intelligence.

STEVE GITLIN, AEROVIRONMENT: The soldiers, Airmen, Marines, and in some cases sailors who use our small aircraft systems are often operating in very dangerous areas. In areas where they don't have access to the kind of information that they would like to have about what's over the next hill, what's on top of the building, what's around the next corner.

FEYERICK: Some are launched by hand, and some lift off on their own. But they're all lightweight and compact, weighing less than four pounds. And they're only getting smaller. Yes, even smaller. Researchers are now developing unmanned aircraft the size of birds and even tiny insects. They could be put to use beyond the front lines.

GITLIN: Natural disasters are very appropriate applications for this kind of technology. Small unmanned aircraft would enable people to see which roads are passable. It would enable people to see where survivors are.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Next hour with Don Lemon coming up, highlights on the shootings in Pittsburgh and Binghamton, New York yesterday. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. See you again here tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)