If you're staying close to Tyler this summer, there's one big reason behind it.  

Money.

A new survey from Bankrate shows 52 percent of us are planning to take a vacation in a couple of months, but 26 percent are skipping the summer vacation this year and another 22 percent are still on the fence.

The most common reason people give for not taking a vacation is, "I can't afford it."  Sometimes the day-to-day expenses eat up all the money, and sometimes folks choose to pay down debt with any extra cash they have.  In both cases, the trip to the beach gets the ax.

Last summer I took one of three children to Yellowstone, and let me tell ya, that saved a ton of money!  Packing up all three kids an paying for all those admissions and meals would have been super pricey, so it was a pretty good deal to take one kid and pay a third of it.  Before you think I'm a horrible parent, the younger two kids actually wanted to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and the oldest really wanted to go on a quest to see a wolf, so we went.  We didn't see a wolf.  Because it was summer and wolves like to be seen more during the winter.  But we still had fun, and the bills were a lot lower than they would have been had the family been at full speed.

Traveling is expensive!  Make sure you watch our mobile app for more trips to win, and I'm hearing rumblings that you may have a chance to win a bunch of money again soon.  You could be putting a wad of free money toward the best summer vacation ever.  You'll just have to decide how many of your people you'll be taking with you.

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