How To Save Money Skiing for the Avid Skier

Skiing is a great activity for the entire family.  It's active, the entire family can do it together and getting away to the mountains for a few days at a time is very relaxing.  The only problem I have with skiing is the cost.  No matter how you do it, skiing is expensive.  You need specialty clothes, equipment, a place to stay, gas money, food and lift tickets.  If you're with your family, you may also need to pay for childcare or lessons.  All of these costs add up and can make a three day getaway with the family easily over a $1000.  So, there are ways to save a substantial amount of money for people that want to ski many days a year.  I think these tips are best, if you want to target 20 days of skiing per season.

A Ski Lease dramatically brings down the cost of lodging per nite

A ski lease is where you rent a house, condo, townhouse near the slopes for three to four months.  Typically, it works like a rental house.  You pay a per month fee, a deposit and the utilities.  There is a huge range of ski leases available from shacks to high end homes.  I'd recommend a clean, but no frills place as the best value.  The only thing I think is mandatory is a comfortable bed, and a hot shower.  A great way to bring down the cost of a ski lease is to share it with family and friends.  For our family, we rent a three bedroom place and share it with my brother.  We could have easily shared it with one more family and brought the cost down more.  The adults each get a bedroom when we are there together and the kids sleep in sleeping bags in the family room.  This works great and cuts the cost of lodging by about 50% a night if you do twenty days and savings add up for each additional night since the cost of lodging is largely fixed.

Cook your own food and pack lunches

Food on the slopes can really add up.  For a family of five, it costs about $75 for lunch at Squaw Valley without drinks.  However, there are picnic benches at the top of the funitel that are perfect for eating a packed lunch.  Get a hydration backpack.  Costco carries them for about $25.  They have a 72 ounce bladder and can be refilled with water.  That's enough to drink for the family.  Pack sandwiches and snacks in the backpack.  Bringing your own food saves over 90% for each lunch.  Eating out breakfast and lunch will also drive the cost up substantially, while you can find places that are less expensive off the resort, the best way to save money is to stop at Costco and get meals for your trip.  For breakfast we buy two dozen eggs, bagels, cereal, one gallon of juice, cream cheese, two gallons of milk and coffee to last our family of five about six days.  For dinner, we get frozen lasagna, pizza, pot roast, raviolis, and pulled chicken from Costco and then we go to a local grocery store for fresh salad and bread.  For snacks, we pick up mixed nuts, Gatorade, cheese, trail mix, red vines, wine, booze and other treats from Costco.

Our total budget for one week of food is $350 for a family of five.  One day eating out three meals on the slopes would come close to the entire week's food budget.  We could probably cut this back quite a bit, but our family really likes to eat well.

Ski Clothing and Ski Equipment

The best way to save money on clothes and equipment is to buy last years model at the end of the ski season.  Everything goes on sale and the substantial discounts of over 50% are available.  Another good tip to save money on buying new skis is to purchase them online and look for retailers that offer free shipping and don't charge taxes.  I purchased my skis from a retailer I found through Google shopping.  My skis will last five to seven years and my clothes are about ten years old.  Might have to get a new jacket this year.

For kids, I recommend going to a second hand store for ski clothes.  Kids grow so quickly that the clothes will last just about one season.  For kid skis, you can rent them for the entire season for about $120 with boots and poles.  If you get in twenty days of skiing, that's $6 a day for rentals which is a pretty good deal.

Get a Season Pass for lift tickets

Lift tickets can run over $80 a day for an adult, but you can get a season pass at Squaw Valley with some blockout dates for about $400.  Even with the limitations, I think it's the best deal.  Especially this year when there has been a ton of snow.  On the blackout dates, we sometimes go to other places to ski that are less expensive like Donner Ski Ranch which is fine for the kids.

Childcare and Ski Lessons

As a parent, my wife and I would love to ski by ourselves a bit to get in more challenging runs so we sometimes put our kids in ski lessons for a day during the week.  Boy, ski lessons are expensive.  A full day is well over $100 per kid.  Three kids and it really adds up.  A few ways to save money on childcare and ski lessons is to hire a nanny and offer food, lodging and lift ticket in exchange for 1/2 day childcare each day.  Another option is to hire a instructor privately from Craigslist to give the kids a group lesson.  The least expensive way is to teach your kids to ski yourself and trade off with your spouse skiing by yourself a few hours at a time.