by Hope
I am getting the pleasure of revisiting one of my all time favorite activities these two weeks…travel! It’s something I wrote on many, many moons ago on my personal blog. You can read that old post here – The Toaster Oven – Road Trip Essentials. A lot has changed in our lives since that post…two more kids, new car, new technology, different ages, etc. (If you read my old post, you will see my paid off car that I sold once the boys were placed with us…I used all the proceeds to pay off debt, but I still miss that car every single day!)
I am EXTREMELY keen on traveling. It doesn’t really matter why or how or where, I just like to go. This is not something new, I’ve been this way as long as I can remember. (I’m sure the roots are in my rootless childhood, with 18 moves under my belt before college graduation.) Since the twins arrived, we’ve cut back quite a bit, both for monetary and schooling reasons, but we have taken a couple of road trips every year to see family.
So for the next two weeks, we are on the road. Here are my top 10 tricks for traveling on a budget:
- Take food – we not only pack snacks and easy meals for the car, but we take staples so that when we are at our destination, we have the basics of meals without having to do a lot of shopping. For us this includes: cereal, fruit and citrus juicer, rice, favorite seasonings and soups for microwaving. One change for us is that we no longer take drinks, we each pack a tumbler including lid and straw and then fill them with ice water continually through the trip.
- Plan it – I have literally typed up our entire summer itinerary including travel dates, starting and ending addresses and drive times, drop off or pick up times for kids so I know exactly when we can/need to arrive. I then sent this itinerary to everyone we plan on staying with (having asked them in advance.) That way they know exactly where we will be and when to expect us…at least a ballpark.
- Look at the Map – I, for one, am in LOVE with my iPhone, I have an unlimited data plan so I type in my destination and then just follow the GPS directions. This is great; HOWEVER, take time to look at a bigger map of where you are traveling beforehand. There are two reasons for this: 1) if you are not planning your stops, you can get a good idea of what big cities are on your route in case you want to site see or use hotel points for overnight stays and 2) using different mapping lets you see the big picture of different routes and may open up some overnights with friends and/or family without taking you too far off your route. For me, an extra hour drive is worth it to have free accommodations, free food (at least in part) and get to visit people you may not see very often.
- Shop Around – As you probably gathered, I do not plan my overnights very often. I realize that I could probably get better hotel deals if I did, BUT with four kids in the car and me being the only driver, it puts a lot of pressure on me to make drive times and a lot of stress on the kids with long car days. For each leg of our trip, I use #3 time to scout out areas where we might want to spend the night for touristy reasons and then price out some options there, giving myself a ballpark of what it would cost. With that number in mind and a fuzzy goal, we drive. If we don’t make it, I pull off and see what’s ahead and try sites like travelocity.com or priceline.com to see what kind of deal I can get, but if we do, I know what I’m willing to pay and have never had a problem getting that rate.
- Take the Pressure Off – Of course there are times when you will have tight drive times where you must drive long and hard, but with proper planning, I find that those can be avoided most of the time. When you can, take time to smell the roses. Stop at the silly tourist attraction. Take some pictures at the scenic overview. Or even just stop at a rest area and sit down and eat a picnic. As a parent and homeschooler one of my absolute favorite stops is at the welcome center for different states. We look at the map and trace our route, learn the state motto, bird and flag and just generally see what the state is known for and has to offer. I LOVE those stops, and the best thing…most of them are absolutely FREE!
- Spending Money – At 8, 10, 15 and 15, all of my kids are plenty old enough to manage and save their own money. They work around the house to earn it, and I consistently remind them of what they have coming up that may cost money that they might want to save for. When we are on trips, they buy their own snacks, their own momentos and sometimes pay for their own “experiences.” Sometimes, they completely blow it and sometimes, they do really well and get some cool stuff and/or come home with money left. I continue to think that time and experience will show them how best to use their money then me preaching at them about it and this spending money is a good way to do that. It really stinks when something really cool comes along and they’ve already blown all their money on candy and only that experience can teach them that lesson. (I also save spending money for myself which I typically spend on a meal out or a family experience.)
- Don’t Forget about Home – It’s great fun to ride off into the sunset and leave the worries of your day to day life behind. It’s not so great so come back from that trip and have a crazy high electric bill because you left the A/C on too low or a toilet running. (Yep, I’ve learned that one from experience.) Make sure you stop your mail, reset your programmable thermostat for an empty house and unplug everything you can. If you are leaving animals behind, make sure you’ve stocked their food and left good instructions for their care givers. Just these little things can save you hundreds of dollars upon your return, believe you me.
- Prepare for Emergencies and Sickness – Take a first aid kit, take your insurance cards and just as importantly take those day to day medications that you keep stocked in your medicine cabinet and notoriously are going to need…cold medicine, bug bite treatments, bandaids, Tylenol. These expenses can really add up if someone needs them, and you’ll feel really bad when you have a brand new bottle at home. When you return, you’ll have two. We also take grocery bags in case of sickness, rolls of toilet paper and baby wipes, between spills and other accidents, these are priceless!
- Gas, gas, gas – There are all sorts of apps out there that will tell you where the cheapest gas is – use them! With my giant beast of a car, these really pay off. If you take the same route many times, as we do to see family, you get to know the cheapest cities/states (like, don’t stop for gas in NC if you can possibly help it, and SC is typically cheaper then GA) so you can plan your driving accordingly. I also am a big fan of finding the local Sams Club if we are in a big city to fill up and restock things if needed. (With our family of 5, buying most things in bulk always pays off, I know this wouldn’t be true of smaller families.)
- Enjoy it! – I’m sorry, but no amount of money is worth torturing you family with driving 24 hours straight every time. And no amount of medical bills is worth staying in flea ridden hotel rooms. Taking a nap at a rest area can be fun, just remember to make smart choices. And sometimes that monument can be just as exciting as a roller coaster, especially if you have history buff children like mine. Take the time to fully experience your trip, believe me, those memories will last a lifetime.
Bonus Tip: Take pictures, lots of pictures. They don’t have to cost anything these days with all the digital technology and it is definitely true that a picture is worth a thousand words.
I didn’t write these in any particular order, and I will expand on details on some of these in later posts. Travel does not have to be cost prohibitive and as the commercials says…the experience priceless.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
Hope,
Looking forward to seeing the photos from your travel. I think you are an amazing mother and an amazing person. The tips are great ones and can be used by any one who travels. Wishing you a safe journey.
Thank you, revdrnd! We are having a great time and have arrived safely at the Lakehouse.
Hope – how do you handle staying with friends/relatives? I love hosting people in my home, but I always feel so awkward asking others if I can stay in theirs. When I do stay, I try to contribute in some way, by taking the family out for dinner, or bringing dessert or wine for a meal in their home. A friend recently stayed with me and she picked up the tab when we went grocery shopping for a grill out that evening.
Do you have an air mattress or two to assist a host with having enough places for everyone to sleep?
Good questions! I hope Hope responds 🙂
This is basically the same strategy we take (e.g. get food and/or activities for our hosts). We only bring gifts for children. When people stay with us, we don’t expect anything but certainly appreciate similar gestures.
One important note is that we invariably only ask very close friends or family to host us. That really gets us over any awkwardness hump.
Great question, Walnut! My answer is two-fold:
1. Because we live so far away from my family (they are in GA/TX/FL,) we only see them once a year at best, but typically go several years in between visits. This has been the case my entire life. So there’s kind of an unspoken agreement that when we are traveling or vice versa, we are all willing to open our homes and kitchens without hesitation. The reciprocation comes from the turn around in travel, make sense?
2. As for staying at friends’ homes, many of my closest friends operate the same way as my family. We are typically hosting so when we do get away to visit, it’s just a reciprocity thing. (We live in a very touristy area, so people love to crash at our house and we love to have them!) Those that I am not so close to or haven’t seen in years, etc. I would plan to do as you mentioned with a meal out, etc. And since we travel with plenty of food, could easily feed my family and theirs if the need arose. Most of these types of stays would be quick over nights enroute somewhere so hopefully the burden isn’t too much.
As a missionary kid with mixed feelings about how that operates AND someone very aware of being tight on money, I am extremely sensitive to being a burden on anyone else so am very open about what we need (sleeping) and what we don’t (food.) Thusfar, all our visits have been great and most everyone has asked us back
As far as sleeping, it is just recently that I’ve begun to consider investing in some air mattresses, the little ones and I have always been able to fit easily into a bed or they would sleep on the floor. Now with the older boys, we do need a bit more space; although, all of my kids are completely fine with a couch, loveseat, floorspace. At our stop last night, we picked up an extra tent to borrow for the summer. We are going to test out camping some on our trips to cut down on costs which is completely out of character for me, but I’m willing to do it to save the hotel costs. We’ll see how it goes.
Hope this answers your question.
Great travel tips! I hope you enjoy your trip. 🙂
The one thing that has really helped me is to keep a master list saved on my computer of things to pack and things to do prior to a trip, so that I don’t have to remember every time. This has come in extra handy for last-minute emergency trips when my mind isn’t quite as focused. It may sound silly, but having enough Q-tips (for example) and not having to track down a store and pay more than usual makes things go smoother.
I do this too! It’s a big timesaver. It’s like a checklist.
You are so right, Zebbie! We have a giant white board in our dining room/school room, about a week before our trip I start my lists for myself and the kids….what we need to pack (and for how many days) and what we need to do and who is to do it.
It keeps us all on the same page especially since I am working outside of the house a few days a week now, they can easily check the list and see what needs to be done and what they need to pack. (After traveling their whole lives my younger two are adept at packing themselves as long as I have listed the number of days and any special considerations such as activities, the older two are slowly getting the hang of it.)
I love to travel like you do. I think those are excellent tips. Wish you lots of fun!
I hope you and your family have a wonderful trip. It will be interesting to read about the things that worked, didn’t work, what you could have done different/better. It sounds like you have taken great pains to plan a great experience without breaking the bank.
I’d love to add a tip (one I got from my mother-in-law): We like to keep a “road trip family journal.” Its a tradition my husband’s family had all growing up and my MIL gifted us a beautifully bound journal for our trips. Some of the things we put in the journal are just-for-fun (funny stories, little experiences that happened on the trip), but we also put practical stuff too. For instance, I track mileage, gasoline cost, and places we have stopped. I keep detailed notes (mile marker/exit numbers) for places with “clean bathrooms” or “incredible fudge” as well as for places to avoid! This is helpful for us because we make the same trip often (driving from Tucson, AZ to Austin, TX and back). It’s fun to document and look back at the “good” places to stop and be able to avoid the “bad” places to stop. My hope is that as our kids grow older it will help to keep them entertained, too (example: husband’s family always kept a running list of animals they saw….a good way to keep kids engaged and interested in what’s going on, as they’ll be busy searching for new animals).
Ashley-
I agree that this is an awesome idea. Something I definitely need to start incorporating now that I have kiddos myself. My paternal grandparents always kept a notebook of their travels that included the same as yours (anecdotes, where to stop, stay, etc.), each year they would circle the U.S. by car to visit family; leaving their home in Connecticut and hitting Florida, Oklahoma, California, and wherever the military had sent my dad. My fondest memory of the driving part of those trips had been that my Grammy would trace our hands on paper when she visited and then use the outline to knit us mittens while they were travelling (then mail them back to us as winter approached). A few years back I got to look through the actual travel journals and it was so neat to see the anecdotes that they chose to remember of my siblings, cousins, and me.
Last spring my parents were going to Ireland and my grandmother dug out an old journal of when my great Aunt had taken my Great Grandmother for a tour. Her observations were so fascinating, everything from the plane trip (which included a description of the menu and meal options; chicken or steak!), to her discussions of trying to get fuel when it was being essentially rationed; often they encountered gas stations that only sold to customers with accounts, there was a five gallon limit, or a higher price if you didn’t have an account, once she found a station that was willing to sell her a full tank! She included observations of the people she encountered and even (unintentionally) gave information about the history and politics of the region at the time; the telephone workers were on strike so while she would normally call ahead to reserve a room they often had to chance their luck of finding somewhere upon arriving in the town they planned to stay in.
Now that I have written a novel, I will end!
Cheers,
Meghan
Wow, that is fascinating!!! I hope to leave that kind of legacy for our children. What a wonderful way to look back and catch a glimpse into our goings-on (and even the interesting historical/social happenings). I loved these anecdotes – thanks for sharing!
That’s a great idea, Ashley! While I haven’t done this, I am a HUGE scrapbooker, so I save any scraps/ticket stubs, etc. and then compile them in a scrapbook with some of the pictures I take from every trip. The kids all LOVE to look back at the books and relive our experiences. It’s amazing the minute details they remember that are triggered just from looking at the books. We get a a lot of laughs from those trips down memory lane.
Food is a big one. If you can control food costs, you are doing a good job. Last year in Yosemite, we stopped at Target and picked up non-refrigerated food items for lunches while on the move / hiking. We did end up throwing out some cheese when we figured out that the cost that we were paying for ice did not justify keeping the cheese.
That is exactly my thought, TENN, I tend to avoid things that need to be refrigerated on longer trips as I hate having to keep up with the cooler ice, even if I can refill it for free at hotel stops, I still like to skip that responsibility if possible.
But we take lots of non-perishables and it saves us ton of money!
This is so relevant to our family at this moment – we’re going to be moving cross country next month, and we’ll be driving the 2,500 miles to our new home! We’re planning the trip right now. We’ve been looking at ways to save money. These are good tips; thanks!
Also, to Ashley – I love the family road trip journal idea! That sounds so fun. I think I’ll do that. It’d be fun to look at it in the future and add new road trips when we go on them. This is our first real big family road trip, so it’s a great time to start one!
Oh, Jocelyn, prepare for one of the most stressful but exciting times with your road trip! The number one thing I would say for that type of trip other than pack plenty of snacks is to take time…don’t rush, stop at the cool and quirky, get out and stretch your legs…it makes the trip that much longer but the stress relief is palpable AND the memories will last a lifetime!
We are hoping to get the chance to go cross country next summer.
A lot of great tips here. The biggest one for us is minimizing restaurant meals. But on some trips, eating is part of the experience so that’s sometimes a gray zone. For instance, I’ve never been to Memphis but when I eventually go, there’s no way I’m packing sandwiches instead of hitting up the local BBQ pit! 🙂
That is true, Joe. My method for this, especially when we are just driving through somewhere as we are this trip in Knoxville, is that I pick up the brochures at the rest area or hotel and then tuck them away to plan a trip back.
For places we are planning to stay, I budget for that splurge as an experience.
For the off the cuff stops and intrigues, I typically have some mad money saved and thus use it without breaking the budget.
(This trip there is NO mad money planned, so we’ve collected a lot of brochures.)
I just thought of a cheap meal for when traveling and wanted to share! Grocery store fried chicken! I know its not uber healthy, but I’m a believer in all things in moderation. I think its a good balance of a fun vacation meal and not breaking the budget. Albertson’s here in the PNW offers a 8 piece chicken for $5.99. I think you could easily flush the meal out with food brought from home like biscuits, cold beans, bean salad, fruit, ect.