Life as a Mom has her weekly Frugal Fridays post up.
My frugal hacks post is due to show up at around 6 a.m..
It's about frugal games to play while traveling or sitting around in a waiting room.
You can find more Ive written on this topic here, here, and here (and other places on the blog).
We're planning an upcoming family road trip to a friend's wedding with some stops at some historical sites along the way. What are some of the ways you all keep road trips on budget? Got any tips for me on inexpensive accommodations, cheap and healthy travel meals, games to play in the car?
Let's hear them.=)
Be sure to come back every Thursday when the Four Moms:
Kim @ Raising Olives
Connie @ Smockity Frocks
Kim @ Life in a Shoe
and ME
Linked at We are THAT Family's WFM Wednesday
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How about used books? I'm sure you don't have enough already. :) My mother would pick up used books throughout the year and then distribute them to us during the trip. Then we'd all trade them around. This system fell apart when about half of the children old enough to read developed motion sickness from reading, but if yours don't have motion sickness, it's a pretty low cost-to-time ratio.
ReplyDeleteOther games: the alphabet game, keeping a list of all the different license plates (Hawaii is HARD, but we have seen it). There's a book called "Are we there yet?" with many fun games.
For meals, we buy bread, cheese, cream cheese, cold cuts, peanut butter, jam, and the like and bring them in the car for breakfast and lunch. We have dinner upon arrival at wherever we're going. If your trip is longer than one day, this might not be feasible.
Teresa, I think we are at the point now where I could pick out some used books already on our shelves and they would be 'new' to some of us.=) Sadly, only two of the Progeny are able to read in the car without getting motion sick, and I get car-sick, too.=( Happily, those two can now read aloud to the rest of us. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteRoadside America (.com) is a listing of all the fun and wacky places along the roads— many of them free. As for fun while driving, my parents still keep a bird book in the car, and it's fun to spot the local wildlife. Aside from that, it's been so long since I wasn't the driver that I've forgotten what it's like to not be entertained by the scenery.
ReplyDeleteThere's a book I've been meaning to buy and must soon. It's called "Carschooling". It has an abundance of good ideas. We're road trippin' to BDurbin's area in June, ya ready? :)
ReplyDeleteThere's a book I've been meaning to buy and must soon. It's called "Carschooling". It has an abundance of good ideas. We're road trippin' to BDurbin's area in June, ya ready? :)
ReplyDeleteOn our recent trip to D.C. we checked out some what are called play-a-ways from our library. They are preloaded with a book on them. I guess it's kind of like an i-pod that plays a book. At our library, you have to provide your own ear phones and batteries. All 3 of our children enjoyed "reading" these books. In order not to lose any of them once we got to D.C. I made sure we had all of them and made sure they were all accounted for before we left.
ReplyDeleteOn our recent trip to Washington D.C. we had checked out several play-a-ways from our library. These are books that have been loaded on a mp3player like device. At our library we needed to provide the batteries and the ear phones. While we only have 1 reader among our 3 kids they all are excellent listeners. One thing I did at every stop was to inventory the play-a-ways and make sure we returned with as many as we checked out.
ReplyDeleteWhen my four kids were little, we'd take yearly car trips (12 hours!) to visit Grandma in Ohio. One thing that was a big hit was to bring a cookie sheet and magnetized shapes and letters. The kids could not only play with the magnets, but the cookie sheet also made a good 'desk' to lean on for drawing pictures.
ReplyDeleteHere's another hint from a friend of mine: if you stay in a hotel, bring your own soda or other drinks. You could probably stop at a local store for a 2-liter bottle or two of something. Then, just use the hotel's free ice! It's a lot cheaper than spending upwards of a dollar on a can from the vending machine.
books on tape from the library.
ReplyDeletestickers galore
I think my kids could live on peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Another variation to add in is coconut, I love coconut on peanut butter.
We always played the Alphabet Game in the car -- look for something that starts with A, then B, etc. Exceptions for X, Q, etc. (can be anywhere in the word). Everyone does alphabet at own pace. I may be on B, you may be on J. I cannot use the word you used. I loved this game and it kept us occupied for hours and hours. We drove about 800 miles every summer from UT to CA and back. We also all were allowed a cake tin with lid to store books, crossword puzzles, pencils in.
ReplyDelete