Here’s some tips to save you money on trips!

Gas

Any gas saving tips can help you on trips, and I know there’s a million out there! So here’s just a few.

• Drive as small of a vehicle as you can to get good gas mileage.
• Fill up where it’s cheapest. Usually the most expensive places are right off the highway. You can check gas prices at gasbuddy.com. I try to fill the car up at HEB before trips, since that’s where it’s usually cheapest. 
• Only have what you really need in your car. A lot of extra weight only makes your gas mileage worse.
• Drive at the speed limit or a little slower. This not only keeps you from getting a speeding ticket it also makes your gas mileage better.
• If you can avoid it don’t drive through big cities at rush hour. The more you have to brake and gas the more fuel your car uses.
• And of course, use a gps or map to make sure you’re driving the best route on your trip.

Food

• Take food with you in a cooler, to avoid expensive eating out. My parents sometimes take a bag salad to eat as a light meal if they’ve had a lot of meals out.
  

  Five Guys Burgers and Fries...delicious!

• If you are going to eat out, do it as cheaply as possible.
• I used to always try taking things like carrot sticks and apples on trips, so we wouldn’t buy snacks from gas stations, but it didn’t work. We always ended up buying junk food when we’d stop for gas and a bathroom break. So now I go to the grocery store and buy what I know we’ll be craving in the car. It’s a lot cheaper buying that kind of stuff at the store than at a gas station, especially if I can  get it on sale, with a coupon or get the generic brand.
• Drinks are the same as snacks. They’re cheaper bought at a grocery store. But if you do end up getting some at the gas station, look around for the better price. It may be cheaper to get drinks from the soda fountains, rather than bottled.
• If you’re staying at a hotel that offers a free breakfast make sure to make use of that!

Hotel

• Reserving your hotel ahead of time, not only saves you time once you reach your destination, you might even be able to get a discount.
• Look for hotel coupons, like at visitor centers.
• Go with the cheaper hotels. We never stay af fancy places. Our Six Flags trip we stayed at a Super 8 and were really pleased with the price and cleanliness.
• Get a rewards card. We got one that covers several different hotels, including Super 8. We probably wouldn’t have signed up for it, except it was free!
• Make use of all the things included in your hotel cost, like free breakfast, coffee and ice, instead of buying those other places.

Miscellaneous

Free samples I got that are the perfect size for traveling!

• Check for free stuff to do. We usually enjoy checking out various public parks. Some of the bigger cities have big ones that Gracia always enjoys. On our Six Flags trip we went to a big mall, even though we’re not really mall people, but they had some cool stuff to look at. We went to the store part of the Rainforest Cafe and got to see some salt water aquariums. We also went to the store of Legoland and got to see some cool stuff, like Buzz Lightyear (see photo).
• If possible, doing tourist type stuff is usually cheaper during off seasons. Or even just going on week days rather than weekends might save you money, or at least make places less crowded. That’s why we went to Six Flags on a Wednesday, so we wouldn’t have as many long lines to wait in.
• Check out the picture of all the FREE samples I got that I was able to take on our trip! They’re the perfect size for traveling! And I got really excited when I saw our Hotel had those sample shampoos and soaps too! (Go here to see some of my recent freebies.)
• Before trips always make sure everything at your house is turned off that doesn’t need to be on. Before leaving we checked to make sure all lights were off and turned our hot water heater off too.

Cameron and Lego-Buzz