Holiday Travel Savings

The holiday travel season is almost upon us! Don't forget to factor travel costs into your budget. Gas, snacks, hotels, and meals on the road all add up. Follow these tips, though, and you can significantly lower travel costs.

• Call the Chamber of Commerce in the city in which you'll be visiting and request a visitor's packet. Many times, these packets include coupons for hotels and restaurants. You'll find other helpful information about area attractions and in the form of maps.
  
  
• Ask your home bank for a list of ATMs on your route, and in the town in which you will be staying. Using a "foreign" ATM usually involves an additional charge, and those charges add up. Ideally, carefully figure how much cash you'll need for the trip so you don't have to use an ATM.
  
  
• Carefully choose hotels. A hotel with a refrigerator, coffee maker, and microwave in the room might cost a bit more, but having those appliances allows you to eat at least some meals in your room for significantly less cost than eating at a restaurant. As you research hotels, try to choose one which includes a continental breakfast. That's one less meal you have to eat at a restaurant!
  
  
• Before you leave, make sure your vehicle is in optimum condition for the trip. Have the oil changed and check other fluid levels, belts, etc. Make sure the tires are at their proper pressure. These simple measures can save significantly on gas costs and it's always better to prevent problems than have to fix them, especially if you're in an unfamiliar area and traveling on weekends or holidays.
  
  
• If you're traveling to a warm place, be sure to take one outfit for cooler weather. If you're traveling to a cold weather place, take an outfit for warm weather. This way, if your destination has unseasonable weather, you won't have to purchase new clothes to be comfortable.
  
  
• Make a checklist of essentials to pack, such as toothbrush, deodorant, brush and comb, etc. These are very expensive to purchase at convenience stores! If you do forget something, call the front desk. Many hotels offer complimentary sample sizes of these personal care items.
  
  
• Pack a cooler with soda, bottled water, and snacks for the drive. All of these are much more expensive at convenience stores. Also pack treats that include fruit, cheese, bread, cereal, and milk so you can have meals out of the cooler, allowing you to skip drive-through or sit-down meals, saving you time as well.
  
  
• When you arrive at your destination, purchase a local paper. You'll be able to find out what's going on in town, and might find coupons or specials on local attractions or restaurants.
  
  
• When you do eat out, consider going to a "nice" restaurant. Take the leftovers back to the hotel (remember, you have a refrigerator and microwave there). There will probably be enough for another meal, cutting the cost in half! If you've found coupons for that restaurant, it's even cheaper!
  
  
• When it comes to souvenirs, think cheap! Rather than overpriced junk, collect free brochures from the hotel or attractions you visit. Take a lot of photographs. Save fancy napkins or toothpicks or straws from restaurants. Have your kids keep a journal and draw their own pictures to help them remember the trip. Purchase postcards (which are inexpensive); if it's a really special trip, you can frame them later. Consider pooling souvenir money and purchasing something more expensive, but lasting, like a video-tape which features the place you visited.

Enjoy your holiday travels!

Shelly Burke, RN, is the author of Home is Where the Mom Is; A Christian Mom's Guide to Caring for Herself, Her Family, and Her Home. To read an excerpt or download a free goal-making guide and goal-sheet, go to homeiswherethemomis.com. Shelly works to bring encouragement to all moms, especially at-home moms. Shelly and her husband have two children, a son who is almost 13 and a daughter, almost 11. She and her husband and son are (tentatively) looking to the teenage years. Shelly is very relieved that her son shows no interest in girls--yet! As of now he is much more interested in his show cattle. Her daughter is a "lover of all animals". Right now Morgan's menagerie consists of three dogs, three cats (all strays adopted during the last year), a guinea pig, several cattle, and five sheep, four who will have lambs this spring.

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