Money Saving Monday

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Here are a few money saving tips for those road trips:

1.  Take your own water with you.  Fill bottles with water to take in the car on short or long trips.  On long trips fill a large water cooler and store it in the back of your vehicle.  Use this to refill your water bottles.  A bottle of water costs about a dollar at a convenience store.  With nine in our family it would cost us $9 just to get a drink.  If we buy the water ahead of time at Wal-Mart, it will cost about $1.75 for 9 water bottles. This is a much better price, and sometimes we go this route. However, the most cost effective method is to fill our own bottles with water and take them with us.

Some of our water bottles we take with us in the car.  Rummage sales are a great place to find these.


2. Pack some snacks. The least expensive snacks are the homemade variety--cookies, muffins, etc. However, if your schedule gets crazy like ours, sometimes there just isn't time to make something up. I solve this with a quick trip to the grocery store. I grab a couple bags of baby carrots, some fruit, and snack crackers of some sort. If there is time to make a snack mix--I get some cheerios, peanuts, raisins, pretzels, fish crackers, and m&m's and mix them together. Although these things cost more then our regular fare, it is much cheaper then buying things at a convenience store. If we do need to stop for a sandwich, we stop someplace with $1 burgers. We order 18 hamburgers, drink water, and fill in the rest of the meal with the snacks from our car.

A sampling of some of the snacks you might find in our van on a road trip.

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