For today’s Ways to Save at Christmas post, I thought I would talk a little bit about how to save money on travelling by car. {We haven’t been flying as much lately so I’m sticking to driving for this post}. Since both sets of parents {and aunts, uncles, and cousins} all live out of town, we tend to travel at the holidays – it’s just a matter of how far depending on who we are visiting! 🙂
We are definitely not experts on road trips, but with an upcoming trip on my mind I thought I’d share a few ideas in case you may be travelling by car this year.
1. Pack light.
I’m so much more aware of fuel efficiency since we purchased the SUV back in September. Our Toyota Corolla was not comfortable to travel in, but it sure was cheaper. Fuel efficiency will be better if your vehicle is lighter, so pack as light as you can.
2. Leave early in the morning.
You are more likely to avoid bad traffic {which reduces fuel efficiency and prolongs the trip} if you leave earlier in the morning. We are not morning people, but we are determined to leave really early in the morning when we head out for our trip this year. In our case, we are also hoping it will help us save money by preventing an overnight stay in a hotel room.
3. Pack snacks and food/drinks for lunches.
We have not always been good about this in the past {we typically have just budgeted extra for the food while travelling}, but we have already discussed our plan for trying to save money on food during our trip this year. We plan to pack a cooler with some food we can use for meals and snacks. I’m sure we’ll stop and buy a little food along the way, but we have heard that packing food is a huge help on the budget. Since we know gas will be more expensive with the SUV, we are hoping to save on food.
4. Use the internet to find great deals on hotels.
If you are staying overnight, make sure to check out the internet for some great deals. We have had great luck with hotels.com because we have found their reviews to be accurate. It’s one thing to get a great deal on a room, but you also want to make sure you have an idea of what you are getting ahead of time.
5. Make sure you have checked your fluids & air in your tires.
This is another tip that goes along with fuel efficiency. We like to have our vehicle looked over before long trips anyway, but checking fluids and ensuring you have enough air in your tires is definitely a great idea from a money-saving perspective as well.
More than anything else though, if you are travelling on the road this year, make sure you drive carefully and safely. If you are tired, please pull over and spend the night somewhere or have someone else drive for you. Saving money is great, but not at the expense of your safety. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now! 🙂
Linking up with:
Living Well Spending Less for Thrify Thursday Link Party
How we save on food while we travel is we try to book a hotel that has breakfast included. We eat a little more than we typically would for breakfast and then we just have one other meal that day. Plus a snack or two that we packed with us from home. Also, bringing plenty of bottled water with us (when traveling by car) Stopping at a gas station for water will cost you at least twice as much elsewhere. Plus, who can say "no" to the sweets in the convenient store? I can't! lol!
That is a fantastic idea as well. We try to look for hotels with continental breakfasts most of the time – I'm so glad you reminded me of that one. I agree with the water idea…if I step foot in a convenience store, it's hard to come out empty handed! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!