Thanksgiving Road Travel: 9 Gas Saving Tips for the Traveling Family
If you’re not flying to see family or friends for Thanksgiving, chances are you’re doing your fair share of driving. With gas prices averaging about 58 cents more this year than they did last year, every penny of gas you can save surely counts.
Here are 9 ways to save on gas prices and consumption:
1. Use supermarket reward points to take some change off of your per gallon price. Every time I shop at my local supermarket and use my rewards card, I earn points that can be used towards the price of my gas at their pump. So, for every $100 (easy!) I spend on groceries, I save 10 cents per gallon and the price I pay for gas ends up being lower than what I pay at the pump of my wholesale membership club.
2. Car maintenance is key to fuel efficiency. Oil changes and properly inflated tires are the more obvious maintenance tasks but are you checking your car’s hoses, air filters, wires, antifreeze, coolant, and other fluids, to make sure that they’re in tip-top shape?
3. Keep the car light. The heavier the vehicle, the more load on the tires. And the more load on the tires, the more fuel the car uses. Get rid of the excess items in and on the car such as racks, clothing donations, and whatever else hides in the recess of our vehicles.
4. Close the windows while driving on the highway. Driving with open windows and sun roofs at high speeds add drag to the car and decrease fuel efficiency. Although the air conditioner increases fuel consumption, it’s still a better option on the highway than open windows.
5. Plan your travel time. Stop and go traffic is the anti-god to fuel efficiency so be strategic about the time of day you choose to get on the road.
6. Slow down and follow the printed speed signs. According to the EPA, gas mileage improves 10-15% by driving at 55 mph vs. 65 mph.
7. Keep it moving. Don’t let your vehicle idle for more than 30 seconds unless you’re in traffic or allowing a cold engine to warm up. And even in that case, the car shouldn’t idle for more than 1 to 2 minutes during winter conditions.
8. Tighten up. Make sure your gas cap is tightened. You can usually ensure this by turning it 2 clicks. Loose gas caps cause gas to evaporate.
9. Disconnect and turn off power-consuming accessories before you turn off your car. Anything that you plug into the cigarette lighter for power can force the alternator to work harder to provide said needed power. This increased work on the alternatior adds extra work (load) to the engine, which, in turn increases fuel usage.
Regardless of the increased prices for gasoline, road travel tends to be the more viable option for many families traveling for Thanksgiving. Do you count yourself as one of them? Hopefully these tips will help you keep more money in your pocket so you can put more turkey in your stomach.
Holiday Product Review: Toweligator, My Little Pony, & Biscoff Spread
Black Friday is just two weeks away and retailers are dropping hints of deals, discounts, and holiday sales. However, if you’re not a fan of early mornings and long lines, you might be interested in some of these finds that would make great gifts for the traveler in your life.
Apps that keep little travelers occupied and entertained would make any parent grateful. From the creative people over at Ruckus Media Group comes yet another beautiful app for the iPad or iPhone, My Little Pony. This app took me back to my days as a little girl when I used to watch My Little Pony after school. The animation is bright and crisp and the story focuses on the power of friendship.
The My Little Pony app is an interactive pre-narrated storybook that also has an option for read along and read-record. It’s a good app to help kids learn how to read. Other activities include a maze where little hands have to tilt the device to get Twilight Sparkle to the end as well as a matching activity where words are given as rewards for completion. These words are used at the end of the story to fill in the blanks of Twilight Sparkle’s diary, a great exercise in story review and comprehension.
For years, the highlight of any Delta flight I took were those delicious Biscoff gourmet cookies. I could never get enough of them and I’d often hoard them from the flight attendants. So when I learned that the company had created a spread from them, I had to try it. Talk about sin in a jar! The spread, which was invented in Belgium during a reality TV show, is just as smooth as any jar of creamy peanut butter, and made with 57% crushed up Biscoff cookies. After that first spoonful, I found myself imagining fifteen different ways to enjoy the spread with apple slices being one of my favorite. I’ve seen Biscoff spread creations ranging from icecream to cupcakes to fudge to pudding to…you name it! However, this spread is so good that, at first, you may not get any further than just eating it straight out of the jar.
The Biscoff spread comes in both smooth and crunchy and would make a great gift for any cookie-lover that you know. (I know my husband would be exceedingly grateful to receive it as a present.) The Biscoff website has a long list of recipes that you can use the spread in, just in time for those holiday potlucks and cookie exchanges. Note to reader: This is not something you want to give to anyone who’s on a diet – they will not be your friend, seriously…it’s that good. An even sweeter present would be to send them to Pier 39 in San Francisco to the Biscoff Coffee Corner where they can be surrounded by all things Biscoff and dislike you even more.
The Toweligator
The Toweligator is a bendable beach clamp in the shape of an alligator that can be used in several different ways to alleviate beach towel frustrations. You know, when your towel keeps slipping down your lounge chair or when the corners fly up from the sand? These pliable plastic tools can act like either a clamp or a stake and make your beach-going experience less annoying. I’d suggest just storing them in your beach bag because they’re not an item that you’d necessarily remember to grab when you’re packing for travel. Another option for them, when you’re not traveling, is to use them in an everyday way – as clothes clips for hand-washed or other wet items…pretty useful.
Familiar with any of the products in this review? What do you think?
Disclosure: I was provided with the products in this post to conduct my review. This is not a paid post, all opinions are my own.
Health and the African American Community: A conversation with Laila Ali
Last week I interviewed Laila Ali at the American Kidney Fund’s 3rd Annual Hope Affair Gala. We had a pretty good conversation about not only kidney disease and its disproportionate presence in the African American community but also the state of health of the community as a whole. If anyone is vaguely familiar with Laila Ali, they know that she is not only a proponent for physical fitness but she is also a champion for wellness and health.
One of the things that I realized in my conversation with Laila was that she and I have a few things in common when it comes to our frustrations with and hopes for our community. We touched upon the overall attitude towards health and wellness and its deep-seeded roots. Laila was pretty straight-forward in saying that too many of us have our priorities skewed. Here are some nuggets from our conversation about healthy living:
- During pregnancy, don’t put on too much weight in the first place.
- Women need to nurse and stop worrying about it being inconvenient.
- Take time to exercise and eat right.
- Make healthy living a priority and a lifestyle.
- You can’t just look at kidney disease, you have to look at the diet.
- Stop frying, choose low-fat butter if you use it in your foods.
- Choose lean cuts of meat; eat more fish, poultry, beef once a week.
- Consume more veggies.
- Eat more whole grains and things from the earth where you can understand what the ingredients say.
- Stay away from foods with chemicals in it because eventually they will break the body down.
I asked her what specific message she would give to our community. This is what she had to say:
- First, do your research and understand how to take care of yourself so you can avoid chronic visits to the doctor other than your annual check-up.
- Second, make sure to get that annual physical so the doctor can tell you if there’s a problem.
- Third, if the doctor tells you something, research and consider natural routes.
- Fourth, we need to get our priorities straight – put wellness first over what we’re wearing and our hair. We’re worrying about the wrong things.
Touché Laila, touché!
5 Travel Tips for Families Looking to Travel
I was inspired to write this post offering some travel tips for families after an interview I had with Hartyln Kids about family travel.
There are a few misconceptions out there about what travel is and what travel means. And unfortunately, the “idea” of travel is what keeps many families from doing it. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. Travel is what you make of it, not someone else’s ideal. And a family that’s looking to travel, but who has felt constrained in some way, should create that experience in their own image.
In its most basic form, travel means going from one place to another. Keeping that in mind, and no matter what place you decide to travel to, here are 5 travel tips for you and your family if you’re looking to travel:
TRAVEL TIP 1:
Create a travel savings fund.
Travel is not cheap and with the economy being in its present state, it’s a luxury for many families. But even luxury took some forethought. Traveling where you want and how you want to with your family doesn’t have to be an impossibility if you plan for it.
TRAVEL TIP 2:
Develop a travel planning system and live by it.
On this site I offer a free Honey To Do List for hubby and a set of Packing List Cards for the family. In general, everyone should have their own duties and responsibilities if they’re able to walk, talk, and use the bathroom on their own.
TRAVEL TIP 3:
Embrace social media for travel.
Get to know your deal sites. Sign up for fare and price alerts via email, text message, Twitter. Like the Face Book pages of hotels, airlines, and attractions to get the inside track on upcoming events, specials, or coupons and discounts.
TRAVEL TIP 4:
Travel in your state.
Discover what your home state has to offer. We often overlook what’s right in our backyard and take it for granted. For families who can’t afford to take a Disney trip or a vacation to the Galapagos, this is a viable option because I guarantee there’s something in your state/country/local area that you never knew was there.
TRAVEL TIP 5:
Relax, be flexible, and be patient with yourself and your kids.
Traveling with young kids is not always a vacation – you’ll need to do a solo or couples trip for that. Family travel is about creating lasting memories, expanding you and your kids’ horizons, and having family fun.
Have any travel tips for families of your own that you’d like to share? Where do you want to travel next?
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