Road Trip Tips - Save Money on Food

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we are planning on a cross country (half) road trip later this year to visit my mom and then move her back here where we live. As I have our planning tips on my brain, I wanted to share those with ya'll in a series of Road Trip Tips posts.

Food on the road is easy and hard at the same time to me. On one hand, you continuously pass fast food restaurants while going down the highway. On the other hand, you don't have endless money and sometimes they are hard to get into if you have a U-haul truck or trailer. You can use up a substantial amount of time by driving around trying to find the right place to eat that everyone in your family likes and that you can get in and out of relatively easily. Not to mention it gets expensive quick! Don't forget my family is 4 children and two adults. Two of those children eat as much as an adult and one has a bottomless pit for a stomach! Here are some things we have tried on the road to make food easier and cheaper.

Buy a healthy mix of snacks at the grocery store the week before you leave to bring with you in the car. We put a container between the two kids in the back row of our mini van and filled it to the brim with yummy snacks. We brought things like dried fruit, healthy grains, nuts, peanut butter crackers, etc. This way our kids were still getting good nutrition and not being cranky because they were hungry. This allowed us to be more flexible about when we stopped for meals. As well as saved us a lot because snacks on the road (gas stations & fast food) are expensive! One night, we were behind on how far down the road we needed to be and actually opted to just munch on those snacks for dinner. We also let our kids have all the snacks they wanted whenever they were hungry on the trip if it wasn't almost a meal time. Of course, we also included a few junkier snacks and made sure everyone had a few snacks they liked. That help keep spirits up and kept us from wanting to splurge on chips at the gas stations.

Road Trip Tips - Planning Apps

We are planing to drive across the country to see my mom and help her move back with us later this year. The last time we went was last fall. We will be driving from Texas to North Carolina and back again. On the way there we will be driving for two days and sleeping at a hotel for one night. On the way back, we could potentially be driving for up to 4 days and spend up to 3 nights in a hotel. Did I mention we will also be driving our minivan back to Texas as well as a Uhaul truck pulling a car behind it. So we will be relying heavily on anything that makes this trip easier. Here are some of the apps (and a website) we have used to plan our trips across the country. 

First things first, fuel is a big one. It will be expensive no matter what, but one thing that helps us a lot is AAA gas cost calculator. We will use that to help us set aside enough money to afford gas, although unfortunately we know prices will go up before our trip. It's definitely more helpful closer to your trip. We do our best to stop at Sam's clubs along our route to cut gas costs where we can. When we can't, we try to stop at a Pilot or other large truck stop as gas is usually a little cheaper there. Gas Buddy is also useful if you need to get gas somewhere other than the big stations. It will help you find the cheaper option in whatever area you are in. I just found out that they have a gas trip calculator too so check that out. We've never used it but I'm sure it's very helpful as well.

First Impressions of Misfits Market

I have been buying food from Imperfect Foods off and on for 2 years now. Recently, I found out about Misfits Market and decided to give it a try. 

When I opened up the box, I noticed it was insulated with a padding that is curbside recyclable. Although non-plastic would be better, I very much appreciate that it is easily recyclable!

Under the padding was a cardboard layer with an ice block. Under that, was brown paper filler to fill up the box.

Decluttering Encouragement

I have always struggled with getting rid of things. I know my ADHD plays a role in that. I know growing up without a lot also plays a role in that. But ultimately it is something I want to get better at. I have been working my whole adult life to improve at letting things go. Here are a few things that have helped me. 

One thing that has really helped me is letting myself keep things. I know that sounds counter intuitive so let me explain. If I am pressuring myself to get rid of everything, I feel out of control and overwhelmed. So by allowing myself the grace to keep things, it makes me feel more in control and ultimately, I get rid of more. For example, getting rid of baby clothes is very hard! So I let myself just pull out the ones I didn't really like or my child didn't wear. Then I put the others away. Next time, I can part with a few more as my memory of them wearing those items fades. I have a few outfits per child that I can picture them in and my heart hurts to let them go. So I don't. I put a small box in the top of the closet just for those. I set myself a limit of one small box for all the baby clothes I'm keeping for all four children. Now, as I find more old clothes in boxes, I feel more free to donate them because I know the special ones are safe.

Declutter in waves! I never make myself go through all of something at once. It's a sure fire way to get overwhelmed and give up! So instead I just choose a few and move on. The next time, I can chose a few more. This works with anything! Baby clothes, shoes, my clothing, art supplies, school supplies, books, etc. It's easier to let something go when you know you are keeping almost all of the rest. But after several phases of this over months, you have decluttered quite a lot.

Happy 16 Years to my Best Friend! (Flower Pictures)

Today is my 16 year anniversary so I will be celebrating with my sweet husband. Marrying my best friend was the best decision I could have made! I look forward to 16 more!

I thought I'd post pictures of flowers from my garden for today! 

Coral Rose

Queen Lime Orange Zinnia (from last year)

Sunny Knock Out Rose

Coral Knock Out Rose

Multi-colored Petunia

Yumm! Garden snacks!

Summer snacking has began! Yummy strawberries and mint leaves are snacks my kids like eating straight from the garden. Now we are just waiting on cherry tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, and okra. Yes, two of my kids like okra raw! I prefer it roasted or fried. My kids like fresh cherry tomatoes so much they asked me to stop buying them from the store because they weren't as good! I love snacking on the sweet peppers myself, as do a couple of my kids. What are your favorite snacks from the garden?

Here's pictures of some of our harvest last year:

           

Small House Organizing Tip #4 - Add Shelves in Unused Spaces

One of the things I learned at the small house was to look for unused spaces to install shelving. It greatly increased our storage in a house that was very low on storage!

Our small house kitchen did not have any extra food storage. Just the regular kitchen cabinets that we needed to store dishes, pots, pans, etc. So we had to get creative! We did have french doors in the kitchen and a laundry room on the other side. Two of the doors would meet on the same wall, so that wall wasn't used for anything. As our family expanded, we decided we had to do something to create more storage in the kitchen! We decided to take the laundry room door off the door frame. It was a very small room and really didn't need a door. The kitchen door didn't need to open 180 degrees to touch that wall either. We were then able to install shelving to create a pantry. It added so much storage space! Knowing we wanted to sell the house in the next few years, we decided on easily removable shelving since we were aware it was in an odd place. Our realtor ended up telling us to leave the shelving because it added so much space! 

If you notice to the left of the shelving, we also added a wrack to hold some of my most used cookbooks as the others were stored in another room. We tried not to waste any space!

Thrift Store Shopping Trip #2

For Mother's Day, my husband took me thrift store shopping because he knows I love doing that! We went on Monday so it wasn't as crowded. We went back to the used video game store from last week and got a few Beanie Babies and a Minecraft card game.

Thrift Store Shopping Trip #1

I have gone to thrift stores MANY times over the years but I thought it would be fun to start posting on this blog some of the cool things we find. I hope this will encourage you to go and check out what's out there! Thrift store shopping can keep a lot of things out of the landfill and save you a lot of money! Not to mention it's a lot of fun to just look around at all the different things there.

My husband and I checked out some thrift stores we had never been to in a nearby town on Friday. We will definitely be back!

We started out our trip dropping off a full load of boxes at Goodwill. Then we went in to look around but didn't find anything.

Next we checked out a used book and music store. It was very cool but didn't really have anything we were looking for.

Then we went to a used video game store that had everything from Atari games forward. It also had some random things like movies, Legos, Nerf guns, and Pokemon cards. We got a baseball N64 game for my son and an extra N64 controller so all 4 kids can play Super Smash Bros together. We ended up going back and grabbing a gallon size bag of Lego Friends pieces also. Total for everything was $20! We will definitely go back there with our kids!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their families! I will be spending the day with my four sillies and video chatting with my mama! ❤

Ain't that the truth! It's a hard but very rewarding job!

Mom tip: Make Shopping With Kids Easier!

This is an older post from 4 years ago. I added a few new things but left most of the info the same. I wrote this back when I was not able to post on a regular basis so I told myself I had to save them up until I could. I am no longer doing this! I will post whenever I have an idea and am able to write it. It might be once per day, once per week, once per month, or once per year. 

Oh, mama, I know that feeling every time you think about running errands and the anxiety wells up inside you! "Will they be angels? Will they wine and complain? Will they ask for everything they see? Or worse, will they pick up everything they see? Will the site of food suddenly remind them they are STARVING? Will we have to take 10 potty breaks? Will they start playing hide and seek...or worse, TAG in the clothing section?? Do we REALLY need to buy groceries today?!"

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and for the most part they are well behaved. But they are KIDS! And with four of them, there is always someone to play with and it doesn't take long for them to wind each other up! What should be a 20 minute trip usually ends up being a 2 hour trip. And some days, I'm just not sure filling the fridge up with groceries is worth the stress! I'd much rather just make PB&J for dinner and play with my little sillies! Alas, at some point, we all must go out!

Although there are several things I've learned over the years to help the trip go more smoothly, my favorite trip is any trip that keeps the kids in the car for the most part!

My Favorite Smoothie Recipe

I have an old smoothie recipe on this blog I posted several years ago. I got it from Weelicious and it helped me learn how to make smoothies. But over the years I have come up with our own formula for smoothies. I thought it was about time to post an updated smoothie recipe!

Ingredients

Yogurt

Frozen fruit

Liquid

Spinach (frozen or fresh)

Protein Powder

Agave

Yes, I have no measurements for you. I am not that kind of cook! I usually just throw in a little of this and a little of that until I get the desired result. Try it, it's fun being a creative cook! 

Here's a little more information on each ingredient:

Yogurt: I have used greek yogurt, regular yogurt, even yogurt tubes. Just whatever you can find in your fridge is fine!

Frozen Fruit: We use mostly frozen fruit because we like the texture it creates. If you have some fresh fruit that needs to be used up, you can throw that in too but I would keep 3/4 of the fruit frozen to maintain the slushy consistency. If you only have fresh fruit, you can add ice to make it more slushy but it will still not be the same as a frozen fruit smoothie. I like to take fruit that's very ripe (but not getting eaten) and throw it in the freezer to use in smoothies later on.

Meal Planning Tip #3 - Duel Purpose Meal Planning Sheet

Traditional meal planning sheets didn't work well for me because I have never had any interest in assigning meals to every day of a week. I just needed a list of what I had bought ingredients to make that week. But then I would forget to prep ingredients ahead of time or to start early enough on a harder meal. So, I decided on a compromise. It's not really complicated, but has helped me out SO MUCH! I just took a traditional meal planning list template and changed the shopping list area to a dinner list. Super simple, but changed everything for me. Now I didn't have a list of the meals I bought ingredients for in a separate place from a list of what I'm having what day. I don't like assigning meals a week a head, but I do like assigning them for the next day or two.

Here's an example of the list I'm currently using. It's temporarily drawn out with Frixion pens on a reusable notebook. Once I get a chance, it will be drawn with permanent markers so I can wipe it clean every week as I plan out new meals.

I write all the meals I bought food for on the right side of the page. As they get assigned to days, I mark them off. If for some reason we don't end up eating a meal on the assigned day, I rewrite it on the meal list. This also allows me to easily shop from stores more than once a week and just keep adding meals to the list as we get them. I can easily erase the week and keep using the same meal list until it gets to the end. Then I erase the first items, write whatever meals I have left up there, and erase the rest of the list. It's very easy to use it as a revolving list.

           

Yes, I cut my own hair!

Today I wanted to talk about something more uncommon I do that saves us a lot of money. I cut my own hair!

I know that sounds scary and it was to me for a while too. I started out just cutting layers into the front of my hair when I couldn't explain what I was wanting well enough to beauticians. Then I got desperate when it had been two years since I had a hair cut, I didn't know of anyone who could cut my hair, and wanted to take pictures with my newest baby for Mother's day the next day. So I talked my husband into cutting my hair. He was terrified but I walked him through exactly what I wanted done. He even cut layers into the back of my hair! I cut the front layers and goodness, I got a lot of compliments on that hair cut! I will try to find pictures of that hair cut and up date this when I do. He asked me to never ask him to do that again though because he was so afraid of messing up my hair. So I have honored that request. But, walking him through it helped me see that I knew exactly what needed to be done to cut my hair how I like it. I cut it a few more times over the years but most of the time I chickened out and paid someone to cut my hair. 

That all changed 4 years ago. We were in a new house in a new city and I had waited so long to cut my hair I was sick of it! So I cut just a few inches off to get me through until I could find someone to cut my hair. I figured it didn't have to be perfectly even because I could easily pay someone to trim it later. I left plenty of room for them to cut more off if they needed too. But to my surprise, I loved it! And it was plenty even! 

Save Money Gardening

I love to garden, but if you are not careful, it can get expensive quickly. Here are some things I have done over the years to cut down on the cost.

Flower Pots

I have picked up flower pots put by the curb for trash, posted for free on the classified apps, and bought them at the store. I buy pots that are not fancy but sturdy. I like buying nursery pots if you can find them as they are very sturdy and will hold up a long time.

Seed Starting Pots

You can start seeds in big pots but the problem is that sometimes they don't all come up. I prefer to start most seeds in starter pots so I can plant extra knowing they might not all come up and then plant the strongest ones that do. I like to reuse small succulent pots for starter pots. They are the perfect size, free with purchase, and can be used over and over again.