Tuesday Tips

Vacations.  Trips.  Weekend getaways.  They all take money.  Sister C does the following to limit the money we spend on the road...

1. I'll collect snacks for trips when they are on clearance.  This last time I had a bag full of chips, pretzels, pop (next time I need to make sure I have more caffeinated beverages!), and chocolate granola bars.  I spent about $20 on all of it, and we didn't need to stop for candy bars and chips, paying full convenience store prices.
2. If we have room in our vehicle, I'll bring the cooler.  We didn't this time, but when we went to Indiana over Easter, we did bring it.  I fill it with bread, meat and cheese for sandwiches so we don't stop at fast food restaurants.  Whatever we don't eat on the way down, we eat for meals while there, cutting our grocery budget there.
3. Our son goes to a private school, and that school has a program called Scrip.  If you are not familiar with it, all I do is buy gift cards and a portion of the price goes to the school and a portion of it goes to help pay my son's tuition.  Knowing this time we weren't going to be bringing the cooler, I bought a gift card to a restaurant I know we always stop at.  It's not much, but every little bit helps! 
4. To be honest, I looked up which stores in the town we were staying in had loyalty cards or would email coupons to me.  The store we normally shop at while in Indiana is Meijer or Jewel-Osco.  I signed up for their loyalty programs and I received a $5 off a purchase coupon plus another $2 one!  I will do this for any trip I know we will be taking knowing I'll have grocery shopping to do!

What do you do to help your traveling budget?