This post is sponsored by Good Sam. All opinions are my own. Planning a family road trip on a budget used to be a great way to take a family trip without spending a ton of money. But with gas … Read More
We don’t tend to buy a ton of new things each year for our kids’ back to school items. Instead, I prefer to purchase a few necessities, and also get items that will hopefully last through multiple seasons, years, and … Read More
Packing for Alaska with kids felt like one of the trickiest packing situations we’ve encountered. I deliberated for ages over what to pack for Alaska! Happily, all the research paid off and our Alaska summer packing list served us really … Read More
During our trip driving from California to Alaska, we experienced driving across the US/Canada border with kids a number of times. In general, it’s a pretty easy and straightforward border crossing for US citizens, but there are a few things … Read More
Join us we learn about Canada with kids! During this virtual tour of Canada for kids, we’ll enjoy fun and inspiring Canada activities. This Canada virtual field trip as part of the Global Children’s Book Club is a perfect way … Read More
Despite some discomfort during this pregnancy, I’ve been so glad to have gotten the care needed to minimize any pain and allow me to continue hiking during pregnancy. It’s been a great way to stay active, spend time together as … Read More
Thursday, 23 June 2022 Today we headed off on our great Alaska adventure! We spent the morning packing up and getting the final things ready, then stopped by my chiropractor appointment in SF in the late afternoon. We picked up … Read More
When packing my favorite women’s travel essentials, I’m generally looking for a few things: comfort, durability, and versatility. Over the years, I’ve found some of the best travel clothing for women and these are 5 of my hands-down favorites that … Read More
Welcome to LPF Weekly Deals! These are our favorite, tried-and-true travel gear and home life items that have stood the test of time. With 7 people in our home or when we travel, we try to only purchase items that … Read More
Join us we learn about Kenya with kids! During this virtual tour of Kenya for kids, we’ll enjoy fun and inspiring Kenya activities. This Kenya virtual field trip as part of the Global Children’s Book Club is a perfect way … Read More
This post is sponsored by Camping World We’ve been lucky to embark on a few long RV road trips in the last couple years. Over that time, our process for getting RV ready and preparing our rig for a big … Read More
This post is sponsored by REI. All opinions are my own. When Dan and I got married, I’d never been camping before. It felt too daunting, too risky, too overwhelming. Even armed with a few tips for beginner campers, I … Read More
Planning a family road trip on a budget used to be a great way to take a family trip without spending a ton of money. But with gas prices lately, even road tripping is getting expensive! Here are a few road trip money saving tips, including some amazing services from Good Sam, on how to save money on a road trip that have been helpful to our family, even with skyrocketing gas prices.
One of the best things about RV travel is that your vehicle also serves as your accommodations! We really love not needing to move things in and out of hotel rooms, and it saves a lot of money by having our sleeping place already taken care of. Here are some more reasons why we love family RV travel!
Along with RVing, we love having our Good Sam Membership. With it, we get a 10% discount at over 2,000 Good Sam Parks and Campgrounds, retail discounts at Camping World, and 5 cents off gas at a number of Pilot Flying J locations. It’s only $29 for a full year, so it’s a very minimal investment for savings that add up.
You can also save money by boondocking on occasion. If you do need to rent a car, be sure to check a variety of sites to get a good deal – this is our favorite that usually has the best prices. Keep in mind that your existing car insurance (or your credit card) may include insurance already, so be sure to check that before paying for extra insurance with the car rental company.
Gas is one of the biggest expenses when road tripping! Using a credit card that has higher gas rewards really adds up and it’s worth applying for one before heading out on a road trip. Figuring out how to save gas on long road trips is one of the best ways to minimize overall costs.
We love this card and both Dan and I applied for one before our big road trip to Alaska. It gives 3% back on gas purchases, so it’s a nice chunk of savings, especially with high gas prices.
Speaking of saving money on gas, apps like Gasbuddy can be helpful in finding cheaper fuel and planning how to save money on gas on a road trip. Or if you use a navigation app like Google Maps or Waze, they are pretty accurate with gas pricing, as well.
Here are some of our other favorite travel hacking credit cards!
Nothing adds mileage like backtracking a bunch. And more mileage means higher costs! Try to plan out your route as much as possible in advance to be efficient in your stops. This is also a good way to make sure you maximize your time at each location!
Along with planning your route, check to see if your path includes tolls. If it does, figure out whether avoiding them could save you some money. But beware – if the alternative is super long, you might pay as much in extra gas, so figure out what will work best in the end for how to save money on a road trip.
Road tripping means you usually have a bit more room than when flying, and can pack some of your own food. If you’re wondering how to save money on food on a road trip, we always have a bin of snacks and shelf stable foods like bread and peanut butter, as well as a cooler for cold foods. This helps us save a lot of money, especially for breakfasts and lunches that we keep pretty simple. It’s easy to even keep a box of instant oatmeal packets handy! Along with this, make sure you pack reusable water bottles. Not only are they way better for the earth, they’ll save you a lot of money if you fill them for free instead of purchasing plastic water bottles. This is one of our very favorite water bottles that keeps drinks cold for super long.
This is a terrific soft-sided cooler to take along in your vehicle to keep healthy foods cold. We love this soft sided backpack cooler that’s also easy to take out and about with us. This one is great if you have a bit more room available, such as in an RV so you don’t need to keep opening the fridge. We will often freeze water bottles to stick in there to keep food cold. You can also use it to transport meal items that you can use to cook if you’re staying in a place that has a kitchen available.
Here are some of our favorite healthy road trip snacks!
This is one of the biggest ways for how to save money on a road trip. Preparing in advance by getting your vehicle checked out means that hopefully fewer things will go wrong along the way (and you won’t have to pay emergency fix prices or spend extra time in a hotel). If you’re planning an RV trip, make sure to take these steps to get ready for an RV road trip!
Make sure to take these emergency supplies with you so can do simple things like jump start your vehicle (instead of waiting for an expensive tow) and have Good Sam Roadside Assistance in case something bigger goes wrong (this emergency satellite GPS and messaging device has been so helpful to us).
Those are some of the best ways we’ve found to save money on a road trip! If you’re planning a family road trip on a budget, I’d love to hear some of your best tips and tricks, too!
