Prepare for a Family Vacation with this Pre-Trip Checklist
I often feel like I earn a vacation in the few days leading up to one. Tying up loose ends and packing for a whole family can be a Wonder Womanly task. Then there’s worrying about the empty house....
View ArticleA Family Road Trip Packing List to Make Everyone Happy
We’ve just returned from another seven-hour road trip with four kids ranging from nine months to nine years. Car trips can be a surprisingly fun routine-buster, especially if you have all your...
View ArticleHow a Family of Four Can Enjoy a Spa-Like Vacation in Niagara Falls for Under...
What is it about water that melts away stress? We just moved to a city just three hours away from Niagara Falls, and after seeing it for the first time in a quick day trip, I knew I had to come back....
View ArticleAvoid These Nasty Surprises When Booking Hotels
Please head on over to Parentables to read the full text of this article I wrote about my funny, and not so funny, recent experiences with lodging. When was the last time you stayed in a dive motel?...
View ArticlePlan a Weekend Getaway with the Girls — You Won’t Regret It
It all started five years ago when some friends and I met up at our 15th college reunion. Every year since then we have managed to get away for a few days, and here we are at our 20th reunion last...
View ArticleHow to Wash Your Clothes on Vacation
Unfortunately I now know a lot about this topic. While I would take a coin-op laundromat any day, that wasn’t possible on our recent trip to Italy, so I saved even more money by washing our clothes...
View ArticleThe Real Cost of Buying a New Car
The average car payment is $500 per month. Most people live with a car payment their whole lives, and besides housing, it’s their largest expense. Our used cars in front of our used house A...
View Article36 Fun, Free Printable Travel Games to Entertain the Kids on Your Next Trip
Traveling with kids. It can be hellish — and hilarious. I know how it feels, so I rounded up as many games as I could — from paper dolls to pinwheels, mazes to maps. You can see them all at...
View Article11 Tips for Surviving Air Travel with Kids
Enrico holding Luke after an all-night flight to Europe I wrote this article last year for Family Times magazine when we lived in Central New York. You might also like 10 Tips for Planning Plane Trips...
View ArticleHow to Spend Less on Gas: Trade Driving for Something Better
Some people assume that saving money and frugality is all about cutting down, getting less, and sacrifice. And when we talk about cutting down on fuel costs, it just seems like more drudgery....
View ArticleFor a Glowing Vacation, Pull the Plug
Villasimius, Sardinia (Italy) last summer I have a memory of our vacation to Italy last year that is so embarrassing it makes me both laugh and cringe. It was a trip to celebrate the end of Enrico’s...
View Article11 Tips for a Short & Sweet Disney World Trip
This spring we took the kids to Disney World for the first time. I confess that I was thinking of the trip as a once-in-a-lifetime experience: you go there, your kids get to tell their friends they...
View ArticleEnd of School & Summer Travel
Just two and a half more days of school, and summer will officially start at our house. One of the first things we’ll be doing, after the hip-hoorays and ice cream celebrations, is picking the best...
View ArticleState Park Vacations & Road Trips
My sister, Jenny, and her husband, Lucas, live in Argentina, so it was a treat to reunite with them at a state park last weekend. My parents engineered the reunion at a hotel inside Rocky Gap State...
View ArticleLooking for a Hotel Discount? Try These 5 Useful Tricks
In See How Easily You Can Find the Best Deals on Hotels, I talked about why I love Hotels.com. Yes, Hotels.com has a low price guarantee, but can you make the deal even sweeter? I tried out some of...
View ArticleGuide to New York City on a Budget, with Kids
New York is the kind of place where just walking around is a cultural adventure. Sure, you’ll want to splurge on a few tourist attractions, but to keep costs down, just pretend you’re a New Yorker....
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