Ideas for car travel to save on time and money

[edwards2301]

We are driving down in a few weeks and I have myself, DD1 (7), DD2 (3), and DH. We will be taking off after school on a friday and I would like to minimize the times we stop to eat at Mc Donalds and spend money on food at each gas stop. What kinds of tricks of the trade do you all do to save money and time? Sandwiches in cooler, snacks in baggies for kids, etc, etc? Thanks, all would be appreciated

[sara114]

When I was a little one, MANY years ago, we would have to travel in the car and we didn't stop at McDonalds or anyplace else. Mom would pack our eating stuff.
Here are my hints:
-Since your little ones are smaller, make sure to pack plenty of snacks. Use the snack size ziploc bags.This goes for candy as well. Decrease the amount of meltable snacks, use crackers, etc
-Make a rule that they will receive a snack bag every ?? miles or every ?? minutes. I like the miles because you can plan ahead for the number of bags you will need.
-If you have a portable DVD, use it and plan your snacks around the movie or cartoon playing. (goldfish for Nemo)
-take along jump rope for older one and chalk for small one. Make a hopscotch at rest stop. Both tots will need exercise along the way.
- You can freeze bottles of water to use as 'ice' in collasping cooler. Water is better for them and no sugar or caffeine will make for a better trip.

I know there is more and will post them as I think of them.

[dnickels]

Refillable water bottles and tap water / drinking fountain water instead of bottled water / soda / fruit drinks.

Avoid the processed / prepackaged foods. The more processing the food has been through or the more 'fun size' the packaging the more you're paying for it.

[faline]

Pack a goodie bag for each child so that as they start to got bored, you can pull somethign "new" out. You might consider coloring books, pipe cleaners etc.

[Jeri]

We drive from Minnesota with our 2 kids and next year our 3rd.
What we do is have a cooler with drinks and lunchables, some fruit, gogurt in it. The I have a bag with crackers, cookies, fruit snacks, candy and gum, I also have another bag with plastic cups, paper towels, antibacterial wipes, ziplock bags. This is just for whatever we might need them for.
The kids had a back pack with books, electronic games, whatever they wanted, and we had a DVD player with 2 sets of headphones and movies they picked out.

One piece of advice I could give is, for crackers or any snacks you might bring is to take them out of their package and put them in ziplock bags. It makes it so much easier to get them out and not spill or worry about resealing them.
Another thing I did was if they wanted snacks like crackers, M&M's anything is give it to them in plastic cups so they weren't spilling or dropping them, and they can set it down in their cups holder if they want to.
We love driving, and the first time we did it my youngest was 15 months. We leave on a Friday around 5 pm, drive till Saturday about 3 pm at the Florida border. We get a hotel, get up early and are in Disney by 11 am Sunday.

[Joannelet]

We drive every time we go to Disney. We have been taking my oldest son who is 3 now since he was 7 months old. We have been 4xs with him now. We pack tons of water bottles, a marker to write our names on them as we open them. We pack a cooler for some other drinks like chocolate milk (that my son loves to drink in the morning and yogurts for lunch etc) Now he is potty trained but he hasn't been on all of our trips thus far so when we did stop to change him we'd make sure we quickly changed him and let him run around a bit while we took turns going to the restroom. We'd get him back in the car putting on a movie (Disney of course) or listened to cd's of Disney music that I made for the trip. If you plan at least to eat one meal in the car on the go, you will save so much time. You can either stop for dinner or stop for a quick lunch if you prefer but try to only stop once for a meal if you have to. Use bathroom stops as a time to get out and stretch. When my son was younger I would actually feed him his baby food at rest stops, then let him run around.
Also, I love the idea of snacks in bags that you can just hand back to your kids. It's so organized and easy that way. Have wipes on hand for spills, paper towel roll is a good thing to bring along.
I always pack a bag of fun stuff. I bought a tray that sits on his lap and he does crafts with stickers in the car, colors, etc. he even plays with play dough on it etc. that way they only aren't watching DVDs. I think my son only watches one movie on the drive down and one on the way home. So pack activities that they won't keep asking you, "are we there yet?"
Have a safe drive and enjoy!

[barnaby]

This is more for the 7 YO, and parents too, we play different games during the trip down.

We bought a license plate book for all the states that had stickers with the date and where you saw each state plate. We use that on all our long trips and still haven't spotted all 50.

We play the alphabet game where you have to get all the letters of the alphabet as the first letter of words on road signs. X is the hardest.

[LilHooligan74]

Snacks, bottled water, jug water, flavored water packets, chips, crackers, Those sort of things.
Depending on travel time you might want to limit items that require refrigeration only because if the cooler is on the larger size it may not be easily accessible while rolling down the highway. We tend to pack a couple sodas, more water. A candy choice for each person as well as a salty snack choice for each person. AND Beef Jerky, lots of Beef Jerky(decent protein). Fruit as well.
One thing I would recommend is bringing a loaf of bread and keeping it separate. You can pack the meats in the cooler which help to maximize packing ability.
OH yeah....Entertainment helps to occupy the mind and keep it off of food or stopping at a fast food joint. If you have a mobile dvd player you can get popcorn and make it a movie trip. works for mine(sometimes)

[E-Ticket4]

I agree with what everyone has said. My kids are now a bit older - 14 and 16, but we have always loved to listen to books on CD. This way they can still watch out the windows and even with the CD player going its some quiet time.
One year we listened to a Harry Potter book - it was a long one.

[TinaAndGlenn]

We have traveled to DW with our 2 kids so many times-they are now adult "kids" in their 20's. We always packed sandwiches, grapes, cheese, pepperoni, crackers, mini bagels, cream cheese, and snacks. (Had to pack these each trip or there was an uprising!) But 1 of the most important things you need to pack: ginger ale, ginger snaps & black heavy duty garbage bags!!! My son got car sick 1 trip & I was unprepared! the ginger in ginger ale & ginger snaps help fight motion sickness. I think it was from watching movies with the car motion. He never gets motion sickness! Hopefully you will not need to use these items, but they will be very usefull if you do!
I also invested in a book called the Exit Authority, lists all gas stations, hospitals, stores & restaurant at any interstate exit in the US.

[tjstrike]

Everybody has pretty much covered all the snacks and games, I'll throw in a little something about the vehicle. Make sure your servicing (oil, tires, brakes, engine fluids) are all recent and try some fuel additive and injection cleaner. It will help for gas mileage. And don't forget to throw in a good ol' fashion game of slug bug !!

[Janmac]

This is a tip for if you do stop at a McDonalds or Burger King and they have the play area. We adults eat while the kid(s) play. The kids eat when we're back on the road.

Ginger ale is a must bring on our road trips.

We have had one kid who detested the dark. We got in the habit of bringing a small battery powered LED lantern. The LED kind are not battery eaters and when placed on the floor of the vehicle don't disturb the driver's night vision, but still provide some comforting light.

Jan

[j2k]

I plan to pack bananas, grapes, cheeses, sandwiches, pretzels, crackers, etc. in the car so we can limit our stops to restrooms and gas only. I like the idea of bringing a jump rope, I will have to remember that one.

[mickeys_princess_mom]

-Since your little ones are smaller, make sure to pack plenty of snacks. Use the snack size ziploc bags.This goes for candy as well. Decrease the amount of meltable snacks, use crackers, etc
-If you have a portable DVD, use it and plan your snacks around the movie or cartoon playing. (goldfish for Nemo)
-take along jump rope for older one and chalk for small one. Make a hopscotch at rest stop. Both tots will need exercise along the way.
.

These are good ones!!! They will absolutely need to move around a bit during stops.
Use substantial baggies so you don't have soggy sandwiches...Love the themed snacks for movies! A little creativity shows them you put a lot of thought and caring into making the entire trip fun for them.
Add a whole roll of paper towels and a bottle of Windex. We encountered an unexpected love bug fest a few weeks ago. Also good for inside cleanups.
Your 7 year old may enjoy helping you put together the goody bags, picking out things for the little one, and maybe 'making lists', checking them off. Makes them feel important, and can be helpful! May keep them busy the last crazy days!
Have fun!!!

[mickeys_princess_mom]

OK, I never think to check the dates on these--obviously you've already been by now! lol. Oh, well, maybe somebody else can use these. How did it go?

[Mousemates]

our number one trick to cut costs and stops along the way is to drive overnight...the wife and kids are sound asleep and we can pretty much make the drive down form East Tennessee with no more than three stops....one south of Atlanta, one in the valdosta area, and one for breakfast (often in Orlando itself).

[LVT]

We learned the hard way (Dense skulls) to pack a vomit bucket. We line it with multiple nested plastic store bags, each can be discarded as needed, leaving the rest clean and ready.

[joonyer]

Another suggestion: Take your own food, and stop for gas at places where there is no fast food outlet (less temptation), and fill up the car and empty all bladders at the same pit stop. my kids can hold their bladders between gas stops, it's DW who can't make it that long. If making a rest-room stop only, we use rest-areas to avoid being tempted by the fast food stores. Easy off and easy on to the highway.

[ANG]

I hope the OP had a successful car trip!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of bringing something to actually do at rest stops. Something to encourage them to move their bodies a lot instead of just walking around.

And that's a good tip on the car sickness thing. My LOs never get sick but just because of the advice here, I will bring a few things just in case

Something that helps me with my kids, 1 and 3, is I make a calming playlist on my ipod. Music to help lull them to sleep. If they are getting fussy and we have just a few more minutes until we can get to a rest stop, the calm music usually helps.

DVDs are great. But don't forget books! Go to the dollar store and get a ton of them, break one out each hour or so.

Bubbles! If you are careful, the front passenger can blow them without making a mess. It's a good distraction.

Get your kids some good neck pillows. My oldest won't use his himself, but after he falls asleep, I reach back and tuck it under his neck to avoid cramps.

Mini dry erase boards are great for older ones. My 3 yr old likes when I take out flash cards.

I second the pack an entire roll of paper towels. Don't forget a bag for your trash.