Advice
Enjoying the Weekend with Family
Did gas prices put a dent in your weekend travels? I figured we have the time let’s take a short trip and have fun as a family.
Before I get into what we did, here’s how to save a little money on your trip:
- Traveling by Car- Use the more fuel efficient one for longer trips. Our Dodge Grand Caravan gets about 18 miles to the gallon and the Honda Civic gets around 34 to 35 miles to the gallon. The trunk space on the Civic is huge.
- Hotel costs- You should get a AAA (Automobile Association of America) membership, or your local equivalent. Many hotels have special rates for AAA members that save you 10-15%. You can also get special rates as military, government (state and federal) and check the hotel websites for other online only specials
- Museum and Zoo fees- Ask for a military or student discount if it applies to you. If you plan to go to the same place alot, some places have annual memberships which will also save you money.
Here’s what we did:
Friday night I looked at flying to Orlando for a short Disney trip. Just flights would be $317 per person each, let’s see what else. Busch Gardens Williamsburg looks good, but it is about five hours away, too long in the car for this short of a trip.
How about about a two day trip to Columbia, SC? It’s only one and a half hours away, sounds good. We slept in a little on Saturday and headed down to Columbia. We ate lunch and spent the afternoon at the Edventure Museum. (http://www.edventure.org)
Some of the exhibits at the Edventure Museum include:
- A three story boy named Eddie, you can crawl inside him and see his spine, stomach with food inside, his brain, etc.
- World of work- Be a farmer and milk a cow or pick peaches, put on a fireman’s jacket and ride in their truck, build at a construction site and more.
- BodyWorks- Brush Eddie’s teeth, find out what food is good for you, play a large game of Operation, and see how your joints work.
There’s more, look at their website to see what else they have. On Sunday we went to the Riverbanks Zoo. (http://www.riverbanks.org/) It was a good Zoo for kids and had lots of animals. We were there about four hours and then headed for home. It was a good short trip and we have Monday to just relax around the house and at the community pool.
Take time with Family,
Sam Carrara
Save 2 Cents by Driving 2 Miles
The average price of a gallon of gasoline for the United States of America on 5/12/08 was $3.722, that price has since increased during the week. That price is over 60 cents higher than a year ago and over 10 cents higher than one week ago. To see more about gas prices, visit:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html
What will the price look like on 5/19/2008 look like? It will probably be around $3.89 per gallon and continue to climb thru the Fourth of July weekend.
So what should we do to save a little money while the price is going up? A few options to save money include:
- Reduce the number of trips you need to take. Only go to the grocery store once per week and stay home to eat your meals, this will also save money other than gas usage.
- Ask your employer if you can work from home 1-2 days per week. Make sure to put together a work plan and report the positive results. This may allow you in the future to work more days from home, as long as you actually work.
- Remove any unnecessary items from your car. Additional weight in your vehicle causes more gas to be used.
- Car pool or take the bus to work. In the end run it may cost less and you may be able to get a little reading or work done while in transit.
- Don’t leave your car idling while you stop to do an errand or other tasks. Turn it off if it will sit more than a minute (some people say 30 seconds).
- Watch your speed, driving the speed limit rather than 5-10 miles per hour faster than the speed limit saves gas by the vehicle using the gas more efficiently.
All of these ways can save more than 2 cents from gas savings. Would you drive two miles to save two cents per gallon? If the gas station is along your route of travel then the additional drive is fine. But, if you have to go out of your way two miles, that two cents times twenty to thirty gallons (40-60 cents) is lost on the four mile round trip detour. Get started saving gas now!
Save Gas Money,
Sam Carrara
10th Wedding Anniversary
On Sunday my Wife and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary. We met in college and took about 95% of the same classes. So between dating and being married we have been together about 13-1/2 years.
To be clear, we do have arguments from time to time. And discussions can get heated, but they get worked out. The key is to get back up, grow and move forward.
We started celebrating by having dinner at Macaroni Grill. It was an Anniversary dinner plus two. The two are our kids. It was a great Italian dinner starting with fried mozzarella, Italian sodas, a garden salad, and then some huge entrees. The 7 layer lasagna and honey balsamic chicken were delicious, but we boxed up most of them for meals later during the weekend. For dessert we had Three-Berry Tiramisu, needless to say it was good too.
Then on Saturday night we got a baby sitter and went off to the movies. We went to see Iron Man. We thought it started at 8:00 PM but found out it changed to 7:45 PM. It was ok, because it saved us 15 minutes of watching movie previews.
What’s next? I am planning an Anniversary trip and would like suggestions. We are want to go away for about seven days and flying there. Post a comment and let me know where you suggest going.
Happily Married,
Sam Carrara
Save Time with LeechBlock
I found another good way to reclaim your time in the form of a FireFox extension/plugin. LeechBlock lets you set times and domains to block to help you get more accomplished.
Really it helps you to avoid looking at the newest Anime episode when you should be working.
To read the whole review see it at LifeHacker-
http://lifehacker.com/374812/save-yourself-from-time-sinks-online-with-leechblock
Save Time,
Sam Carrara
Get Back Up
How many times have you tried something and failed at it? For me it’s numerous times. There are a few good quotes to encourage you to fail again.
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. (Thomas Edison) This was in response to all the ways to create a light bulb that didn’t work. What if we gave up on the 147th try? You may be in the dark.
Fall down seven, Get up eight. In Japanese it is translated nana korobi ya oki. No matter the number of times you fall, get back up.
Some people fall and refuse to try again. Don’t be one of those people. Pick yourself up and try again. LEARN from your mistakes. Push past failure to success.
See what Keith Goodrum had to say about getting back up:
http://www.keithgoodrum.com/help-ive-fallen-i-refuse-to-get-back-up/
Get Back Up,
Sam Carrara
