How to Save Money on Your Next Road Trip Before You Even Hit the Road

Expenses for family road trips can add up quick! Find out my #1 tip for How to Save Money on Your Next Road Trip Before You Even Hit the Road...

This post was created in partnership with Kroger. As always, all opinions & thoughts expressed below are 100% my own.

The end of the school year & the beginning of summertime always means one thing for my kids & I- it is the official start of road trip season in our home. Whether we are driving just an hour or two to spend the day hiking or embarking on a 6+ hour drive to a cabin in the Tennessee mountains, we are always game for a good family road trip. 

But when you factor in gas, stops for snacks, road tolls (ugh- am I right?), the expenses for those family road trips can start adding up pretty quick. That is why our local Kroger store has now become our first official stop on our road trips before we even hit the road. 

5 Essentials for Your Road Trip Survival Kit

Ensure the survival of everyone's sanity in the car on your next family road trip with these 5 Essentials for Your Road Trip Survival Kit...

This post is sponsored by BabbleBoxx.com on behalf of Single Edition Media.

We are gearing up for our last big family road trip of the summer & heading to the Midwest next week (Be sure to give me on a follow on Instagram to discover exactly where we will be traveling to & to follow along with our travel adventures!). Our hotel rooms are booked, the route to our destinations have been plugged into the GPS, our itineraries are just about finalized, & I am starting to throw together our road trip survival kit. And yes, I said survival. Because it is ALL about the survival of everyone's sanity when there is a restless 5 year old in the backseat. ;)

In addition to the usual road trip must-haves (think coloring books & crayons, snacks, water bottles, headphones for each member of the family, etc.), I will also be adding the 5 essentials listed below to my family's road trip survival kit...

The 20 Best Audiobooks for a Family Road Trip

Keep every member of the family happy & content in the car this summer with these 20 Best Audiobooks for a Family Road Trip...

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Audible. The opinions and text are all mine.

Summer road trips with a preschooler and a teenager can get interesting at times. While my youngest would be happy spending an hour or two playing "I Spy", my oldest would be most content with his headphones on doing his own thing. I always try to leave the house well prepared for long road trips to avoid any major meltdowns, but the inevitable always happens- the dreaded "I'm bored".  And let's face it- sometimes even the adults get a little bored on the longer road trips. That is why I am glad for our Audible account, the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment! :)

We can connect up to four devices at a time to our Audible account which means every member of the family can enjoy their audiobook of choice from their laptop or MP3 player. And even better yet, you can connect up to 11 mobile devices using the Audible mobile app. The oldest can listen to his favorite audiobook from his laptop, the youngest from her tablet, and my husband & I can listen to our summer reading picks from our cell phones. 

So which Audible audiobooks are on my family's reading list for family road trips this summer? See below for mom's top picks, the preschooler's must-reads, dad's top recommendations, and the teenager's can't miss audiobooks for this summer...

5 Tips for Curbing Road Trip Motion Sickness

Kick nausea to the curb on that next road trip with these 5 Tips for Curbing Road Trip Motion Sickness...

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

I think that it goes without saying that I love to travel. Whether taking road trips with my family or flying solo across the country for a foodie adventure, I love the thrill of exploring a new place. :) But what many people probably don't know about me is that I have suffered from some serious motion sickness ever since I was a kid. 

In fact, I still vividly remember the summer that my grandparents embarked with my sister and I on a mission to visit a different area of West Virginia each week while we were off from school. Though I love the fun memories we made that summer, I mostly still remember those day trips because of how many times I had to ask my grandpa to pull the van over because I felt absolutely nauseous. 

You see, we do not have very many straight roads on the back hills of West Virginia. In fact, there are a lot of hairpin turns on our roads through the hills and mountains. We have another name for those types of turns, but I will spare you that term since I like to keep things PG-ish around here. ;)

Motion sickness has followed me into my adult travels as well. Mountain highways still make my stomach turn. Rough waters while in a small boat leave me darting for the side railing. And I once even had to grab that little white bag as the plane was landing on the runway in Denver. Talk about a walk of shame as I exited that plane!

Over the years, I have learned some methods and tips for helping to curb that motion sickness making for much more pleasant travels for all involved. The tips below are more specific to road trips, but you could employ almost all of these in any instance where you are experiencing nausea due to motion sickness...