Travel Tips for Surviving the Family Road Trip

from Adventures in Self Reliance by Angela

We've got a road trip planned next week.  We're cheap/frugal/poor, so we don't usually fly anywhere, we just go places within driving distance.  We do road trips more often than anything.  We also don't have a TV/DVD in the car and our kids don't have Nintendo DS's, mp3's, or anything electronic.  And usually we all arrive unscathed.  Well, at least we're all still alive when we get there.  So before we leave, here's a few tips to help your family survive those long road trips.

Here are a couple of ways to save some cash on your trip:

1. Stay with family or friends.  We'll be gone 7 days and only one night is in a hotel.  Hotels aren't cheap.  Even cheap hotels aren't cheap.  Especially when you have to leave in the middle of the night after finding bed bugs crawling on your pillows and check into a nicer hotel.  Yep, done it.

Family or friends are usually glad to offer you a place to stay if they know you're coming through town, and sometimes they'll even feed you!  And even if they can't have you stay, it's a good idea to stop and visit with them so they don't hear on Facebook that you came through their town and didn't even call!  Don't be totally cheap here, do offer to pay for food, help with chores, or whatever they might need while you are there.  And of course offer to return the favor if they're ever in your area.

2. Pack food and snacks.  Make some cookies before you go.  Or rice crispy treats.  Or muffins.  Try to avoid foods that get smashed or melt easily.  Taking the family out to eat three times a day for a week will add a TON of money to your travel costs.  Plan on eating out a few times, but pack some sandwich stuff, bagels and yogurt for breakfast, and snacks so you don't have to buy everything on the road.  You might even pack a camp stove and some Mountain House meals.  If it's a long trip, usually half way through you can hit a grocery store for more bread, fruit, etc.  You'll want to re-stock the ice in the cooler anyway, and it's still cheaper than eating out.

3. Don't drive the gas guzzler.  This may sound like a given, but if you're taking a camping trip, maybe the roads are good enough to drive your car instead of your suburban.  Give it a thought before loading up the big ol' beast and spending three times as much for gas.

And now for some ideas to keep the kids from killing each other in the car.

1.  Play classic games like I Spy, 20 Questions, etc.  One we like is "I'm going on a picnic" where we take turns saying things we'll take on our picnic--one for each letter of the alphabet.  Then each turn you have to remember everybody else's picnic items before adding the next letter item.  Fun.  With smaller kids you can do this one and skip having to recite all the other letter items.  You can twist up I Spy by using colors, "starts with" some letter, or using things inside or outside the vehicle (I Spy outside in a Wyoming snowstorm using colors is pretty limited, but add the inside of the car and things get a bit better).

2.  Write every passenger's name on one car tire with sidewalk chalk before you leave.  Every time you stop, see whose name is on the top of the tire.  Celebrate with a treat or something or just keep a count of who ends up on the top the most.

3.  Play telephone.  Or have one person write a word with their finger on the next person's arm and pass the word that way across the seat.  Have the last person guess what the original word was.  OR write letters on each other's backs and guess what they are.  It's harder than it sounds.

4. Get a map of where you are going.  If you're ahead of the game, you can order maps from each state's tourism department.  Otherwise, buy a map.  If you've got an "Are we there yet?" kid, this is $5 well spent.  Mark your route.  Have them navigate or count towns or answer questions about where we are.

5.  Plan some surprises.  My mom would circle random towns on the trip and when we got to that town she'd pull a "Razzle Dazzle Travel Gift" out of the trunk.  These were things like a treat, or a small toy, lego kit, something to keep us busy for a while and break up the monotony.  A couple of my favorites were plastic army men and rubber bands so we could set them up and shoot them down (in a van before the days of seatbelt laws) and bubbles we could use with the air conditioner vents.  Total driver distractions, but SO fun as a kid.  You can probably come up with things that aren't so dangerous ;)

5.  Stop at rest stops and let the kids run around.  Yes, this adds time to your trip, but kids need exercise!  You can read the Historical marker while they run around the car 29 times.

6.   Take some magazines.  Crossword puzzles or word searches for the older kids.  Other game magazines are good also.  Magazines and books to read are also good if your kids don't get carsick.  One game that kept our kids busy for hours used a magazine and a sticker.  Stick the sticker somewhere in the magazine and have the kid find it.  They might want to place the sticker somewhere else and have you find it (if you're not driving) or you can just re-stick it somewhere different for them to find or have them hide it for each other.

7.  Sing songs.  Get a handful of CD's or load up your ipod with music you all can enjoy and sing away.  The people driving next to you won't notice, I promise.  Well, unless you have your windows down.

8.  Give the kids a pencil and paper and let them draw what they see or write notes or draw monsters or whatever.  As simple as this is, it has been a lifesaver on some of our trips.  One paper game we played was where one person drew the head of a monster and folded the paper over, then the next person drew a body and they got to open it and look at their creation and laugh.  Kept them busy for quite a while.

9.  Do some research about where you are traveling, or have the kids do some and be the tour guide.

10.  Play license plate games.  Find a license plate from as many states as possible and keep a list.  Make words from the letters on a license plate.  So if the plate is 142MNY, you could use MNY to make a word like MoNeY or you could use MNY to make a phrase like My New Yucca.

11.  Let the kids take their pillows, stuffed animals, etc. and have blankets available for enforced quiet time in the car.  You'll probably need some.  We usually offer some reward for so many minutes of silence.  It's totally worth it.

Just so you know, these are not fail proof.  We still have the "she's touching me" and "he's breathing my air" times.  But we're a lot better equipped to handle them if we've got an arsenal of activities and ideas to keep boredom at bay in the car.

I will be gone next week celebrating 15 sweet years with my hubby and a couple of birthdays and the end of summer break, but still have posts scheduled that I'm sure you'll enjoy, so be sure to check back in.  We'll be playing I Spy.  :)

43 Reasons to be Self Employed

from Code Name Insight by Code Name Insight

2 people liked this

I love being self employed. Even during difficult times, even when I don't know where my next contract is coming from, the freedom of setting my own hours and having a wide margin of control over my work just can't be beat. Here's why you too should consider starting your own business:

1. Your OTJ meltdowns should be less often (and less drastic) than this.
2. The internet allows you to to take care of most of your business yourself; you don't need an advertising division, a secretarial division, and an accounting division, like you did in decades gone by.
3. Start up costs can be minimal--websites are cheap, Skype is cheap, mailing costs are free (via email), etc.
4. You can write off a whole bunch of expenses on your taxes which you can't do as an employee.
5. You can charge less than big firms yet still make more than if you actually worked for a big firm.
6. Staying small allows you to stay flexible. One part of your business isn't doing so great? Change it or dump it. No biggie.
7. You can often work from anywhere (although why people choose to work in noisy, distracting coffee shops is beyond me!).
8. You can pick your clients and your co-workers. Don't like a client? Don't work for them.
9. You can be way more creative than in a run of the mill job.
10. You can work as much or as little as your want.
11. You can work without limits. In "regular" jobs you have to be careful of "showing off" by working more/better/faster than your co workers. You have to work certain hours. You have to follow policies and procedures. Ick.
12. You can develop multiple businesses until you find something that really clicks.
13. You get to build your own brand...which can be kind of fun.
14. You can make decisions that make sense. Many businesses operate the same way "because that's the way it's always been done" whether it makes sense or not.
15. You don't have to work with power hungry middle managers, hostile underlings, and disconnected bosses. In fact, most social wrangling falls away when you don't have a water cooler to gather round.
16. You can relocate much easier by taking your business with you instead of having to quit your job and find a new job after you move.
17. You can change your job to meet your needs. Don't like having to be in a shop doing dog grooming? Just develop a mobile dog grooming business. Simple.
18. You can set your own hours (ie: you can start working right after your morning poker game).
19. You will have a cool title. Instead of being a cog in the wheel, you can be COO, XO, or CEO of You, Inc.
20. You may be able to cut your commute (and commuting costs) to nil.
21. The sky's the limit with how successful you can become.
22. The sky's the limit with how much money you can earn.
23. You can retire when you want...or just take really long vacations.
24. You can leverage the power of the net for just about everything--advertising to millions instead of just the people in your community, selling to million instead of just the people who see your ad in the local paper, doing something amazing that "goes viral" and makes you an overnight sensation.
25. Overhead can be minimal--these days you don't need a huge office, secretary, and an expense account. Now you can have a laptop, an outsourced secretary in India, and you can make your own coffee at home.
26. You won't be alone. Now more than ever you will find people through blogs, forums, and other online source who are self employed just like you.
27. There's almost nothing you can't learn online. Henry Ford used to have a staff to answer his questions and do research, now you can use Google.
28. Your business and life will flow seamlessly together (usually). No more "thank God it's Friday" since your business will become an extension of your life and vice versa.
29. You can literally start with nothing and grow your business through to an IPO and beyond.
30. You can focus on work that you enjoy. Hate certain parts of your new business? Outsource or contract out those parts so you will have more time to focus on what you do really well.
31. Your stress level will decrease...probably dramatically.
32. Your value system will feel renewed. Working for less than ethical and/or less than honest people can wear on you.
33. Your new business can take you as far as you want to go. As a cog in the wheel you are rather limited in your time and connections, but as a business owner you may end up hob nobbing with the Rotary, successfully running for office, or impacting policy at state and federal levels. Cool.
34. You will learn new stuff. Most jobs you can do on auto-pilot, but with a business, you learn new stuff daily in many business and non-business-associated areas. Continual learning is a good thing.
35. You are free to make changes. Whether you are changing your business model, service model, or product model, you never know...your business might create massive change in your industry.
36. You will quickly learn about the most important aspects of business--making money and having happy customers. From there you continue to refine your process so you will keep increasing both of the aforementioned items.
37. You will gain confidence and skills. Your basic job may entail sitting at a desk and typing on a computer. As a business owner, you may end up making speeches, advising others, and maybe even extending your reach by writing a book or giving workshops.
38. You won't have to worry about your lack of credentials. If people only move up in your company based on how many degrees they have listed after their name, take heart in the fact that in the real world, action and outcome matter more than a person's title.
39. You can make a business out of just about anything...carving pumpkins, building websites, taking people fishing, etc.
40. You can create your own job category. If no particular jobs catches your fancy, you can meld together a handful of things you love to do and create an entirely new job.
41. You don't have to worry about being riffed, downsized, or laid off.
42. Self improvement will be your new mantra. At a corporate job, people usually keep their head down and do the work they are assigned, however in the competitive arena of self bossers, you need to continually evolve and be better than others or you will be left behind.
43. You will be in charge of your own destiny. 'Nuff said.

Precious metals: a prep or a waste?

from TEOTWAWKI Blog by TEOTWAWKI Blog

So, lots of survivalists push precious metals, others say they're a waste of time. Who is right? Let's take a look.

Complete worldwide TEOTWAWKI
 
In a complete, worldwide TEOTWAWKI situation that knocks out all infrastructure, topples all governments and destroys all economies, will precious metals have value? To people who are starving to death or dying of thirst, not so much. You can't eat or drink gold, so yes - there's no demand and your metals are of little use in the initial stages post-TEOTWAWKI.

If, however, there is enough stability that young people are getting married or men are buying their wives jewelry, then hey, your metals will have some value. That is what people use gold for now, it's what they've used it for hundreds and even thousands of years. A token of appreciation and love and a status symbol. That's not going to change - when people get married, precious metals are involved, and they will work or pay a good amount to buy 'em.

Heck, you don't need a whole lot of stability for people to be marrying and gift-giving, and with higher mortality rates and the logistical need for a husband/wife unit, people will get married younger and more often. There may be a surplus of wedding bands to pull from the corpses of the unlucky, but I think your metals will have some value.

So, post-TEOTWAWKI, if you're out of the initial "everyone's starving" stage and living in some measure of local stability, your precious metals will have value to others.

Other SHTF Situations

Mankind hasn't had a complete, worldwide TEOTWAWKI situation yet, so we can place that fairly low on the list of probability. Higher on the probability list are things like hyperinflation, nationwide troubles and civil war.

Things like hyperinflation and collapsing currencies have happened time and time again, and precious metals are a hedge against that. Your local currency loses its value but your metals will retain their value.

Many people have needed to make a speedy exit from their native countries when dictators took power, mobs took over or war broke out. See Germany during and post-WWII. These are the real-deal bug out situations that we saw plenty of in the 20th century, where you've gotta bail on your homeland and head for somewhere more stable and safe. You can't stop by the bank on your way out. In this situation, precious metals, especially gold and platinum are a very compact and transportable form of wealth. A single pound of gold - sixteen one-ounce Gold Eagles currently has a melt value of $19,280, and the flat little coins can easily be concealed or sewn into clothing or bags.You can use your precious metals to get your family set up and safe in your new home.

Finally, precious metals, unlike most of the rest of your preps, have investment value. That means you can sell some off when you're old, TEOTWAWKI hasn't come, and you need to support your retired-self. At a minimum, gold gets you out of the fiat currency that you hold and the associated risks. Which is why, with the depression,  Buy smart and you'll make some money when the time comes to sell. Gold right now is high, pushed up by economic concerns, but it's $50 or so less than it was two months ago, and your guess is as good as mine as to where the value will go from here.

What's the priority?

Precious metals are NOT high on the priority list. Cash on hand, food and water storage, a reasonable firearms battery and ammo and many other things take a higher priority on your "prep list." However, as you get squared away with preps and/or start investing and saving, include some precious metals.

I am not a big fan of silver, because it fails at many of the things you need your precious metals to do. It is NOT particularly concentrated/transportable form of wealth. For example, silver is currently ~$18/ounce compared to ~$1200/ounce for gold; you'd need approximately 67 ounces of silver (over 4 pounds) to equal the value of ONE ounce of gold. Silver is not also in as great of demand for wedding band/jewelry/luxury purposes, so it will be lower on the barter totem pole during the "local stability" phase. It is an inflation hedge, but doesn't do this any better than gold. It is easier to make small-scale barters with, but I don't see $20-value exchanges being the key to anyone's survival. And if you find yourself needing some silver in a precious-metals driven market, I'm sure you could trade a gold coin for some.

I don't have any gold; we do have five silver Morgan dollars that my wife received as a gift, but otherwise we have zip in the way of precious metals. The point what we're ready to start buying them up is in the future, hopefully not too distant, but for now, there are many other things that take precedence. I suppose many of you are in a similar boat, but if you've got money to spend or are looking to get out of more volatile investments, gold certainly is a worthwhile preparation.

How to make one piece moccasins.

from Survival Preparedness Homesteading Forum by Emerald

I made moccasins like these while in Girl scouts and was tickled to find a forum that had step by step instructions to make them again now that I am an adult.
I have made a few pairs of them in fleece for slippers for my family.
How to make one piece moccasins.
Please respect Cougarwomans pattern and if you wish to copy it for someone please ask her.. Links to her site are permitted.
Now I plan on buying some buckskin or leather from my cousin who makes leather purses for a living, she usually has bits and pieces that are not good or have flaws and can not be used for purses to make a few pair for my family. Rabbit fur is easily bought at craft stores for trim.. I might even do a bit of bead work on them as I have a huge box of beads that is just sitting there.:D

Free Download - Bushcraft and Survival Guide

from Stealth Survival by noreply@blogger.com (riverwalker)

An excellent resource on bushcraft and survival is available for free in a secure download. This bush survival manual was put together in order to help people be better prepared. It's 120 pages of very useful information and tips on how to survive in the bush. Much of the information and many of the survival tips in this manual can also be applied to your daily lives as well. It will be a great addition to your digital survival library.

You can download a secure copy here:

Bush Survival Manual (1.3 MB)

Got bushcraft and survival guide?
Staying above the water line!
Riverwalker