Stainless steel straws?

 

Comparable stainless steel straw pack

I’ve had these for 6 years. The kids use them, I use them they stay super clean and no discarding straws uselessly. These are definitely worth the money you save and you’re being good to the planet!

Collect sea shells from the beach?

 

I keep sea shells from different beaches. I usually put them in small glass dishes or vases and label them on the bottom. I didn’t have any from Shell Key already so I wanted to keep them from the last trip but wanted a unique display. My husband and I found this little lantern at Home Goods.  And it has a door on it so I put all the shells inside and placed it right next to my faux palm (another video) where it could share the fairy lights without anyone seeing. It’s adorable, unique and I love it!  

What do you think? 

 #seashells #seashelldisplay #cutevacationdecor #uniquedecor

New series for Amazon products

 Im going to spend the next several posts highlighting different items that I, likely, haven’t already shared. These will be pitches made 2019 or prior that I still have and use. It’s hard to find anything that lasts more than a year anymore so I’m going to share with things that have definitely been worth my money!

#moneysavingtips #mindfulfrugalista #amazonfinds

Yes, I actually have curly hair

 Not straight. 

I’ve been with my husband for over 30 years. I think it’s funny that my mother in law still thinks my hair is straight because, in all these years, she’s never seen it anything but straight or up with a hat.  I guess I’ve never actually swam in front of her because that’s how it dries.  But this ⬆️⬆️ is my normal hair. 

Midwest to beach in just several hours!

 

We have decided we LOVE that we can leave our house and be to the Clearwater/St Petersburg area in 6 hours including a 2 hour drive to the airport one way. And once you’re in Tampa it’s only 30 minutes to the beach from the airport.  And Southwest Air offers so many non stop flights and affordable. The joys of leaving your vacation condo at 8am and being home by 2pm including baggage and driving. 

And as a follow up on Alamo car rental they were great at turn in. They asked how we liked the van and we politely told them that the back up camera rarely worked and it already had damage on it at pick up. They knocked $20 off for that without us asking, not that I had planned to.  We ended up paying under $450 for one week of a van rental with unlimited miles. Thanks to my employee discount hub and the extra discount we came below budget on this part of the vacation plan. Great deal and easy pick up and delivery at the Tampa Airport!  Check them out. 

#alamocarental #southwestair #beachtraveleasy

Packing for family trip light mode

 

Belkin surge protector/power strip  this is perfect for traveling to protect your small devices and laptops and it also has a couple of usb ports its just you or a couple of people 

Anker 5 port charger this is what I always take for family travel  it has enough to charge all of our devices and I can have each port designated to a different type of charger so it’s ready to go when someone needs it

Malirona travel bag  this bag has traveled with us to Korea and Florida twice each  it’s cute and it is extremely durable with lots of pockets and a strap to keep it attached to your wheeled luggage  

Large collapsible travel duffle this duffle isn’t as good of quality but folds down to almost nothing and still has made it through multiple trips including road trips

Compression packing cubes these are perfect for packing and really do reduce the luggage space needed

Reusable travel luggage tags I can stretch these and remove them multiple times  they hold up through so much

Do you need to get your family to your destination lightly?  We are pretty good at that. And we didn’t end up needing anything when we got there. I even found out they wouldn’t provide enough paper towels and toilet paper at the condo so I packed some of that too. I got all of the floaties, tp, paper towels, beach towels, and toiletries for the whole family as well as our shoes and clothes between the three bags. Then coming back was lighter since we left some of the floaties and used our other paper towels and tp. 

The girls shared one small carry on roller, J had me to himself and C had his own. We each had a backpack personal bag with our chargers, stainless steel water bottles and snacks which meant they were almost empty on their or way back. And we all it all bottles in the checked luggage for the way back so nothing to deal with at TSA. Though 4 of us had pre check from previous trips. As a side note TSA NO LONGER tags other tickets on the same purchase trip as pre check so my husband and older son had to do regular TSA. The other kids and I took all of the bags through pre check so they would only have to deal with shoes and belts. With my husbands spinal cord injury that is hard enough. 

When we check bags to fly as a family the airlines are always amazed at how little we travel with but we are never short of anything. So it’s all in organization. 

Another little tip is that if you’re flying buy a roll of distinct ribbon at Walmart and tie it to each piece of luggage to make it easily identifiable at baggage claim  it has made this process so stress free.  

#ttavellight #usepackingcubes #tsaprecheck #organizedtravel

Don’t buy without a discount or cashback!

 

It’s only a couple bucks they say…..NOOOOOO

I always find SOME discount !

My 14 year of needed shoes so I shopped around and found good prices at Shoe Carnival. I’m a Perks member (it’s free) so I get free shipping to my home.  Btw, I know stores are changing a lot of policies so free shipping is getting harder to come by but I won’t but unless I can get it. Think about it. If the apparel you buy didn’t fit or the quality is lesser than you expect you just paid money to look at it. Nope!

Next, I always check coupon codes. RetailMeNot etc is a place to start. Nothing worked so I needed to decide if they were worth it. Well he needs them and with inflation a pair of tennis shoes at that price is good (sadly). Onto next step. 

Check out Rakuten for cash back.  Always!  They were only 2% so I checked out my Capital One  app for my Quicksilver card since I’d be paying with it anyways for the extra 1.5% cashback. And when I went to their offers they had 4% to shop through their app. So I doubled my credit card credit they will issue, later, to almost $3. 

$3.  Y’all need to learn to get a little more exited. $3 adds up. With inflation that’s what the cost of two loaves of bread went up and we eat that at least every week with 4 older kids in the house. 

👉👉👉get Capital One Quicksilver referral link  

#everydollarcounts  #moneysavingtips #capitolonesavings #finddiscounts