April Showers Bring May Flowers 4.20.11

If this saying is true, then we are going to be suffocated by flowers here in the Northwest in less than two weeks. I’m writing this during one of our sun-breaks, which I should run out and enjoy, except it is also still cold out, so it’s nicer to look at it through my window. I hear a lot of places around the U.S. and the globe are actually getting warm weather and are actually celebrating Spring, so I am jealous, but it also got me thinking about Mother’s Day, which is creeping up on us and will be here before you know it. May 8th is the magic date. What are you getting for your mom?

 

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Thinking up something new and original (and inexpensive) every year can be hard. Especially with Christmas and her birthday and any other day you buy her something for being a super duper mom. It’s even less easy to come up with something if you also buy for your mother-in-law, grandma, aunt, wife, sister, etc. So, here’s something I thought of that is affordable and can be good for a group or just the two of you and can also create lasting memories. Buying the mom(s) in your life flowers is the trusty stand-by when you’ve run out of ideas, money or time. Of course, most moms (and women in general) love flowers, so this is not a bad gift, but within a week they are usually dead and thrown in the trash. If you buy potted plants and flowers, this is more thoughtful, as she can have it for years to come. Flowers and plants can end up costing a fortune, depending on the kind you get, so instead of bringing the flowers to your mom, why not bring your mom to the flowers. No, don’t make her get in the car and cruise the local florist aisle at Safeway. I’m talking about taking her to the botanical gardens for the day.

Most botanical gardens range anywhere from FREE to $20 for admission, which is easier on the wallet than a decent-sized bouquet of anything. You and your mom can spend the day wandering among all the native flowers of the area, taking pictures, watching the pollinators do their job, have tea or lunch and maybe pick up a couple of seed packets to take home and try growing yourself. Botanical gardens often have an on-site café or restaurant, but if you’re feeling really frugal, you can pack a delicious lunch and have a picnic. Anywhere you can grow something, you can find a botanical garden, test garden or something similar.

Here in Portland, the City of Roses, we have both the Leach Botanical Gardens and the International Rose Test Garden. Both are free to the public and feature thousands of varieties of flowers and hundreds of different roses. They are volunteer run and operated on generous donations. You can enjoy a wonderful day out with your mom and might even get some sun next month and not have to wear a raincoat or carry an umbrella. Below are some other famous gardens around the world you might like to visit with the mom in your life:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York – Set on 52 acres the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is host to hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. They feature many “gardens within a garden” displays and are home to 42 species of cherry tree. You can also find two gift shops, a visitor center, gardener’s resource center and an outdoor café (open in the summer).

Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, Arizona – Contrary to popular belief, more than just cacti grow in the Arizona desert and you can see for yourself for admission prices under $10 ($7/adult, less for children and seniors). Check out some of the desert’s most colorful blooms, then take in breakfast, lunch, brunch or afternoon tea on the outdoor patio of the Tohono Chul Tea Room. With their reasonable prices, you may have some cash left over to pick up something in the greenhouse or the museum shop.

Byodo-in Garden in Kyoto, Japan – Japan isn’t all city life and skyscrapers. A 15-20 minute train ride outside of the city can take you to the Byodo-in Garden outside of the Byodo-in Buddhist Temple. The Garden is nicknamed “The Land of Happiness” and was created for those that wished to go somewhere beautiful in the afterlife. Though it isn’t large, it certainly is peaceful and is a Pure Land garden. There is also a treasure pond. It is said that this original garden has been the inspiration for other like gardens all over Japan. Admission is minimal at 600 yen (around $7).

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Claremont, South Africa – I think when people think of South Africa their minds automatically go to animal safaris and hot plains. This sort of environment lends itself to very unique plants and Kirstenbosch is just one of nine different botanical gardens in the country (but is among one of the best in the world). It covers almost 90 acres and represents over 7,000 species of plant and with admission rates of a little over $5 (37 Rand), you can afford to go multiple times to see it all and take home a few goodies from the Garden Shop. You can even buy tickets online. Pack yourself a lunch and watch the wildlife around you as you relax in the sunshine and also take in some of the art displayed around the gardens. You can also drop into the Tea Room.

Claude Monet Foundation at Giverny in France – If you’re a fan of Monet, you know that he had a thing for his flower garden and water garden. Take a tour through his house and garden in Giverny to see his paintings come to life. The gardens are open everyday from April 1st through November 1st and admission price for adults is 8 € (about $12). Purchase online in advance and skip the queues. Enjoy Monet’s home, gardens, picture gallery and book shop, then sit down at Les Nymphéas and relax with some traditional Norman cooking. The restaurant serves hot and cold options as well as a daily specials menu.

Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC – As far as botanical gardens goes, this is one of the largest I’ve ever been to. While it’s a more expensive option to visit at a $34 admission price, there is enough to see and do here to stay all day. Because the gardens are so vast, they have a suggestion of 5 different “itineraries” on their website. While the gardens are actually 1 hour north of Victoria by car, the drive is beautiful and you will only be rewarded with more beauty when you arrive. Experience thousands of varieties of plants and flowers any time of year. With 50 on-staff gardeners, there is always something growing and blooming. If you still have some cash in your pocket after entry tickets, you can choose from 2 restaurants or a sit-down in their coffee shop. The Dining Room restaurant is more formal and upscale, while the Blue Poppy is more affordable and casual. You can also spend an hour or more (I did!) in their gigantic gift shop. During summertime visits, you may also be treated to outdoor entertainment and a fantastic fireworks display.

National Botanic Garden of Wales in Wales – This garden is unique, because it features the world’s largest single-span greenhouse and it allows the garden to house plants from all over the world, not just those from the UK. The admission rate is meager for such an amazing place, just £8.50 (about $14), where you will be able to see Mediterranean and other plants form around the world inside the Great Glass House, more exotic plants inside the Tropical House and native plants outside around the walks and lakes. You can pack a lunch to have out on one of the sprawling lawns or make a visit to the restaurant before you head onto the gallery and gift shop.

Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney – Australia is known for a lot of different things – the Outback, aborigines, boomerangs, Crocodile Dundee – but flowers never seem to be part of that list. Bring your walking shoes, because the RBG sits on a whopping 75 acres and occupies what used to be the Governor’s privacy barrier between the penal colonies and his private residence. It now has 18 different gardens and includes a rainforest walk and herb garden in addition to the many plants and flowers native to the area. Take a guided or self-guided tour to get the most out of your visit. With free admission, you really can’t go wrong. Drop a few bucks in the donation bin on your way to one of the two cafes or two restaurants and then pick up some seeds and other goodies in the extensive Garden Shop. All profits go directly back into the gardens.

With all these options and countless other ones you'll find across the globe, it's almost impossible to not find yourself within driving distance to a brand new botanical world. I hope you will find something great for your mom this Mother's Day and you both have a great time!

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Do you want to give your mom a tangible gift (instead of or in addition to) for Mom's Day? If you mom likes to travel, here are some fun ideas:

Chance are, your mom likes to travel. Better chances are that she washes her hair. With all the travel restrictions, it's nice to be able to swap in some useful products that don't need to be stuffed in a 1-quart plastic bag prior to boarding a plane. If that's the case, pick up some shampoo bars for your mom on Amazon from LUSH Cosmetics. They work just like soap, but just as good as her favorite shampoo! They come in varieties for every hair type and you can even get solid conditioner for a matching set. Don't forget to pick up a shampoo bar tin for her to keep it in for safekeeping (and to keep it from gooing up her other toiletries).




Save your mom's back by getting her a stylish and functional Healthy Back Bag from Ameribag. I've talked about it before and have gotten positive feedback from other owners as well. They come in several different sizes, a million colors (including floral) and a variety of fabrics. The ergonomic design is perfect for carrying everything around all day, it has a wide padded shoulder strap, a bunch of functional pockets and the main compartment is only accessed by a zipper that is next to your body when you are carrying the bag, so thieves are instantly thwarted from stealing all your valuables! The medium and large sizes have a large enough outside rear pocket to fit a full-size water bottle, too. You're going to need it with all the walking around you'll be doing at the botanical gardens! 

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Let’s make it to 50 readers on this blog!

Shereen Travels Cheap has several fantastic and fun prizes to give away, but I’d like to make them goal-oriented. I know there are a lot of readers that come by each week to read the new content here, which is great! What would be even better is if you guys would also subscribe to the blog – either on Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs – so I know how many of you are repeat customers. Once the total between the two reaches 50 readers, I’ll be giving away some great wine-related travel products. Being able to ship back or bring back your favorite wines from your travels in your checked luggage make a nice souvenir for yourself and others that weren’t lucky enough to go on your trip with you. This giveaway will be a perfect solution to that! The faster we get to 50, the faster we can start giving away prizes! We will do another one at 100, 150 and so on.

Join me on Facebook! We just started a new giveaway for a prize pack with 2 Knock! Knock! travel products in it: A Bon Voyage packing list tablet and reusable airplane bingo to keep you busy on your flights. Enter by becoming a Fan on Facebook and filling out the form. Get an extra entry by following me on Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs and leaving me a comment to that effect on this post.

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Playing For Pennies On The Dollar 4.16.11

Saving for vacation isn’t always fun, but you know that you’re going to do something fun with the money, so you do it. (You do, don’t you?) As you know, my hope is to always be able to stretch a budget as far as it can go, so you can do more. Just because you have a set spending limit for your whole vacation, doesn’t mean that you are stuck doing 5 things and then just wandering around the city the whole rest of the time you’re away…or have to hang out on the beach, because you can’t afford to do anything else. I know, heartbreak. There are a lot of people who choose to go on vacation, just so they can lie around and do nothing. Change of scenery and all that. I look at it this way: I spent all that money to get there and stay there, I should take some time to experience it, otherwise I’ve just spent way too much money to do something I can do at home. Not that I’m not going to take the time to enjoy the beach and the water, but that’s not all I’m going to do. If so, I could have saved a bundle and driven to the coast and brought my own sandwiches.

 

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Activities are what fill your itinerary. While I understand that not everyone has their vacation planning down to a science, like I do, you still want to plan to do something, right? Of course you do! If you miss out on the biggest things wherever you go, you’ll be sad…or at least I hope you will. Knowing when attractions are open and having a prior reservation for many things is the first step in doing them and also getting a great deal. Now, this post is called Playing for Pennies on the Dollar, so cutting costs is priority. You may not be paying just 2-3 pennies for each dollar and more like 60-70, but that’s still 30-40% off original cost, and in some cases you’ll see and even bigger reductions, which means that extra money is money you can spend elsewhere, like on your dining expenses, or you can keep it in your pocket to help you take the most affordable vacation you can.

Let’s first start by making a list of all the things you want to do in your destination. I search tourism websites for my particular destination like VisitNassau.com or something to that effect. Google will be your best friend in this task, since if you have no idea what there is to do somewhere, you can type in something like “Fun things to do in Oahu” and get a million websites that can help you out. I visit the first 5 or 6 and make a list. If they happen to have websites next to each thing, even better, but if not don’t worry. Write down the exact name of the attraction, show, shop, etc. and you can look it up later. Once you’ve made your list, you can go back and fill in the blanks: how much it costs, opening hours or show times and where it’s located. I like to put an asterisk on things I ABSOLUTELY have to do. This way I know what my base cost could be.

Now, don’t cry when you look at your total just yet. Look to see if there are certain days it is cheaper or even free and if there is, create a daily calendar for the days you’ll be gone and post those things on the correct days and times to work around. You’ll want to do the same thing for activities or shows that will only be available during limited times.

Okay, so that was the fun part. Step 2, find discounts on things you want to do by searching the web. Very rarely do you get the best deal on tickets and entrance fees by booking directly through that company’s website, buying at the gate or calling to purchase. Sometimes it’s true, like with Universal Studios and The Dungeons, where they offer almost the only discounts by buying tickets ahead of time off their websites. This is probably also true, because they have limited tickets available each day, so knowing people who already have tickets won’t be turned away, while others in the middle of the day might be or have to wait in super long lines to get their tickets and have an unpleasant experience is something they’re willing to reward with a few dollars off. Universal has the market on discounting their own tickets, unless you are going to visit for several days, in which case you can buy cheaper tickets through your local AAA travel store.

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So, how else can you get discounted tickets to things? The easiest way is to search “discount tickets (insert your activity/theme park/etc here)” and see what comes up. In my opinion, a dollar or two off is better than nothing. I write down those prices and where I found them – and any fine print, in case printing and shipping fees end up costing you MORE than box office – and then continue with my search. As you find better deals, replace your top choice, so you know who has the best price and where you should buy when you’re ready. Cross out the “retail” price on your original cost list and put the new price next to it. This way you can see how much you’re saving as you go along! (I like this method, because as I find more savings, I add more things from my “maybe” list to my list of things I will do.

Do you find that there are a lot of things on your list that seem like traditional touristy activities? Search for a city pass! These handy cards can save you up to 60% on things you want to do. They can include anywhere from 5 major tourist attractions to almost 100 included attractions and discounts on dining, shopping and transportations. Most major cities that have any kind of tourism have a city pass, whether you’re going to London, Boston or Berlin. These cards have several benefits: you pay one price all at once, it pays for itself by just doing a fraction of the activities included, you can skip the ticket queues and go right to the gate, some include public transportation (eliminating another possibly costly trip expense), and you’ve already paid your admission fees, so the money in your pocket, stays in your pocket.

Look for activities that are not necessarily on every traveler’s list. This is a great way to travel if you’ve already been to a place before. Say you’ve been to Paris before and already done the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Maybe check out the Dali exhibition and take a walk through Pere Lechaise Cimetiere instead. Both are much less expensive and have smaller crowds, plus they are things not everyone gets a chance to do on their trip to Paris. You’ll see a different side of the city and also be able to tell others about things they maybe haven’t heard of, giving them new ideas for their own future trip.

Sign up for daily deal emails, like Groupon and KGBDeals. Many of these sites offer deals worldwide. If you don’t want to get a million emails for places you’re visiting only once, another awesome website just started called YipIt.com. It sends you a single email each day with the deals for all the daily deal sites for the destination you’ve chosen. So easy! (A big thank you to Nancy who found this and told me about it. Saves SO much time!)

Did you remember seeing something in your email for a daily deal site and then missed out on the deal? No problem! Lifesta.com and CoupRecoup.com are both reseller sites of daily deals! It’s like eBay and Craigslist for bargains! Sometimes you buy things and then realize you won’t/can’t use them. Well, with these new websites, you can resell them! This is good news for you and other travelers, too! Browse within your destination – they have over 150 daily deal sites – to find amazing deals at 50% off or more and save a bunch of money on your vacation by paying with certificates of every kind: dining, shopping, beauty, tours, activities, theater tickets, etc.

Did you know you can subscribe to the Shereen Travels Cheap blog on your Kindle? No? Well, you can! Take Shereen Travels Cheap everywhere you go, get real-time updates when new posts are published, so you can read and enjoy STC at home, at work, on the train, in France! Don’t have a Kindle? You can still use that fancy Kindle reading app, which is FREE, by the way, to read on your other web-enabled devices (iPad, Blackberry, Android, etc.).

Are you planning a trip to the theater wherever you go? Check out Broadway Box for discount codes on shows in London, New York, Orlando and Las Vegas. Sometimes you can even get dinner thrown in with your show for less than the cost of the full-price ticket! For other locations, look at StubHub for folks reselling tickets at a lower price. If you find that prices are still too high, go to the box office on the day of show and see if they have any tickets left. If they do, they are generally 50% off, which is a huge savings.

With these tips in mind, don’t be afraid of how small your budget might be. Work around it by using some or all of these techniques and do more than you thought and have an awesome time while you’re away. Remember, there are always free things to do in most cities, too. Mix some of these things into your day and make your budget stretch just a bit further. Sometimes these are the most fun things you end up doing.

Do you have more tips for my readers or questions for me? Feel free to post a comment below. I love feedback.

I am entered into a competition to win $500 for the most liked blog on the site BlogSynergy. If you could take a moment to go THERE and click the “like” button, I would be forever grateful. I’ll thank you in advance, because I know you guys are awesome! (You don’t have to be a member of the BlogSynergy site, but you do have to be a member of Facebook. If you don’t already like me there, too, just pop on over and do it now…then you can get back to reading.)

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Let’s make it to 50 readers on this blog!

Shereen Travels Cheap has several fantastic and fun prizes to give away, but I’d like to make them goal-oriented. I know there are a lot of readers that come by each week to read the new content here, which is great! What would be even better is if you guys would also subscribe to the blog – either on Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs – so I know how many of you are repeat customers. Once the total between the two reaches 50 readers, I’ll be giving away some great wine-related travel products. Being able to ship back or bring back your favorite wines from your travels in your checked luggage make a nice souvenir for yourself and others that weren’t lucky enough to go on your trip with you. This giveaway will be a perfect solution to that! The faster we get to 50, the faster we can start giving away prizes! We will do another one at 100, 150 and so on.

Join me on Facebook! We just started a new giveaway for a prize pack with 2 Knock! Knock! travel products in it: A Bon Voyage packing list tablet and reusable airplane bingo to keep you busy on your flights. Enter by becoming a Fan on Facebook and filling out the form. Get an extra entry by following me on Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs and leaving me a comment to that effect on this post.

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Come over to the Frugal Living Community and join in money-saving discussions with me and my other frugal friends. You can join other discussions, too, and learn how to save money on fashion, groceries, travel and more! Blog Frog is a fantastic site that is comprised of bloggers and blog readers who share the same interests. In addition to joining different communities (Frugal Living is NOT the only one, just the one where I am a community leader and share most of my money-saving ideas), you can find other blogs that interest you, interact with other bloggers/readers and make new friends.

Get Free Future Travel by Postponing Current Travel 4.13.11

Free and Travel are not often two words one can put together. It’s like the Holy Grail for vacationers, though almost none of us seem to know how to achieve such a thing – besides have a job that involves traveling that your company pays for, though that doesn’t usually involve actual “vacationing”. I came across an article the other day that was written by a frequent flyer that is lucky enough to have the funds to fly a couple of times a month just to rack up frequent flyer miles. While I surely can’t follow in his footsteps, and you probably can’t either, I learned a few things about how I do travel and what I can do in order to score some free airfare, hotel and dining vouchers. These can be used on your current trip to save you money now or on a future trip to save you money in the later. It involves a fairly simple technique, too.

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Everyone has heard the term “bumped”. If you haven’t – or if you have and are not sure what it means – it is the term given to a person who has the misfortune to get to the airport too late (read: after almost all the other passengers) to check in for their overbooked flight and loses their seat. They are “bumped” from the flight. With the amount of overall flights being reduced, there are now more people who want to fly on those that are available most days. There are a certain number of no-shows or ticketed passengers that miss their flights each day. The airlines have always planned for this, but in these tough economic times they also want to fill their seats on the limited flights they have, so they overbook. (This was always a common thing on their most popular flights before the recession.) Sometimes everyone shows up and that leaves around 3-5 people without an actual seat. The airlines will rebook them on the next available flight, but will also always ask if others are willing to be bumped instead. This is how you get comped free travel/hotel/food.

Tip: Ask for a credit voucher instead of a free flight voucher. This works like a gift certificate for the airline and allows you more freedom when booking your flight with it (i.e. you can use it for international airfare if you wish or to buy more than one cheap ticket).

When you get to the gate, you will normally see on the monitor at the check-in desk if there is a list of passengers. These people are already on the “waiting” list. They may have checked in after everyone else or were able to be put on stand-by. If someone else doesn’t show up, or someone gives up their seat willingly, they get to board that flight. If you aren’t in a hurry to get to your destination, then maybe you wouldn’t mind volunteering to hang out until the next flight. The more people on the list, the more willing the airline will be to work with you in giving up your seat. Go up to the airline employee and ask if they need volunteers to be bumped. If so, ask what you will be compensated. Usually, because you have been helpful and friendly (this is certainly key in any customer/customer service conversation), they will give you a voucher for a free flight or credit to use at a later date. You’ll, of course, not have to pay extra for being rebooked on a new flight.

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Depending on how long of a wait it will be until your next flight, you might also be able to negotiate a free hotel room and/or dining vouchers for the airport while you hang around and wait for the next flight to come in. While you end up with a free flight (and probably more), the airline doesn’t really lose any money by giving you these things in exchange for your seat. They will be flying that future flight anyway and your seat was already paid for by the passenger who will be filling your seat when they purposely oversold the flight. You get all the perks for just being nice (even if it was selfish) and you might have made someone’s day by letting them take your place. This is a great way to be able to stretch your dollars and be able to vacation more throughout the year. You’ll also get more frequent flyer miles added to your account (if you are compensated with a voucher for a dollar figure and not a free flight)!

Tip: If the airline pays for you to stay in a hotel overnight, they must also pay for your transportation to that accommodation.

Want to avoid getting bumped? Make sure you get to the airport early instead of the last minute. It just takes that one person to get there before you for the flight to be full. I always suggest getting to the airport at least one hour early for domestic and at least two hours early for international. Of course, I get excited for any travel I do and want to allow time for anything that might delay me (traffic, long security lines, etc.), so we tend to get to the airport two hours ahead of any flight. We use the extra time to browse shops, watch people and eat. It’s always nice to be able to sit down and have a decent meal, instead of grabbing fast food right before you get on the flight. It gives you time to relax if you stress right before you travel. It also boosts your energy and helps reduce jet lag. Make sure you drink lots of water, too. I always buy a big bottle of water after security to take with me on the flight, since I am often thirsty, flying dehydrates you and I don’t always want to wait 45 minutes to an hour before they bring around the drink cart.

Tip: Want to finally get into the fancy schmancy airline lounge? Ask for a pass to use it if you’re bumped and have to wait a few extra hours.

More tips on getting “bumped”:

• If you want to get bumped, it helps to get to the airport early as well. Get your name on the list of volunteers before anyone else.
• Book on a flight that is likely to be overbooked (holidays, afternoon flights, early evening flights, last flight of the day, red eye, etc.)
• Be polite. Don’t demand higher compensation than what they are offering you. If you know they are desperate, you can use it to your advantage, but negotiate in a polite manner.
• Know the flight schedule. This can be just as useful to you and your travel plans as it is to the airline employee rebooking you.
• Make sure you’re booking on an airline that does overbook flights. Some airlines do not. (Of course, this information is also helpful in not getting bumped.)
• Be willing to fly on a different airline or a different route. This makes it easier to rebook you as well.
• Pack light. While this doesn’t really help you to get booked, it does ensure that you keep all your belongings with you and the airline doesn’t have to figure out how to reroute your bags in addition to you (and your travel companions).
• Fly through busy airports when possible. Obviously, these airports have more passengers flying everyday and have more overbooked flights than smaller airports.

I never really thought about postponing my flight a few hours to “invest” in my future vacationing, but with all this talk about how I can do it and it seeming to be so easy, I might just start thinking about how a few hours won’t really effect my travel plans and offer to give up my seat from now on. If it can help me budget a trip for cheaper the next time I travel, then it’s totally worth it. What about you? Have you ever purposely volunteered to be “bumped” in order to receive free travel?

Did you know you can subscribe to the Shereen Travels Cheap blog on your Kindle? No? Well, you can! Take Shereen Travels Cheap everywhere you go, get real-time updates when new posts are published, so you can read and enjoy STC at home, at work, on the train, in France! Don’t have a Kindle? You can still use that fancy Kindle reading app, which is FREE, by the way, to read on your other web-enabled devices (iPad, Blackberry, Android, etc.).

So little to do and so much time to do it in. Bring things to occupy yourself if you find you might have a lot more wait time on your hands. I feel this kind of traveling deserves more than a typical "gadget". Here are some of my favorite games to bring along on a trip (not iPod apps, but good old-fashioned games):

Fluxx 4.0 - I love this game! It's the card game with ever-changing rules depending how you play. You start with a basic set of rules and a goal, but by the cards you choose to play, you can change how many cards to pick up, put down, steal from another player and the overall goal to win. Use your cards to your advantage and change the goal to match what you have in your hand. Don't get too excited about it though, because other players are going to do the same and change the game entirely. Fluxx comes in original 4.0, Family, Zombie, Eco, Monty Python, Pirate, Martian and Stoner editions. You can play them separately or up the challenge by playing two or more editions together.

Travel Scrabble - Are you a Scrabble fan? This great travel edition keeps all your pieces in a nifty little zipper folio. You won't lose any of the pieces when you pack it back up and the smaller footprint and parts make it easy to play almost anywhere!

Travel Yahtzee - If you love Yahtzee as I do, you know there's no substitution to playing with actual dice. Sure, you can get an electronic version, but it's really not the same. This Yahtzee To Go set comes in a durable plastic container that you can use as a shaker and never lose your dice. When you're done playing, store your scorecards in it as well and everything is in one place when you're ready to play again!

Cranium Zigity - Here's another card game I love. It's great for adults and children alike and my husband and I enjoy playing it on the plane anytime we travel. A game lasts between five and ten minutes, so you can play for as long as you want and it can keep the attention of even the most ADD challenged minds, because it has four different goals in one game. You may have to spell, add, make a picture or match suits. The cards are plastic, so if you spill a drink or find someone gnawing on one, they're still usable. Great for the pool or beach, too!

Shereen Travels Cheap has been approached with a fun new project. Microsoft is teaming with OneTravel and asking for 40 travel bloggers to test out their new Office 2010 add-on called OneNote. It claims to be a digital notebook where you can gather all of your notes and information in one place, with a built-in search function and the ability to share notebooks with others. I'm really excited to try it out, because I'll get to make up an itinerary for 24 hours in Melbourne, Australia to see how easy it is to use, then have my OneNote shared on both the Microsoft Office site for OneNote and the OneTravel website.

Soon after, you will be seeing a blog post on how cool OneNote is and why you should use it for all your travel planning. I think it'll be a very invaluable resource for you, especially if you like to clip and gather information thoughout the year and then forget where you put it or you travel with several people. You can all add your travel info and suggestions to the notebook and then work at turning those notes into an itinerary. Convenient, if you ask me!

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!

You all know how much I love my iGo. It even has accessories! I’ve done away with all my wall adapters when I travel. I take my iGo and all my corresponding tips in a small bag and leave all the others at home, except for my netbook charger. I have a splitter to charge two devices at once and a USB plug to charge something while playing on my computer.

You want to get your very own, don’t you? Free would be even better, too, so listen up. Go to my Facebook page to enter to win one of three sets. These sets will get you on your way to being a more space-saving and efficient traveler and packer. Each set includes a wall adapter, a car adapter (for road trips and rental cars) and 3 tips – mini USB, micro USB and Apple for your iPod, iPhone, etc. – to get you started. If you have other electronic devices that you take with you, like your Nintendo DS, Kindle and other mobile phone, you can purchase additional tips for those. You can purchase at your local Radio Shack or you can search Amazon for tips. I find they have many more available at sale prices on Amazon, and it’s the only place you can buy the tip for Kindle. This giveaway ends on April 14 and the winners will be chosen on April 15 and given 48 hours to respond.

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!

Come over to the Frugal Living Community and join in money-saving discussions with me and my other frugal friends. You can join other discussions, too, and learn how to save money on fashion, groceries, travel and more! Blog Frog is a fantastic site that is comprised of bloggers and blog readers who share the same interests. In addition to joining different communities (Frugal Living is NOT the only one, just the one where I am a community leader and share most of my money-saving ideas), you can find other blogs that interest you, interact with other bloggers/readers and make new friends.