Getting Paid to Book Travel and Shop 7.5.11

I am positive you think that I'm making this up and you can't possibly get paid to do either of these things, but it's totally true! If you haven't heard me talk about Ebates before, you'll want to know about it. If you have, perhaps you'll learn something new today. I never buy or book anything without first checking Ebates. So, what IS Ebates? It's a fantastic - and free! - site that offers you cash back for purchasing from online merchants. If you plan to make a purchase anyway, you might as well get something for being a loyal customer (or even a new customer). 

Here's how it works: Sign up is quick and easy, then you're ready to shop! When you have a hankering to buy something, say, at Sephora, go to Ebates, sign in, click on Sephora and it takes you straight to the main website. You must go through Ebates, so they can track your purchase. At checkout, make sure you use the same email address you used to sign up on Ebates and within a few days, your purchase will show up in your account. You can track your cash back total to see how much you saved and then every quarter, Ebates sends you a Big Fat Check (if you choose that method) or a Big Fat Payment via Paypal. You even get $5 just for signing up! Who else does that? If there are coupon codes available or special sales, Ebates will show them to you, helping you save even MORE!


I like to use my cash back as a travel savings supplement. Each time I make a purchase, I rack up cash and then it gets deposited right to my Paypal account. I use that money to purchase travel stuffs, like Groupons, clothing, tours and more! If I can get more cash back with it, even better! Of course, you can use it for whatever you want. 


Stores you can shop at: Ebates has, literally, hundreds of online merchants you can choose from, including a long list of travel merchants. Just a sampling of those include: TravelSmith, Holiday Inn, Avis, Alaska Airlines, Camping World, Orbitz, Air France, Delta Airlines, HomeAway and even SkyMall! Keep your eyes out for the Daily Double. Each day one awesome merchant offers double cash back on your purchases for the day.

 

Learn to get more from your Ebates membership: How do you do that? Join me, 14 other fantastic bloggers and the rest of Ebates' members on the Savvy Living Community. Not only will you learn to use Ebates to your full advantage, but you can also learn how to live more savvy by saving money on your whole live from travel to your kids' lunches. Community Leaders (like me) are there to answer your questions, get you involved and start informative and fun discussions. Just this week I joined in discussions about Your Summer Goal, Dealing with Pan Handlers on Travels, Shoes Sales and Stockpiling Food. Make friends, save money, have fun and find some great new blogs to follow!

Pull Down On The Shoulder Restraint 7.2.11

It’s summer time, which means summer vacation, warm weather and theme parks for a lot of families. I’ll be honest, I wish I was one of them today instead of being stuck inside at work. I’d love to be on my way to Disney right now to check out the new Star Tours, the Little Mermaid ride and catch the World of Color show at California Adventure. Looks like I will have to wait another year before I get to check them out, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Even if you don’t get to Disney, I bet there are a lot of you planning a theme park trip and hoping to save money on it.

I am a fan of trying to budget a trip like this, but you also have to remember that it’s a theme park and their primary goal is to separate you from your dollars – whether it’s with churros, t-shirts or pictures – and then to make sure you have fun. Sadly, there are some parks that have a huge gap in between the two and need to work a bit on their customer service.  (Ahem! Universal). So, don’t be overly surprised by the amount of things that cost big bucks. Feeding the dolphins will probably cost you $5-10. It’s just the way it is. Plan to cut costs somewhere else and spend money on such things. Kids – and spouses – may understand that you’re on a budget, but it’s a drag when you say no to everything. Pad your budget a little bit and save by bring in your own snacks and drinks. That will make the $4 ice cream cone a little bit bearable. So, what else can you do to not go broke?

Skip the ticket booth - Purchase your tickets through a discounter, like Costco or AAA before you go. Sometimes you can also get a better deal if you purchase through the park’s site ahead of time (and this is true of other attractions as well), like Universal Studios. Any savings is better than no savings and will also allow you to go straight to the entrance gate, saving you time, too. Now you’ve already spent the money, so you don’t have to worry about figuring your tickets in your “budget” once you get there.

Eat breakfast before you go – Food always costs twice as much as you think it should at a theme park. Instead of forking out $12 for 2 bland scrambled eggs, a biscuit and floppy bacon or greasy sausage, grab a bagel before you leave your room or hit up the continental breakfast at your hotel. If you’re lucky and are staying in a place with a kitchen, you can even have a real breakfast before hitting the parks and keep your crew’s tummies full until lunchtime. You can probably buy an entire week’s worth of breakfast stuff for the price of one of those unsatisfying meals at the park.

Get your money’s worth – If you’ll be spending the same amount of money no matter which restaurant you choose on the property, get as much as you can. Pick the buffet or the one that has a show or a character meet and greet. If it’s just a few bucks more, think if it might be worth it to you to continue your theme park experience while you also re-energize and carb-up for more walking.

Stay off-property – I know the Disneyland Hotel is magical place where you feel like a kid again and get treated like a princess. Unless you have a chest full of treasure you can bring with you to pay for it, save money and stay at a nice hotel off-property for about half the cost. You can use some of the money you save to take the bus or shuttle to the park. (Sometimes this isn’t true, like with Disneyland Paris properties. Stay at one of the further out ones that is still Disney owned, but not the “Disneyland Hotel” and you’ll actually save money over other area hotels, plus shuttle service, continental breakfast and park passes are included. As with everything else: compare, compare, compare!)

Buy multi-day passes – If you plan to stay more than 1 day – which, to be honest, you’re going to do unless you live right down the street and have a season pass – you’ll need a multi-day pass. These passes offer you a discount for going more than one day and sometimes, as is the case with Sea World, you can get two days (or more) for the price of one. It’s rare to save 100% on your 2^nd or 3^rd day admission, but again, any discount is a good discount, so why spend the extra money if you don’t have to. Another benefit? You only have one ticket anyone can lose.

Buy souvenirs at the grocery store – If this sounds wacky, believe me that it's a common practice, especially among those with small children. You can save at least half off of souvenirs by going to the local discount store (like Target) or nearby grocery store. Buy everything from stuffed animals to t-shirts. Take them home for family and friends that you promised something to or do a run before you go to the parks and dole them out each day in the mornings or pack them in your day bag to give out during the day. It will save you money and also keep your kids from the 'I wants'. 

Make dining reservations – When possible, make dining reservations if you plan to eat inside the parks. It won't save you any money, but it WILL save you time. If you make your reservations a little bit before actual lunch and dinner times – say, 11:30 and 5:30 – or after regular eating times – say, 1:30 and 8:00 – you won't have to wait for others to finish eating before you can get your table. This also means that when the majority of people are fighting for a table at the dining venues, you'll be zipping right through ride lines!

Bring snacks and drinks – There's nothing worse than spending $12 for a pretzel and a soda, but multiply that by as many people in your travel party and your wallet can be empty by dinner time. Buying some snacks are okay, but not all day everyday. Almost all theme parks allow you to bring your own food and even drinks (in plastic bottles). Even if you plan to eat in the parks, you can bring snacks to supplement sandwiches and wraps bought at window service restaurants. think of how much you can save when you don't have to buy chips or fries or fruit or a drink! You'll also have more control over the things you and your children eat.

Take the bus, shuttle or walk – If you're headed to a theme park that is close to hotels, like Disneyland is, skip the rental car and save parking and rental fees. If you can walk or take public transportation, then do so. Use the money you save to pay for your box of popcorn! 

Use Ebates! – I know you keep hearing this from me, but you can, in fact, purchase Disney gift cards through DisneyStore.com and get cash back, making them 5% off (sometimes more if there's double cash back). If you haven't signed up for Ebates, do it here. This is also a good place to get discounted souvenirs, by shopping the sale and clearance tabs.

Want to know which theme parks are hot right now? See Budget Travel’s 10 Must-Ride Theme Park Attractions. I’m not sure I agree with Flight of the Hippogriff, unless you have little ones that are too young to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The lines may always be long, but with everything there is to see, it’s definitely worth the wait. (Make sure you take your wallet with you when you leave all your belongings in a locker. You’ll need it to pay the fee when you return. The wait is always longer than the “free” locker time rate.)

It's going to be a book soon! That's right, my book is finally going to be available for you to purchase. This leads me to ask you two things:

• What tips are most useful or interesting to you? Leave a comment on this post to let me know.
• Have I helped you save on a trip? If so, I'm looking for positive comments to use on my cover. Use the "email me" button or leave a comment with praise, your first name and where you live (city and state). If I end up using your awesome comment, I'll contact you for your other details and send you a copy of my book when it comes out! It will also be available on Kindle, if you would rather have that version. 

Don't forget that you can get Shereen Travels Cheap blog on Kindle via Amazon. If you don't have a Kindle, it's okay. You can download the free Kindle Reading App for your web-enabled device, like your iPhone, iPad, Android, netbook, or Blackberry. As soon as a new post is published, you'll get it right away on your device!

Help me make it to 1,500 Facebook fans and be a winner! I'm giving away travel games for your summer trips. They are fun and help pass the time. Here's what you need to do: "Like" Shereen Travels Cheap (if you haven't already) and enter to win the travel games giveaway. Then, suggest Shereen Travels Cheap to all your Facebook friends and tell them they can enter to win, too. When they enter, they enter your name as the one who referred them and you get another entry for each friend who names you! When we reach 1,500 fans, 2 lucky winners will be chosen via Random.org.

Don't forget to join me on the awesome new Savvy Living Community sponsored by Ebates. Not only will you learn how to save money by better utilizing Ebates, but you will also be able to read Savvy blog posts and join in discussions and live chats with Savvy Leaders (like me!) to learn how to save money on all aspects of your life. With 19 bloggers who are experts on everything from travel to family life, you're sure to learn a lot of new information, find some great new blogs and even make some friends along the way. Join Ebates. 

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow! 6.29.11

Since we’ve talked at length about travel make-up, it only seems natural to also talk about other beauty regimes we take on the road, like hair care. It’s something that men and women deal with every day – unless they’re bald – and is important to looking good on the go. Why let your hair suffer the loss of space for products when you travel? Just because you can’t devote a whole bag to it, doesn’t mean you have to scale back on the way you treat your hair.

Okay, so we all want to pack lighter and take less, but we also want to look good. Well, most of us anyway. I know a lot of people who don’t care or have that “I’ll never see those people again” mentality. I’m not talking to them, because the rest of us want to have nice looking hair, even for strangers. You want to be able to show your vacation pictures without feeling embarrassed. These are things you can control. Of course, you may need to tweak your beauty routine a bit for travel, because you don’t have the space to bring every hair product you own and you don’t really want to spend more time than you have to on it when you could be out and about having a good time. Where can you downsize or change up items to still have great looking locks?

Solid Shampoo Bars – These are one of my favorite travel items. Not only do you save space by not bringing a liquid, but these are super easy to use, make your hair silky and moisturized, keep the frizz down and don’t spill all over your stuff in your bag.

I was introduced to shampoo bars when I went to Disneyland and LUSH Cosmetics had just opened a store in Downtown Disney. My mom was in love with the bath bombs and other girly stuff and I was fascinated by the fact that you could rub soap on your head and not have it turn into a disaster. I bought an oatmeal one that claimed to moisturize and tame hair. With thick curly hair that tends to frizz if not treated properly, both those things were a plus. I tried it out and LOVED it. I only wished they also had them as a conditioner. Now they do!

The LUSH shampoo bar line comes in many different scents and ingredients, so you can pick just the right one for your hair type. The Jungle Solid Conditioner only comes in the one scent, but for my unruly hair, it did more than expected. It smoothed and detangled and was easy to use. It does have a high floral fragrance, along with other smells, but even with my allergies, it wasn’t bothersome.

These are greatly affordable and you can even get an aluminum case to keep them in when you travel, so they go from bag to shower and back without needing to wait for them to dry out. If you have a LUSH store near you, you can take the time to browse the many different kinds of shampoo bars they have, though, I’ll have to warn you that everything starts to smell the same after a while, because all the scents are mixing together in the small space. The shopping experience goes just as well online, without the watery eyes.

  

Dry Shampoo – This is another one of my new fab finds. I know dry shampoo is not new, but I have been reluctant to try it, because after all, I wash my hair. If you’re a flat ironer or you tend to have oily hair/scalp or you’re just lazy, this is a great product. Keep your hair lasting a day or two longer after shampooing by spraying this on your roots the day you SHOULD wash your hair, but don’t want to. It soaks up the excess oils and keeps your hair looking just as good as the day before. This is fantastic if you go on short trips or if you go on longer trips and just want to spend more time doing stuff…and not your hair.

    

Downsize Your Liquids – If you insist on taking your own shampoo and conditioner from home, make sure you decant them into travel bottles or, even better, buy them in travel sizes. This is also great for mousses, hairsprays and gels. I use spray gel to attack my hair and keep the flyaways to a minimum, so I bought a 2 oz. spray bottle in the trial-size section of the store for $1 and refill it every time I travel. If you can’t find smaller v where you normally shop, check out beauty supply stores or Minimus. They have everything under the sun in travel varieties and can help save you a ton of space when traveling. They are my go-to website for travel meds and beauty items I don’t already have at home.

   

Mini-Size Your Hair Appliances – So, you never leave home without your flat iron/blow dryer/curling iron. That’s okay. You don’t have to. If that’s what you need to make your hair “work”, then that’s what you need. I’m too lazy to use more than one thing, so I take my showers at night and opt for the flat iron. This helps in eliminating a blow dryer from my routine and it also helps me get out the house quicker in the morning, because I already took my shower and I flat iron before bed when it is mostly dry. When I wake up, I can just run a comb through it, slap on some make-up and go! But enough about me…

For those of you that are a slave to your appliances, the best way to travel with them is to leave them at home and replace them with smaller versions. Get travel-sized ones that retract or fold and you will find so much more room in your travel bag than before. Every company makes travel versions of their hair appliances, so take a trip to your local Target or wherever you go to buy these things (ULTA, maybe) and check out the selection. Conair and Remington have some fantastic selections and have a folding flat iron, folding mini hair dryer, mini flat iron (so cute!) and mini curling iron. They pack in half the space – sometimes less – as your full-sized ones at home and do the job just as well. Plus, when you have alternatives, you don’t have to keep unpacking and repacking them. They will always be in your bag, so you can just grab it and go. You may have forgotten socks, but at least your hair will look great!

   

So, if you’re wondering how any of this pertains to budget travel, I can tell you that it cuts down on the items you take, keeps your travel bag manageable and also lets you skip the baggage fees when you pack everything into a carry-on bag. The less (and smaller) you take, the easier it is to pack lighter and travel more efficiently. Once your plane lands, you can grab your bag and go right to checking in instead of standing around that cattle corral they call the baggage claim and watching everyone’s bags go around and around until they finally get yours off the cart and onto the conveyor. Believe me, people are jealous of those of us that grab our bag from the overhead and go straight to the taxi stand or car rental office.

Does this post seem shorter than usual? You’ll be excited to know that my slacking is all for a good cause. The shortness of my post today is related to my return to my budget travel book. I’m doing another round of editing and additions, so we can self-publish by the end of summer or the beginning of fall. You’ll be able to purchase Shereen Travels Cheap on Amazon in hard copy for yourself and holiday gifts (*hint, hint*)! It’ll also be available on Kindle. I’ll update you as we go along. I suspect the editing, additions and more editing will take through the end of July. I want you to have as much information as possible when I’m done, so you’ll get your money’s worth!

Don't forget that you can get Shereen Travels Cheap blog on Kindle via Amazon. If you don't have a Kindle, it's okay. You can download the free Kindle Reading App for your web-enabled device, like your iPhone, iPad, Android, netbook, or Blackberry. As soon as a new post is published, you'll get it right away on your device!

We're celebrating 100 blog subscribers! Help me out by subscribing, too, and you could win a fantastic Summer Road Trip bundle worth over $150! The package includes a fun travel game, a packable tote bag, sunscreen, UV SunSense wristbands, $100 dining card, $25 hotel card and some other surprise items. Once we reach 150 subscribers a winner will be chosen. Enter here! Get extra entries by getting your friends to enter as well!   

Help me make it to 1,500 Facebook fans and be a winner! I'm giving away travel games for your summer trips. They are fun and help pass the time. Here's what you need to do: "Like" Shereen Travels Cheap (if you haven't already) and enter to win the travel games giveaway. Then, suggest Shereen Travels Cheap to all your Facebook friends and tell them they can enter to win, too. When they enter, they enter your name as the one who referred them and you get another entry for each friend who names you! When we reach 1,500 fans, 2 lucky winners will be chosen via Random.org.

Don't forget to join me on the awesome new Savvy Living Community sponsored by Ebates. Not only will you learn how to save money by better utilizing Ebates, but you will also be able to read Savvy blog posts and join in discussions and live chats with Savvy Leaders (like me!) to learn how to save money on all aspects of your life. With 19 bloggers who are experts on everything from travel to family life, you're sure to learn a lot of new information, find some great new blogs and even make some friends along the way. Join Ebates. 

                                                     You can join my new discussion on travel guides!