Guest post from Kaylea
I thought about taking the train for years before I booked my first trip, but every time I did a search through a travel agent website, the trip came up costing a lot more than I wanted to spend.
Looking back, I am sure I missed out on some wonderful experiences, and could have saved a lot of money on some of my long road trips, if I'd had a better understanding of the Amtrak system.
If you're living with a train enthusiast who's eager to take a ride on the rails; or, if you’re looking for an alternative to driving or flying for your next family trip, these tips will help you keep more money in your wallet.
1. Plan ahead….way ahead!
My experience with train travel is that the best prices are available four to six months in advance, and the cost can double over the course of that time. Yikes!
2. Learn the routes that serve your town and your destination.
Whether you live in a major rail hub or only see a train a few days a week, trains follow set routes – certain cities, certain times. Use the Amtrak route guides to figure out what trains serve your area and your desired destinations.
If you know what routes you're interested in, you'll be able to more easily identify the sales and options that apply to you. You can travel to a larger hub and change trains if a point-to-point option is not available – just make sure that your luggage will be permitted on each train in your itinerary!
3. Flip the trip – focus on the journey, not the destination.
Amtrak doesn't go everywhere, and it's often not the cheapest way to get from point A to point B.
When planning your next family vacation, ask yourself, "Where can we go via train?" You can cross the country with lines like the Empire Builder or the California Zephyr, or take a day-trip to a point of interest. Consider going half-and-half — take the train on your way there, and then fly home.
Pursuing a train trip without first determining whether your destination is well-served by train routes could be seriously expensive!
4. Join Amtrak Guest Rewards.
This is the Amtrak equivalent of frequent flier miles, and you can accrue points with each trip. You can also earn points via Amtrak partners, like hotels, airlines, car rentals, and online merchants.
I always join the frequent guest programs when I travel, but I don’t travel often enough to accumulate very much at any given company. The option to transfer points from other frequent guest programs is useful in this case.
Scraping together what I have scattered around has helped me to build my points totals more quickly. And if you don’t end up becoming a frequent train rider, you can redeem for gift cards or give your points away to a friend.
5. Plan a SmartFare trip.
Taking advantage of sales is an obvious tip, but Amtrak's SmartFare sales are a bit trickier to plan around.
Amtrak posts their coach SmartFares weekly, typically at a 25% discount. Sounds good, but here's the tricky part: your trip has to take place within the next few weeks! This is a challenge for vacationers, since there's no guarantee that a desirable destination will be on the markdown table at the time you're planning to travel.
One way to get a handle on SmartFares is to read through the history of the specials and sales offered over the last year. If you visit a train travel resource like RailServe or Amtrak Unlimited, and scroll through the history of what's been posted, you'll get a sense of what might be available for you.
Since SmartFares are coach fares, this approach may be more suitable for a day trip or single overnight than a cross-country journey.
I keep a list of a few destinations for which I'm watching for SmartFares to pop up – in my case, that's our state capital of Springfield, the water park resort area called Wisconsin Dells, and the city of Galena, a walkable historic town. Using these inexpensive fares for a short trip is a great way to get your feet wet before deciding to take a longer ride.
Traveling by train has other advantages beyond simple economics. You can focus on your family instead of watching the road. You can move around the train and hop off at longer stops to stretch your legs. And the availability of bathrooms, sightseeing cars, and a café car keeps everyone traveling comfortably.
By train is our family's favorite way to travel, and I hope it will be an enjoyable and economical option for yours as well!
Kaylea is a Chicago writer and technologist. Together with her husband and two daughters, she has taken seven overnight train trips in the last four years. Her e-book, Family Travel by Train: Riding the Rails with Kids Five and Under, is available via the Kindle Store.
photo source
This is the weekly list of Free Homeschool Curriculum and Resources compiled by Jamerrill from FreeHomeschoolDeals.com. If you aren't a homeschooler, but you're a parent, teacher, babysitter, or nanny, you'll probably find at least a few useful freebies in this list. You may also want to go through the Educational Deals and Freebies from earlier this week for more.
This week’s list is full of great educational resources as well and fall favorites, and a substantial list of popular themes and characters that your kids will love! Start off with this Learning with Pumpkins: Free Pumpkin Printables, Crafts, Recipes + More! list as is has everything you need to jump into fall.
More Fall Goodness
If that huge pumpkin list wasn’t enough, here is more fall fun:
Apples
Fall and Autumn
Pumpkins and Turkeys
Popular Themes Printable Activity Pages/Packs
Any little girl would live to learn with this Hello Kitty Subscriber Freebie, a FREE My Little Pony Printable Pack, these cool 20+ FREE Disney Frozen Printables, or this LaLaLoopsey- Inspired PreK Printable Pack {Subscriber Freebie}.
And for the boys, here is a FREE 73 Page Pirate Pack or a Giant List of FREE Star Wars Themed Printables!
Math
Is your little man into learning about the war? Here is a Fraction War Game Freebie that will be a favorite, while your girls will love this FREE Frozen Math Unit Study.
Here are FREE 2nd Grade Math Worksheets for extra practice.
Preschool and Kindergarten
Practice letters with these FREE Apple Letter Printables , a FREE Apple Letter Sorting Printable Game, or this FREE Printable Animal Alphabet Flashcards.
Reading, Writing, and Spelling
Wondering what to give your third grader to read? Here is a FREE Printable Reading Lists for K-3rd Grade Boys, and a FREE 100 Books to Read Printable.
Practice short vowels with this FREE Instant Download: Short Vowel Word Search.
Bible
Don’t just memorize the ten commandments, teach your child all about them with this 10 Commandments Mini Unit Study Freebie (75+ Pages!).
This interactive study will get your child outside and into the Word. This Falling into the Bible {Subscriber Freebie} Biblestudy combines the best of both worlds.
Health and Science
This Handbook of Nature Study {Subscriber Freebie} gets your child into your back yard, learning , studying nature, and writing.
This FREE First Aid Training Class is a complete First Aid class with a printable certificate at the end!
Social Studies
This FREE Coffee Unit Study with Printable Pack contains word searches, mazes, and activities that teach your child how to research and where coffee grows and how it looks when it grows.
Teach your child all about their community with a FREE Community Helpers Printable Pack.
Homeschool Planning
Do you use Netflix in your homeschool? Here is a FREE Unit Study Planning with Netflix Worksheet that will help you organize your Netflix school planning.
This FREE Charlotte Mason Style Planner is super versatile. it is a great way to plan, and keep record of what your child is learning.
Click here thousands of homeschool freebies!
*Don't forget! If you are looking for additional free homeschool resources please check the huge growing list of free homeschool curriculum and resources on MoneySavingMom.com!
Jamerrill is the homeschooling mother of a large and growing family. After seasons of spending $50 or less annually to homeschool her children, she started Free Homeschool Deals in 2012 to help all families afford the homeschool life. You can follow the homeschool goodness on Pinterest and Facebook.
Thank you so very much for your kind, kind comments on my post yesterday on Why We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget. You have no idea how much you blessed and encouraged me with your graciousness and understanding.
Just, thank you. You all are the best readers ever and I’m so honored to be on this journey with you!
Many of you have asked if I’d share our grocery shopping trips again, our Amazon orders, and our weekly menu plans. Now that we’ve figured out what our grocery budget is going to be and I worked up the courage to share about it with you (!), I’m planning to get back to sharing our weekly shopping trips and menu plans as often as I’m able to. I also plan to share our almost-weekly Amazon orders.
As I’ve mentioned multiple times before, we usually make a few bulk purchases on Amazon each week using gift cards earned through Swagbucks. This week, I bought three big tubs of coconut oil and 4 bags of oats.
We eat oatmeal for breakfast at least a few times per week and we use it in baking some, too, so we’ll probably go through the oats in about two months or less.
The coconut oil will last us much longer. I’m going to guess at least six months? We’ll see!
I love being able to use my Swagbucks credit to buy quality items from Amazon when they are on a good sale. And it’s so nice to make bulk purchases of things we use often so that I don’t have to worry about replenishing my supply as often!
How did YOU save today? I’d love to hear! Tell us in the comments.
Jesse and I spent time really discussing what my focuses should be for 2014 and we nailed down four areas that are my priorities for this year:
- Marriage: to continue to invest time and energy to strengthen and nurture our marriage and make it one of the greatest priorities
- Mothering: to continue to invest in our children with the goal of teaching them character, life skills, and raising them to be responsible adults
- Myself: to make my health a priority and to invest in my personal growth as a Christian, business owner, writer, speaker, and leader
- MoneySavingMom.com: to invest time into blogging — not just overseeing the business and my team, but making writing content pieces one of my top blogging priorities
Having these specific areas determined at the beginning of the year is really helping me to prioritize and giving me much clearer direction on when, where, and what to say no to this year.
September’s Update:
Can I just be really honest? I feel like I’ve struggled a lot with goal-setting this year. I think the move and many different life changes has thrown me for a loop.
I’ve grown a lot this year, I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve processed a lot. It’s been good, but it’s also meant that I haven’t made traction in many areas like I’d hoped.
I know I need to give myself grace and be okay that all of these changes have meant I’m moving at a snail’s pace or at a complete standstill in certain areas of my life. As you well know, though, my driven personality struggles a lot with the whole “give yourself grace” thing. That’s something I’m still working on. 
In the mean time, here’s an update on how I’m doing (or not doing, as is the case with many of these!) on my goals this year:
Marriage Goals
1. Read 6 marriage books. (I've finished 4 marriage books so far.)
2. Write 50 love notes to Jesse. (I've written 35 love notes so far.)
Mothering Goals
3. Read 40 books aloud to the kids. (We've finished 9 books so far — yes I’m probably going to fall woefully short on this goal this year.)
4. Finish memorizing Romans 1 together.
5. Go through a cooking course with the kids. (I have been teaching the kids some cooking skills here and there but we’ve not done anything official yet.)
Personal Goals
6. Read through the Bible. (I'm mostly on track with this.)
7. Memorize Romans 2. (I’m working on this.)
8. Run a 5K race and go through P90X again. (I’m still hoping to make a race happen before the end of the year.)
9. Read 150 books/ebooks. (I've read 67 books so far this year.)
Blogging Goals
10. Write 150 substantive content pieces for the blog.
11. Write 50 DIY/Recipe posts for the blog. (I've written 35 DIY/Recipe posts so far.)
12. Blog about/participate in the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge (I finished September's challenge.)
Did you set goals for 2014 yet?
If you've posted an update on how you're doing on your goals for 2014, I'd love for you to share your link in the comments. Or, if you don't have a blog, feel free to just leave a comment with an update on how you're doing on your goals. Let's encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!
If you're brand-new to goal-setting, be sure to read my post on How to Change Your Life By Setting Goals.
