Roadside help: an insurance add-on or a club membership?
After the battery scare we priced roadside assistance. A $14-a-year add-on on our car policy against a $70 membership, and what we…
What we check before booking a $70 motel
Recent reviews, interior or exterior doors, and the parking lot test. The checks I run before booking a cheap motel off the inters…
Turning the hall closet into a grab-and-go travel closet
Bins for the cooler gear, the camping kit and the overnight bags. How one Saturday and $36 in bins cut our packing time in half.…
Our first year of trips in one spreadsheet
Twelve trips, about 5,900 miles and $2,968 from March to December. What each trip cost, ranked from cheapest to most expensive.…
What we do on the weekends we stay home
January is our no-trip month. Free things around Laurinburg and Lumberton, a lot of soup and trip planning at the kitchen table.…
The morning our battery died in Southern Pines
A cold morning, a click and no start in a store parking lot. What getting help cost, the $189 battery and why we test it every fal…
Christmas Town USA on a Friday night
McAdenville, near Charlotte, lights up nearly every tree in town. The drive, the traffic trick we learned and a $9 supper on the w…
A Pinehurst-area inn at half the golf-season price
Rooms near the golf courses are steep most of the year. In mid-December the same room was $118, and the village was quiet and lit …
December road trips cost us 30 percent less than June
Similar distances, very different bills. Comparing one of our June trips with a December one, line by line: rooms, gas and food.…