Find Cheaper Gas, Cheaper Alternate Fuel, Cheaper Parking and Free Kid's Restaurant Meals This Vacation

Travel isn't cheap, but if you can shop and compare, it could be a bit cheaper.  Bob Evans is touting its free kid's meals in July of 2013 (if you are paying for an adult meal, from 2 till closing, on weekdays).  However, other restaurants regularly offer free children's meals under certain circumstances, often at lower-demand days, like weekdays.  If you want to find them, try the website Kids Eat Free, which has a state-by-state breakdown of places with such offers.

If you are on the move, and want to find cheap gas wherever you go, try Gas Buddy, which is a website and has a  mobile app, too.  If your car runs on something other than unleaded gas, AltFuels will help you find (and price) alternatives around the country as you travel.    And if you want to park somewhere where parking isn't free, try Parkopedia to compare the price of potential parking spaces.  And happy travels.

More Freebies and Cheapies for Travel and Recreation

The last post had a list of cultural institutions that had free days or discounts, compliments of Target.  But there's more cheap and free stuff that can help you travel. 

One is the land pass for American citizens 62 years or older to hundreds of sites managed by five federal agencies: the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Recreation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Forest Service.  Between them, they manage some of the most scenic and breathtaking historic and national treasures in the U.S., and the America the Beautiful pass will allow you to see most of these treasures for a $10 lifetime pass.  That pass covers not only the holder, but everyone in his/her car.  And some of these sites will also give card holders a discount on other amenities, like camping or guided tours.  The application is actually $20 for paperwork if you apply through the mail via application, but $10 if you apply in person.  Here's a list of parks and sites where you can apply in person. 

If you want to travel, you may be able to be able to swap homes with someone in your destination location.  This works out best if you have a location other people want to see, but check it out.  One place is the Home for Exchange site, but there are others. Fodors carries a short list in an article on how to make things homier for your guests. 

If you are looking for free accomodations--but not simultaneous to someone else--you can sign up for the Global Freeloader site.  You can travel with free accomodations in the homes of others, if you are willing to be a host yourself. 

And if you're traveling with kids, it's good to know where and under what circumstances you may be able to feed them free.  A website, Kids Eat Free, tries to keep track of this for you in the United States.  It's arranged by state, but you are urged to check ahead to see if the offers are still good in the restaurants that they list.

Grants for Travel.

Who’s going to pay you to travel? Some organizations will, but remember, it’s like any other grant—your interests have to align with the grantors! If you are thinking, “who’s going to finance my vacation?” the answer is probably nobody. But if you’re thinking, “I need money to study French culture and language in France”, then maybe the Societe des Professeurs Francais et Franophones d'Amerique can help. Or, if you want to study Polish culture, the Kosciuszko Foundation might be what you want. The same is true if you want to study in a Scandinavian country—the American-Scandinavian Society may be what you are looking for. If you wish to provide service to other countries, the Rotary Club has scholarships for that purpose.


Here’s a strategy for finding cultural scholarships: go to Foundation Grants to Individuals (available at more than 600 U.S.cooperating collection libraries), and in the Type of Support box, type travel. In the geographic focus box, type international. Another field that tends to give grants to individuals to travel and study is the arts. If you are an artist, try using travel in the Type of Support box, and Arts in the Field of Interests. Using this strategy, you can find organizations like Meet the Composer, which sponsors travel expenses for composers.

Besides foundations, the government also sponsors some travel for study and work purposes. The National Security Education Program offers the Boren Scholarships for travel and study in strategically important foreign countries. The National Endowment for the Arts has grants to support travel for writers to further their work, too.

If you are need funds for biomedical research-related travel, you can use Scan Grants, a free database of non-federal grants in the field. One of the categories on the right hand side of the page is travel grants—click it and you get the full list. But if you want to narrow it down to grants relevant to your needs, do a more complex search, and choose the travel category, with a word search in your field, like "cancer" or "dermatology." You will get a list of grants for travel to conferences, study, or other research.

Help if You Are On The Move, For Whatever Reason

From what I can glean from patrons at the Toledo Public Library, some homeless people are heading off to warmer climates. Can you blame them? If I had to live outside, it wouldn’t be here in our subfreezing cold. But where do you find resources to move to a strange town, and find out where you might stay, food to eat, and more? What if your move has been caused by some dislocation—fire, domestic violence, etc? Where do you get information?

The oldest organization is Travelers Aid, a string of agencies across the country whose mission is: “To advance and support a network of human service provider organizations committed to assisting individuals and families who are in transition, or crisis, and are disconnected from their support systems.” The central office doesn’t provide any direct help, but you can find their affiliates on their site.

There are several online places to look for shelter. One is to check out a locale and see if it has a 211 service—a phone service whereby if you dial 211, you find out about social services like housing and food. You can also try the Homeless Shelter Directory, which has a list of shelters that have registered with them, though it’s not exhaustive.

The Homeless Shelter Directory also has a listing for food pantries and food banks, as does this listing from Feed America. Food banks usually don’t deal directly with individuals who need help, but they can tell you who their clients are, and the Homeless Shelter Directory does have a few soup kitchens on its list. Again, if your destination city has a 211 database, use it for a more complete list.