Useful Travel Planning Resources

Planning a trip? Here's my roundup of useful travel planning resources:

(1) Making Reservations:

• Voyij.com (aggregates deals from other sites, e.g., Kayak, Priceline, Hotwire, etc.)
• 10 Ways to Cut Your Travel Costs This Year (NYTimes)

(2) Travel Planning:

• GetSetApp: Comparing the cost of travel by air, bus or car
  
• Frugal Traveler's Review of Travel Websites
  
• Frugal Traveling Strategies
• Buy Now or Later? Planning for Summer Travel

(3) Exchange Rates & ATM Fees

• Exchange Rate Surcharges and ATM Fees for the International Traveler

(4) Trains

• Germany's DB Bahn English Book Site

(5) Taxis & Cabs

• World Taximeter: International Taxi Fare Calculator
  
• Resources for Calculating Cab Fares & Booking Cabs

(6) Hotels:

• Hotel Rewards Cheat Sheet (NerdWallet.com)
  
• 7 Strategies for Hotel Upgrades (CNN.com)
• HotelChatter's Annual WiFi Report (find out which hotels offer the best/free wifi, which hotels offer the worst wifi before you book your hotel stay)
  
• Hostelling International New York (cheap lodging in New York City)
  

(7) Air Travel

• Resources for Planning Your Air Travel
• Tips On Finding A Comfortable Coach Seat Without Upgrading
• Saving Money On Your Summer Air Travel
• How to Get The Best Seat on the Plane

(8) Packing

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: Pack Like the Pros
  
• One-Page Checklist: Packing Everything into One Bag

(9) Useful Information:

• Live Train Map for the London Underground
• Traveling? Find the Best Spots in New Cities with these Tools (Lifehacker)

Resources for Planning Your Air Travel

My round up of useful air travel planning resources:

(1) Airfares:

• Whatever You Do, Don't Buy an Airline Ticket On... (Wall Street Journal)
  
• What is the best day to buy cheap airfare? (ABCNews) FareCompare's Rick Seaney shares his 10 things you should know to get the best flight deals -- Highly Recommended
  
• Airline Ticket Surcharges for Peak Domestic Travel – Avoid the Most Expensive Days(FareCompare) -- Highly Recommended
  
• The Frequent Flier's Guide to Finding Cheap Airfare (Lifehacker) -- Highly Recommended
  
• Booking a Flight the Frugal Way (NYTimes.com) -- Highly Recommended
  

• Hipmunk.com - a new flight search engine that provides search results in easy-to-read charts -- Highly Recommended
  
• ITA Matrix Lets You Find Cheap Airfare, Plus Advanced Routing Codes, Minus Ad Clatter(Consumerist.com)
  

• Cheap Airfare Links & Bookmarks (MyMoneyBlog.com) - useful list of links
  
• Fly for Less (Kiplinger.com) -- good advice on how to land a cheap air fare
  
• Voyij.com (aggregates deals from other sites, e.g., Kayak, Priceline, Hotwire, etc.)
• Frugal Traveling Strategies
• Delta Airlines Fare Chart
• United Airlines Fare Chart

(2) Airline Fees:

• A Staggering Look at Baggage Fees (Hipmunk Blog)
  
• Your Complete Big-Ass Guide To Annoying Airline Fees (Consumerist)
  
• Airline Baggage Fees (DansDeals.com)
  
• Useful Table of Airline Fees (Kayak.com)

(3) Searching for Best Seats:

• How to Get Exit Row Seats (includes chart of airline policies)
  
• How to Get The Best Seat on the Plane
• Tips On Finding A Comfortable Coach Seat Without Upgrading

(4) Packing

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: Pack Like the Pros
  
• One-Page Checklist: Packing Everything into One Bag

(5) Tracking Your Flights

• Live Flight Tracker: Flightlite

(6) At the Airport:

• Security Checkpoint Secrets: How to Dodge the Lines at Top US Airports(Frommers.com) -- Highly recommended!

(7) Flight Cancellations:

• 3 Reasons You're Doing It Wrong When Your Flight Is Cancelled (Hipmunk.com)
  
• Airlines Play The No-Fault Card (New York Times Practical Traveler) - excellent article on your options in the event your flight is cancelled.
• 10 tips for avoiding delayed/cancelled flights and what to do if all else fails(airfarewatchdog)
  

(8) Getting Bumped:

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: An Expert's Guide to Getting Bumped (Frommers.com)
• How I scored 4 free flights last year - all without using frequent flyer miles(MoneyCrashers.com)
  

(9) Airline Customer Service, Lost Luggage & Filing Complaints:

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: What To Do About Lost Luggage (Frommers.com)
  
• If an airline loses your luggage, get compensation (Consumerist)
  
• How to Deal With Lost Luggage (FoxNews)

(10) Airline Customer Service & Filing Complaints:

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: How to Complain to the Airlines (Frommers.com)
  
• On Your Side: Phone Numbers & Emails of Executives
• When all else fails: Filing a complaint wih the DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Office
  

(11) Miscellaneous

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: How to Beat Jet Lag (Frommers.com)
  

See also my previous blog postings:

• Saving Money On Your Summer Air Travel
  
• Frugal Traveler's Review of Travel Websites
  
• Buy Now or Later? Planning for Summer Travel

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Avoid Moving Scams & Finding a Reputable Moving Company

If you are thinking of moving or relocating, the website movingscam.com offers advice on how to avoid being taken for a ride by unscrupulous moving companies, as well as how to find a reputable moving company.

Also, check out: Summer is the season of moving. Don't get scammed (SF Chronicle)
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Live Flight Tracker: Flightlite

Flightlite is a live flight tracker that allows you to track in the air flights around the world. This is a very useful website to find out whether a flight you are waiting for, has taken off and en route as scheduled. All you need to do is enter the flight number or airline name into the search box and flightlite will either track the specific flight you entered or show you a list of the flights you can track if you enter the name of the airline.

Link: Flightlite

Selling Your Used Electronics For Cash

Do you have old electronic gadgets that are gathering dust in your closet?

Don't want the hassle of selling these old gadgets on eBay or Craigslist?

Several websites have sprung up, offering the convenience of buying your old electronics for cash:

• Gazelle.com
  
  
• Nextworth.com
  
  
• Buymytronics.com
  

Check with all three sites for quotes before deciding as pricing do vary between sites.

In addition, do visit WorthMonkey.com to find out the street value of your old electronics, so that you have an idea whether you are getting a good price for your old electronics.

If your electronics are too old, consider recycling or freecycling it instead of dumping it.

My Frugal Living Tip #14: Make Your Own Seasonings & Spice Mixes

One way I save money is to make my own prepared seasonings and spice mixes. Rather than buying branded seasoning and spice mixes such as McCormick, I spend anywhere from a quarter to a third of the price of prepared mixes by buying the ingredients and mixing my own. There is also the added advantage of fresher mixes.

The internet is filled with many recipes for do-it-yourself mixes. If you don't have the patience to hunt down individual recipes, Cheap Healthy Good Blog has compiled an extensive collection of recipes: Save Money On Seasoning: MYOM (Make Your Own Mix).

Link: Save Money On Seasoning: MYOM (Make Your Own Mix).

Like this article? Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.

My Frugal Living Tip #13: Energy Efficiency & Frugality

Energy efficiency is one easy way of being frugal. Whatever your position on climate change may be, energy efficiency also means not wasting money on inefficient appliances and wasteful consumption of energy, i.e., keeping more money in one's pocketbook.

Looking to get started? The US Department of Energy has a useful website, EnergySavers.gov, which has lots of information and tips on saving energy, and therefore saving money.

Link: EnergySavers.gov

Like this article? Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.
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Shelf Life & Expiry Dates

How long can you keep milk in the refrigerator? Is it still drinkable or do you have to throw out that milk carton? Can you save money by using products that are past their expiry dates? What do terms such as "sell by," "use by," "best by," really mean? What does a frugal person do with products that happen to be past the "used by," "best by," etc. dates?

Here is a roundup of useful resources to explain the confusing jargon that manufacturers use and the expiry dates of most products:

• Shelf Life Advice
  A very useful site to find out the shelf life of a particular product. Enter product in search box to find out its shelf life and storage information.
  
  
• Food Expiration Dates: What Do They Really Mean? (Yahoo Green)
  
  
• Expiration Dates (OrganizeYourLife.org).
  A near-exhaustive and very useful list of how long you can keep food, household, beauty and cosmetic products.
  


• Do Food Expiry Dates Really Matter? (WebMD.com)
  An informative discussion about the confusing mix of terms used by manufacturers on their products.
  


• The Secret Code of Beer Expiration Dates (Consumerist.com).
  How to decode the mysterious codes that breweries use on to indicate how old your beer is.

Free Classical MP3s from Amazon.com

Are you a classic music lover?

Amazon is offering the following completely free albums of classical mp3s for your downloading and listening pleasure:

• X5 Free Classical Sampler - The Romantic Era
  
  
• Eternal Baroque


• I Love the 80s, Vol. 1 (1880s)

Enjoy!