Wanderfly is a travel search aggregator that compiles the results of dozens of popular travel search tools into one master dashboard for easy comparisons and trip planning. More »
Blog Archives
Wanderfly Aggregates Dozens of Travel Tools into a Single Dashboard [Travel]
Posted on October 22, 2010
Plannr Is an Up-To-The-Minute Group Schedule Manager [IPhone]
Posted on August 6, 2010
iPhone: Cell phones have revolutionized last-minute planning but the process is still kludgy. Last-minute phonecalls and text messages aren’t the best solution for shifting your party gears. Plannr offers simple and unified group planning with instant RSVPing, integrated mapping, messaging, and more. More »
SproutRobot Tells You When to Plant for a Bountiful Garden [Gardening]
Posted on July 10, 2010
Whether you’re new to gardening or you’d like a nice reminder system, SproutRobot will build a custom planting schedule based on your zip code so you always know what to plant and when. More »
Garden – Home – SproutRobot – FAQs Help and Tutorials – Personal
Examine Daily Routines to Boost Your Mood [Personal Development]
Posted on May 27, 2010
Humans are creatures of habit and we adopt bad habits just as easily as good ones. If you’re looking for a quick, cheap, and easily applied method of improving your mood you can do so through reflection on your daily routines. More »
Home – Family – Health – Mental Health – United States
The Best Design Tools for Improving Your Home [Home Improvement]
Posted on April 6, 2010
Wandering around Home Depot until inspiration strikes is a terrible idea. If you’ve got a loose idea for a redesign, re-arrangement, or physical improvement to your house, apartment, or even a dorm room, we recommend these computer planning tools for the job. More »
Be Aware of Tax Return Red Flags to Cut Down on Your Audit Risk [Taxes]
Posted on April 2, 2010
Nobody wants the attention of the IRS’s Eye of Sauron. Knowing what raises red flags in a tax return can help you cut down on audits and be extra prepared in the event you are audited. More »
When to Purchase Permanent Life Insurance Over Term [Insurance]
Posted on April 2, 2010
Permanent life insurance has taken a back seat to term life insurance, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any situations where the long term protection and investment of permanent life insurance isn’t valuable. More »
Budget Your Trip Helps You Allocate Cash and Plan for Travel at Home and Abroad [Travel]
Posted on February 22, 2010
If you’re looking to do some traveling, Budget Your Trip can help you not only plan your travel expenses but track them while you’re traveling.
Budget Your Trip is a web site devoted to planning and budgeting travel expenses. You’ll find no shortage of web sites that cater to helping you budget in general, but the feature set of Budget Your Trip is heavily geared towards travel planning. You can plan a trip from scratch or build your trip budget off the existing averages and sample budgets they have for a variety of locales. If they don’t have a budget for the locale you’re traveling to, you can always save yours and add it to the global averages so future users can get an idea how much it costs to hit the mean streets of Whytucky, Kansas.
We'd definitely encourage you to double check any odd items you see in the projected average budgets, however. While we found the averages to be reasonable in most instances, we found a few odd balls in the mix—$2,719 average daily alcohol expenditure for budget travel in Paris made us wonder if there was a decimal problem or a traveler out there somewhere we really needed to go tour Paris with.
In addition to estimating your travel expenses you can actively track and update them as you travel. Penciled in $200 for your daily accommodations but got offered an upgrade to an ocean view for $215? Swap it out on the fly and a new budget is generated.
Have a favorite tool for travel planning, budget-related or otherwise? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Budget Your Trip [via MakeUseOf]
VUE Turns Your Mind-Mapped Ideas Into Presentations [Downloads]
Posted on January 12, 2010
Windows/Mac/Linux: Sometimes the easiest way to make sense of a big project is to get its details out of your brain so you can visualize it. Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) helps you map your ideas, then make presentations out of them.
Mind-mapping tools are great for corralling snippets of information and brainstorming details into one place so you can see how they fit together in the big picture. If this is your first foray into the world of mind-mapping apps, you’ll find VUE easy to set up and use. (Our previous guide to mind mapping is a great resource to help you wrap your head around mind maps.)
You’ll need to register at the app’s web site for a free account before you can download the Windows, Mac, or Linux version of VUE at no cost. Once installed, you get get started right away setting up nodes containing ideas or concepts, then linking them with arrows to form relationships between them. You can also include clickable URLs, images, files, and more. Want to include videos and documents? Just drag them over and drop them on your map.
Unlike many other mind-mapping tools, VUE can go a step beyond the mind map, turning your brainstorms into slide presentations so you can share them with others. They’re laid out so viewers can walk through the information contained in your map in a way that helps them understand how the concepts are laid out. VUE has tons of features that are likely to appeal to novice and expert mind-mappers alike. Check out this demo video to get a better idea of what VUE can do for you.
VUE is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
VRBO Finds Economical Rentals For Your Next Vacation [Vacation]
Posted on November 1, 2009
Looking to vacation on the cheap with space to spare? Check out VRBO to find thousands of vacation rentals at great prices.
If you’re not looking for a hotel experience and would settle for some temporary local shelter for a lot less than you’d pay for a hotel suite, Vacation Rentals By Owner indexes thousands of rentals around the world. You can find cottages, condos, and second homes in locations from rustic to urban settings. Prices range from $400 a week for a tiny rustic cottage on Lake Michigan to $4000 a month and up for amenity-laden houses on the Pacific coast. Most of the locations sleep anywhere from 4-20 people, making the cost of rental astoundingly low for a family or group of friends. Why stay in a dive hotel when you can be renting a full-out house with a lake view?
Visit the link below to see listings in the US and around the world. If you have a trick or resource of scoring cheap vacation accommodations, let’s hear about it in the comments.