Hi!  I’m Josh Elledge, the Chief Executive Angel of SavingsAngel.com and welcome to the SavingsAngel show! I’m podcasting to you from a breezy autumn day in Orlando, Florida. 

I am an extremely busy consumer expert, money-saving advocate, syndicated newspaper columnist, and the guy that turns digital entrepreneurs into media celebrities with UpMyInfluence.com. I love what I do and can’t wait to get going on today’s episode.

In order to help you save more, earn more and live more abundantly on today’s show I’ll be covering:

• Safe and Fun Fall Activities for the Whole Family
• Save Big on Car and Homeowners’ Insurance with Gabi
• Safe Alternatives to Trick or Treating This Halloween

LINKS FROM THE PODCAST:
https://www.gabi.com/savingsangel  

https://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/

https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/flu

https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/seasonal-flu.jsp

https://www.walmart.com/cp/immunizations-flu-shots/1228302 

https://www.riteaid.com/pharmacy/services/vaccine-central/immunization-information/flu

– – – – – – —

Safe and Fun Fall Activities for the Whole Family

Autumn 2020 falls during an unprecedented year. While some states are re-opening at full capacity, others aren’t. No matter what your state is up to, it’s vital to remember that we are still in the midst of a global pandemic and it’s important to be careful and safe. This doesn’t need to ruin the fun of fall, though. We can still get into the spooky spirit of the season with our families in a safe way that will be fun for everyone. 

Cook Up Your Favorite Fall Recipes 

There’s one thing that we can all do at home that’s sure to bring a smile to everyone — cook up our favorite meals and goodies!

We all love whipping up family favorites and secret recipes, but now is as good a time as any to try something new. Want to save some cash on your coffee runs? Try making some homemade pumpkin spice lattes! You can make them with state of the art coffee machines or with just a few simple ingredients (pumpkin puree, spices, coffee, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and creamer) and a generic coffee maker. 

Not a coffee person? Well, the Halloween season is all about sweets and goodies. Try making new fall-themed treats this October. Of course, there’s the fan favorite, pumpkin pie. You could also try your hand at making candied apples, a Halloween classic. It’s as easy as throwing together a few apples on skewers, dipping them in caramel (or mix things up with some hardening chocolate), and top with peanuts, candies, and more. After that, chill them in the fridge for a bit, and you have yourself some delicious candied apples! 

Fall and Halloween aren’t just about sweets, though – try your hand at some harvest-themed meals and dinners. There’s a huge variety of options here. Pumpkin and carrot soup is hearty and warming. Recipes featuring butternut squash and spices are certainly a treat. You could also do something unique that will stand out on the dinner table, like spiced pumpkin dinner rolls! The possibilities are endless. 

Go to a Pumpkin Patch

Everyone loves a good pumpkin patch! You can easily social distance and wear a mask as you traverse a pumpkin patch with your family to seek out the perfect pumpkin. Once you find it, you can take it home with your kids and carve a traditional jack-o-lantern as you listen to some spooky tunes. You could also wash the seeds and roast them in the oven for a yummy and nutritious treat. 

This awesome online resource can help you find your local pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hayrides, and other fall activities. You simply search by state and pick out which activity you want to check out. 

https://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/

Find a Spooky Haunted Trail

Many neighborhoods, communities, and localities feature seasonal haunted trails that go through local wooded areas on existing trails. These can easily be socially distanced events and are outdoors, so they don’t carry the same risks as seasonal haunted houses. 

These trails are often family-friendly (especially compared to haunted houses) and aren’t too scary for your kids. 

Check out your community’s bulletin, Facebook page, or social media pages to see what Halloween events are going on in your area this month. There are many fun, family-friendly, and safe activities going on right now nationwide so we can all get into the spirit of autumn. 

Get Your Flu Shot!

It’s fall, which means flu season is also just beginning. It’s not the most fun fall activity, but it’s incredibly important, especially during this pandemic. Various pharmacies are offering low-priced flu shots as long as you have medical insurance. 

https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/flu

https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/seasonal-flu.jsp

https://www.walmart.com/cp/immunizations-flu-shots/1228302 

https://www.riteaid.com/pharmacy/services/vaccine-central/immunization-information/flu

 

– – – – – – —

Save Big on Car and Homeowners’ Insurance with Gabi

When you’ve had the same car insurance or homeowner’s insurance for years, you kind of get sucked into paying your premiums and not thinking about it.  That makes it really easy to overpay, and you probably don’t even realize it. I’ve had the same car insurance coverage for the last five years, and it certainly hasn’t gotten any cheaper with two boys in high school learning to drive and a daughter in college who was added to our policy a few years ago. I never really thought about how much I was paying for coverage, especially because auto-pay keeps me from really realizing just how much I’ve been paying each month.  

Well, I have some awesome news. It really is possible to stop overpaying for car and homeowner’s insurance. See about getting a lower rate for the exact same coverage you already have, thanks to Gabi.

• Gabi takes the pain out of shopping for insurance by giving you an apples-to-apples comparison of your current coverage with 40 of the top insurance providers, like Progressive, Nationwide, and Travelers.
• Just link your current insurance account and in just minutes you’ll be able to see quotes for the exact same coverage you currently have.
• That’s what I did. Again, I’d spent the last five years paying insane amounts each month on my insurance coverage because I didn’t think there was a way to save. My experience using Gabi has made me completely rethink insurance premiums and monthly payments, and now I save more than ever on my car and homeowner’s insurance. I just linked my insurance accounts to Gabi, and in about five minutes I was able to look at dozens of price comparisons. I was able to save hundreds of dollars a year on my premiums and the process was super quick and simple.  
• Gabi customers save eight hundred and twenty-five dollars per year on average.  If they can’t find YOU savings like they did for me, they’ll let you know so you can relax knowing you have the best rate out there.
• And rest assured, they’ll NEVER sell your info, so no annoying spam or robocalls! 

It’s totally free to check your rate and there’s no obligation. Take a few minutes – right now – and stop overpaying on your car and home insurance! Go to gabi.com/savingsangel.

– – – – – – —

Safe Alternatives to Trick or Treating This Halloween

The pandemic has certainly changed much in our daily lives and traditions this year. Halloween is no exception to these changes, but we don’t necessarily need to disappoint the kids by avoiding trick or treating at all. All it takes is some thought, creativity, and a bit of ingenuity to come up with some safe alternatives that are sure to bring smiles to the whole family. 

Trunk or Treat with the Family 

If you have a larger family or extended family you’ve been visiting during the pandemic, ask about setting up trunk or treat activities for the kids. You can have everyone set up a trunk, bag, suitcase, or decorated box filled with candy. Then, the kids can wander around the house or back yard and go from person to person to trick or treat!

While this option may only be suited for larger families, it is definitely a safe alternative that will still be enjoyable for the kids. Put on some fun, spooky music, and decorate the house to spice up the occasion and it’s sure to be a hit. 

Throw A Family Halloween Party

If avoiding trick or treating isn't a deal-breaker for your family, throw a themed party. You can make fun, Halloween themed snacks, like mummy-dogs (mummy-decorated pigs in a blanket) or candy apples. You can also bake a ‘brownie graveyard’, ‘cauldron’ cupcakes, or make ghost-shapes cookies. The possibilities are endless!

Switch on some spooky tunes, put on fun Halloween movies, and have everyone dress up for some festive fun and games to keep with the ‘spirit’ of the season. 

You could also set up a Halloween-themed scavenger hunt for the kids around the house, like an Easter egg hunt. You can hide caches of candy and clues for your little ones to discover to make for some engaging, All Hallow’s Eve fun!

Look for Socially-Distanced Community Events

Some communities are throwing safe, socially-distanced events for Halloween. Check your neighborhood’s community bulletin, social media, and website to see what’s going on in your area.

Some communities are throwing virtual or socially-distanced costume parties for the kids in front of local clubhouses or activity centers. 

Other communities may be offering socially-distanced outdoor movie nights, haunted trails, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and more. As I mentioned before, check out this awesome website where you can search by state and pick out a variety of activities in your area. 

https://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/ 

Be Safe!

No matter what alternative to trick or treating you decide on for your family, remember to practice social distancing, wear masks, and use hand sanitizer when you can. While this Halloween will be very different, if we all work together, we can still have safe, family-friendly fun.

– – – – – – —

Transcription of Today's Episode

Hi there, I'm Josh Elledge, the Chief Executive Angel at savingsangel.com and welcome to the Savings Angel Show. I'm podcasting to you on a breezy, autumn day in Orlando, Florida. I'm an extremely busy consumer expert, money-saving advocate, and syndicated newspaper columnist. And that guy that turns digital entrepreneurs into media celebrities at upmyinfluence.com. I love what I do, and I can't wait to get going on today's episode. So in order to help you save more, earn more, and live more abundantly on today's show, I'm going to be covering safe and fun fall activities for the whole family, how to save big on car and homeowners insurance. And then also some safe alternatives to trick or treating this Halloween, all that and more. So let's get going.

Autumn 2020 falls during an unprecedented year, there's that word again, unprecedented. That's quite a 2020 buzzword. Now while some states are reopening at full capacity, others aren't (not ours). In fact, it's gotten worse. No matter what your state is up to, it's vital to remember that we are still in the midst of a global pandemic. And it's important to be careful and safe, especially with our kiddos. This doesn't need to ruin the fun of fall, though, we can still get into the spooky spirit of the season with our families in a safe way that will be fun for everyone. So let's talk about some ideas. Number one, let's talk about cooking up your favorite fall recipes. Now there's one thing that we can all do at home that's sure to bring a smile to everyone that's cooking up our favorite meals and goodies. We all love whipping up family favorites and secret recipes but now is as good a time as any to try something new. Want to save some cash on your coffee runs? Try making some homemade pumpkin spice lattes. Go ahead, have one – you don't have to – listen, it's a fall tradition. At least try it one time. Right now you can make them with state of the art coffee machines or with just a few simple ingredients. I recommend pumpkin puree – yeah for real – some spices, coffee, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and creamer, and a generic coffee maker. Go ahead and Google the recipe, you'll find it it's worth at least having one. Alright, gotta do this before fall is over. If you're not a coffee person, well then the Halloween season is all about sweets and goodies. Try making new fall-themed treats this October. Of course, there's the fan-favorite pumpkin pie. One of my personal favorites. You could also try your hand at making candied apples, a Halloween classic. That's as easy as throwing together a few apples on skewers, dipping them in caramel, or mix things up with some hardening chocolate and top with peanuts, candies, and more. Now after that, chill them in the fridge for a bit and you have yourself some delicious candied apples. Now fall and Halloween aren't just about sweets though, you could try your hand at some harvest-themed meals and dinners. Now there's a huge variety of options here. Pumpkin and carrot soup is hearty and warming, recipes featuring butternut squash and spices are certainly a treat. Or you could also do something unique that will stand out on the dinner table like spiced pumpkin dinner rolls, the possibilities are endless. Alright, so what's next? How about going to a pumpkin patch. Everyone loves a good pumpkin patch. You can easily social distance and wear a mask as you traverse a pumpkin patch with your family to seek out the perfect pumpkin. Now once you find it, you can take it home with your kids and carve it traditional jack o' lantern as you listen to some spooky tunes. You could also wash the seeds and roast them in the oven for a yummy and delicious nutritious treat. Now, this awesome online resource can help you find your local pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hayrides, and other outdoor fall activities. You can simply search by state or pick out which activity you want to check out that website is – get ready, write this down – www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org. Next, find a spooky haunted trail. Now, many neighborhoods, communities, and localities feature seasonal haunted trails that go through local wooded areas on existing trails. These can easily be socially distanced events. Sounds scary, and they're outdoors so that's good, and they don't carry the same risks as seasonal haunted houses this year. Now, these trails are often family-friendly, especially compared to many haunted houses, and aren't too scary for your kiddos. You can check out your community's bulletin board, Facebook page, social media pages to see what Halloween events are going on in your area this month. There are many fun, family-friendly, and safe activities going on right now nationwide, so we can all get into the spirit of autumn. And finally, this is fun, get your flu shot. I know it's not fun, but probably a good idea. It's fall, which means flu season is also just beginning. Let's go ahead and boost that immune system with the flu shot. It's, again, not the most fun, but it's incredibly important, especially during the pandemic, various pharmacies are offering low priced flu shots. As long as you have the right insurance or whatever, you can check out these websites, all four of them. If you just Google or you can just go on their website, you can find it cvs.com, walgreens.com, riteaid.com, they've all got some flu deals going on. So there we go. It's yeah, yeah, yeah, pandemic, let's go still have some holiday, not holiday, some autumn fun. Celebrate the holiday of Halloween if you wish. And keep things safe, keep things fun. And together that is part of living abundantly.

All right, this is something I've talked about a lot, okay about how this is instant free, easy, saved money. It's not hard. Okay, if you've had the same car insurance, or homeowners insurance for years, like if you've got any service, and you've just been paying and paying and paying month after month, year after year, you know what you are getting sucked into paying your premiums and not even thinking about it and you're paying too much. It is so easy to overpay. And you probably don't even realize it. When is the last time you did some shopping around? Now. I've had the same car insurance for the past five years. And it hasn't gotten cheaper with two boys in high school learning to drive, daughter in college recently added to our policy a few years ago. And I never really thought about how much I was paying for coverage, especially because auto-pay keeps me from really realizing just how much I've been paying each month. Well, being the savings angel. You know, I gotta be smart about this. And I have some awesome news. It really is possible to stop overpaying for car and homeowners insurance. Okay, you can see about getting a lower rate for the exact same coverage you already have. Thanks to a website we found called Gabi. Now, Gabi, and they're found on the web, gabi.com/savingsangel, all one word, and I'll tell you why you want to use that link here in just a moment. But Gabi takes the pain out of shopping for insurance by giving you an apples-to-apples comparison of your current coverage with 40 of the top insurance providers like progressive Nationwide, Travelers, all the people are doing all the TV commercials, you could search them all at once. There's a huge difference in and why I'm gonna explain why Gabi is so much better than other comparison engines. Because I've had some experience with comparison engines before that I got sucked into. We'll talk about that in just a second. Now all you have to do is you just link your current insurance account. And in minutes, you're going to be able to see quotes for the exact same coverage you currently have. That's all I did. Again, I spent the last five years paying the same amount insurance on my insurance coverage because I didn't think there was any way to save I mean, I like I said, I priced around a little bit. Okay, but my experience using Gabby has made me completely rethink insurance premiums and monthly payments. And now I save more than ever on my car and homeowners insurance. Sure enough, I – listen – I have a good – I'm not gonna tell you who it is -I thought I had a great rate. Guess what? I could save me some money. Thank you, Gabi. Again, all I did is I just linked my insurance account to Gabi. Five minutes, I was able to look at dozens of price comparisons saved hundreds of dollars a year on my premium and the process is super quick and simple. Now Gabi, customers save $825 per year on average. If they can't find you savings like they did for me, they'll let you know so you could just relax knowing that you already have the best rate out there. But are you sure you do? Okay, so rest assured they're never going to sell your info. This is the thing I was talking about. Like I remember using a comparison engine maybe about six to eight years ago. Uh, it was terrible because what they ended up doing was sold, they sold all my what's called lead information to a bunch of agents for the next Seven to 10 days, I was getting so much spam. So many robo calls, so many, ‘Hey, Ella, here you're shopping for insurance.' Like you're not going to experience any of that with Gabi. So this checks all my Savings Angel boxes, totally free to check your rate. There's no obligation. Take a few minutes right now stop overpaying for your car and homeowner insurance, go to gabi.com/savingsangel. Okay, if you go and you get a check, go to my Facebook page, let me know. And I want to know, did you save money? I wanna listen, I want to crowdsource the results. I got great results. But I need to make sure that my Savings Angel peep or peeps are saving some money. Thank you so much to my friends at Gabi for sponsoring this segment. You guys rock I would not be talking about you if I wasn't thrilled with the results.

Amidst the pandemic -g reat we're talking about that, again -has certainly changed much of our daily lives, traditions this year. Let's talk specifically, not about just the fall-themed stuff. I want to talk about Halloween, right around the corner here, depending on when you're listening to this. It's no exception – these changes, but we don't necessarily need to disappoint the kids by avoiding trick or treating at all. All it takes is some thought creativity and a bit of ingenuity to come up with some safe alternatives that are sure to bring smiles to the whole family. So let's talk about some safe alternatives to trick or treating this Halloween. You can trunk or treat with the family. Now if you have a larger family or extended family you've been visiting during the pandemic, you can ask about setting up trunk or treat activities for the kids. Now you can have everyone just set up a trunk, bag, suitcase, or decorated box filled with candy. Than the kids can wander around the house or backyard and go from person to person to trick or treat, you know people within the network that you feel completely comfortable with. Now while this option may only be suited for larger families or some groups of people. It's definitely a safe alternative that will still be enjoyable for the kids. Put on some fun, spooky music. decorate the house to spice up the occasion and it's sure to be a hit.

Next, you can throw a family Halloween party. If avoiding trigger treating isn't a deal-breaker for your family, you could throw a themed party, you can make fun Halloween themed snacks like mummy dogs, or mummy decorated pigs and blanket, or candy apples (I talked about that already). You can also bake a brownie graveyard, cauldron cupcakes, or make ghost-shaped cookies. The possibilities are endless. By the way, we got links to this stuff over at savingsangel.com, you can again switch on some spooky tunes – you can tell I'm a big fan of spooky tunes. You can find some fun Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus, and you could have everyone dressed up for some festive fun and games to keep with this spirit of the season. You could also set up Halloween themed scavenger hunts for the kids around the house, like in you know kind of like an Easter egg hunt except for Halloween themed. You can hide caches of candy and clues for your little ones to discover to make for some engaging All Hallows Eve fun.

You can now also look for socially distance community events they are going on. Some communities are throwing safe, socially distances events for Halloween specifically, you could check your neighborhood community bulletin board, as I talked about earlier, social media, website, check in your area. Some communities are throwing virtual or socially distanced costume parties for the kids in front of local clubhouses or activity centers where it'll be outdoors. Not so much in close quarters. Other communities may be offering socially distanced outdoor movie nights – have been seeing those – go on haunted trails, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and more. As I mentioned before, just check out this awesome website where you could search by state or pick out a variety of activities in your area. Remember, pumpkinpatchesandmore.org . All right. Finally, be safe no matter what alternative to trick or treating you decide on for your family. Remember to practice social distancing. Wear your masks, use your hand sanitizer when you can. Well, this Halloween is definitely different than years past. If we all work together, we could have safe, family-friendly fun.

Now, if you've loved hearing everything on this podcast, please do me a favor and share this episode with a friend. People need this information. You and I together can change lives. I recommend taking the screenshot with your phone. That's where you push the top volume button and the power button on your iPhone users at the same time. I think Android does the same thing. And you could post on Facebook or wherever you hang out most. And as always, if you have any specific questions or there's something you'd like to hear me talk about, you can drop a comment to the podcast feedback right to me in our private Facebook group, you're welcome to attend. You are cordially invited. You can call our podcast hotline. You can call me right now. 407-205-9250 and leave me a message. I'll answer your question, write you back or with your permission, even share your question or story with others on this show. With that, have a wonderful week full of saving more, earning more, and living more abundantly. And thank you for listening.