The Bargain Watcher’s Blog

Are gas prices and the current state of the economy putting a damper on your vacation plans?

According to a recent survey by Kayak.com, most people are still taking their well-earned vacations - just a bit closer to home. Over 64 percent of their respondants planned to take a vacation in their home state and/or within 3 hours of home. Others were considering travelling off-season - a surprising 68% said they would travel during the hurricane season (half of those opting for travel insurance - a smart choice, in my opinion!)

Here are some ideas for saving money on your vacation this year:

1) Extend a business trip

Your company is already paying to get you there and back, see if you can extend your stay a few extra days to explore the area with your friends or family. Discount rates may apply if you stay over a weekend, so your company might even pick up the tab for your hotel room. If not, you’re still saving money on ever-rising travel expenses! Sports fans - take a look on ebay for cheap tickets to local sporting events

2) Attend a festival

Have a special interest or activity? Love things that are quirky or unusual? Look for related festivals and events. Many hotels offer special rates during these events (tip: book early!) and the festival itself may offer perks like cheap or free concerts, food, shows and activities for the whole family.

3) Local beaches

Instead of that pricey Caribbean getaway or that prestigious hot-spot, look for smaller local beaches or lakes. “Less popular” often translates to “less crowded” and “less expensive” too - there is probably at least one of these undiscovered gems within a few hours of your home!

4) Nearby National Parks or local mountains

Whether camping or staying in a hotel, these offer a wealth of fun in the great outdoors. Eye candy provided free by Mother Nature.

5) Explore your local metro area

Lots to do, lots to see and you probably won’t need to take your car! Accomodations in larger cities like New York or LA can be pricey, but bargains can be found and smaller metros are usually quite affordable. Museums, dining, theater, art, fairs and festivals - plenty of things to keep the agenda-driven vacationer happy! (Tip: look around for local coupon books and savings passes)

6) Travel off-season

Visiting the Caribbean during hurricane season may be a little extreme for your taste, but other off-season destinations often offer a wealth of pleasant surprises at great prices. For example, many ski areas like Albuquerque’s Sandia Peak run their chairlifts, gondolas and tramways year-round, treating summer visitors to a spectacular view of the surrounding landscape along with off-season rates on hotels and activities.

Beginning next month, if you purchase gas at Flash Foods stations in Georgia and Florida you will save 6 cents per gallon if you pay by cash!

The company is doing this in an attempt to offset the hefty fees imposed on them by the credit card companies. They estimate that this year they will have to pay a whopping $14 million in credit card fees - a mind-boggling 350% increase over what they paid in 2004!

Full story here.

Quick:  How much gas would an SUV rated at 18 MPG use on a 1000 mile trip?  How about that sedan rated at 28 MPG?  Or a 54 MPG hybrid? (answers at the bottom of this post).

Not easy to calculate your savings at a glance, is it?

Researchers at Duke university,  recently discovered that thinking of fuel efficiency in Gallons per Mile enabled people to more easily understand their gas costs for a vehicle than thinking in Miles per Gallon.  They have proposed that automobile manufacturers begin rating and labelling their cars in terms of gallons of gas used per 10,000 miles - a practice already common in European countries, where cars are rated in liters per 100K.

The answers to the question?

• The SUV, which uses .055 gallons per mile, would consume 55.5 gallons of fuel
• The sedan, at a much more economical .035 gallons per mile, would use 35.7 gallons - a savings of about 36%.
• The hybrid, using a miserly .019 gallons per mile, would only need 18.5 gallons of gas - about half as much as the sedan and a  66.6%  improvement over the gas-greedy SUV!

Can you tell which vehicles are more fuel efficient?  Take their quiz!

Ever feel like you spend half of your free time running back and forth to the store for one thing or another? A few minutes spent planning can save you both time AND money!

• Keep a shopping-list on your refrigerator or nearby (a post-it or pad of paper will do). Whenever you are running low on something, write it on the list.
• Before you go shopping, take a quick look around for things that may not have made the list - detergents, cleaning suppies, paper goods (toilet paper, tissues, paper towels), toiletries and personal care items, pet supplies, food storage needs (freezer bags, foil).
• Wherever possible, plan out your family’s meals and snacks for the following week. I know - planning meals may not be easy, especially if you have a big family and a hectic schedule, but the better you can plan ahead the fewer trips you will have to make and the less money you’ll waste throwing out food that’s gone bad. Add items you will need for the meals you are able to plan to your shopping list.
• If you have coupons, go through them now and make sure you will be bringing with you those that you need.
• Try your best to stick to your list. Sometimes you’ll arrive at the store only to find a great bargain on something you always use - that’s fine, but avoid those costly impulse purchases. (Hint - don’t go food-shopping when you are hungry!)
• If you run out of something mid-week instead of immediately running out to the store, ask yourself if it’s something you WANT or something you NEED . If it’s something you WANT, see if you can come up with a substitute.

Planning meals and shopping trips is an art - it may take you some practice to get the hang of it, but the better you can make and stick to a plan, the more you will save on time, gas, impulse shopping and wasted food!

Technorati Tags: meal planning, thrifty living, saving money, household tips

When my air conditioning system went on the fritz last week, I don’t know which I dreaded more - the thought of sweltering in 90 degree temperatures or the prospect of trying to find someone to fix it - someone who would fix it RIGHT the FIRST TIME and not charge me an arm and a leg to do so.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think that’s too much to ask, do you?

Whether you’re planning a remodeling project or need an unexpected home or car repair, finding a trustworthy service provider can be tricky. Who do you trust? Big ads just mean the service has the money to afford them, and a lot of internet “review sites” are actually paid to collect leads for the services they “review”. Recommendations from a friend or family member are great … if you can get them …

Fortunately, I’m a member of Angie’s List.

You’ve heard of Craig’s List? Angie’s list is a word-of-mouth service referral service by and for people like us. They are NOT paid by the service providers. Instead for a modest subscription fee, you get access to reports and ratings contributed by fellow Angie’s List members. Thousands of unbiased reviews of every imaginable kind of service in your area - auto repair, plumbers, painters, electricians, remodeling, cleaners, landscapers, pet sitters, even wedding planners - really, I mean everything! In turn, you get to share your experiences with the services you have used. Good or bad, it all goes online for other list members to read.

Angie’s list has received rave reviews from in the press from Consumer Reports, US News and World Reports, the Washington Post and the LA Times and many others.

With the help of Angie’s List, I was able to find a great A/C repair service not 2 miles from my home and my air conditioner was fixed the very next day!

Seriously - if you’re tired of playing the hit-or-miss game when you need something fixed yesterday, you owe it to yourself to try Angie’s List.

Technorati Tags: home repair, home remodeling, auto repair, saving money, hiring contractors