Flooring for $.64 a square foot!

Sometimes great deals come and you have to decide quickly whether or not to take them. I was looking at the materials section on www.craigslist.org because we have some projects we would like to do around our house. There was an ad for 350 square feet of laminate flooring for $225. The people had bought extra flooring when they were installing it in their home. I was able to look up the specs on the flooring and see what color it was online. Then we went to look at it and were able to see it installed and how it looked after being used for three years. The folks were moving to Texas and wanted to get rid of it. It was a win-win deal. They were able to sell their extra laminate flooring and not have to move it and we was able to get a great deal on it. This list price on the laminate was $3.99 a square foot and we were able to get it for $.64 a square foot. We are going to use the flooring in my husband's office. It was a project that we were planning to do at some point, but with a deal like that...we'll be doing it soon!

Flooring for

Allegiant Airlines - it is the sticker price plus...

Allegiant Airlines gives those of us in Montana reasonable airline rates out of Kalispell and Missoula. It is definitely NOT luxury travel. The seats are cramped and it reminds me of travelling on a bus...but for the price, it is a good deal.

We travelled on Allegiant to Phoenix in November. The cost for four round trip tickets was $163.72! But oh...let me tell you about the fees. By the time we added our federal taxes ($12.28), segment fees ($28), PFC ($18), 911 Security ($20) we were up to $242.00. The next three things we chose to add. There was a convenience fee of $46. They charge you this fee whether you book your tickets online or by phone. You can avoid this fee if you go to the airport and book your tickets. Be sure to check when the Allegiant window is open, because they have very limited hours. The other two things we elected to add was a $124 seat selection fee (we wanted to be able to sit with our 9 and 6 year old children!) and $60 so we could check two bags. That brought our total to $472 for 4 round trip tickets from Missoula to Phoenix...still a very good deal! To compare, a single round trip return ticket from Missoula to Phoenix is $471 with Alaska Air and $495 with Delta and both of those have one stop.

Things you can expect on board with Allegiant is the stewardesses to do a raffle for some merchandise (a hat, t-shirt and kids alarm clock is what a gal near me won). Allegiant is based out of Vegas and they say they like to add some gambling "entertainment" to the flight. Also, you pay for all drinks and snacks, so you might want to take a water bottle and fill it up after you go through security. The other thing you can do to keep your cost down when travelling with Allegiant is to pack light and avoid having to pay for checked bags. They let you take 1 personal item (such as a laptop bag, handbag, or briefcase) plus one piece of carry-on luggage that does not exceed 45 linear in (length + height + width). Allegiant says you need to be there two hours early for your flight. We definitely did not need to be that early flying out of Missoula, but it is way better to wait than miss the flight. When we flew home, we were so thankful we were two hours early at the Phoenix airport. There was extremely long lines as they had planes going out to three locations within an hour and only 3 check-in windows. If you fly to Phoenix, it is good to realize that you are not flying into Sky Harbor airport. The small airport you fly into in Mesa is only used by Allegiant.

Would we fly with Allegiant again? We definetely would because it was a great deal!

Currently you can fly (all non-stop flights):

Kalispell to/from Las Vegas (Monday and Friday)

Missoula to/from Las Vegas (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)

Missoula to/from Phoenix (Monday, Wednesday and Friday and sometimes on Sunday)

Missoula to/from Los Angeles -flights starting in May

Check out those online banking rates

If you have money you are saving, you should to check out where you can get the best interest on your money while it sits. Even though the interest rates aren't very good right now, it all adds up. The Internet makes it incredibly easy to research who has the best rates. Just go to http://www.bankrate.com/ . For information on high yield checking accounts you can go to http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/mmmf_highratehome.asp?params=US,416&product=33 . They will show you many banks, which ones have the best interest rates, how much you have to deposit to open an account, if there are any monthly fees, and a star system they rate the banks on. It has been obvious in recent months how important it is for banks to be FDIC insured. We have two online savings accounts that we use. We use one for our emergency fund. The other one we use for things we are saving or accruing for (vehicle registration, property taxes, vacation, Christmas, bills that we pay once a year like life insurance, and home repairs). These savings accounts are not a good place to put large sums of money for long periods of time, but we appreciate the ability to earn better interest (than we can with our local checking account) on our money that we need to have more readily available.

You never know when you might find a bargain

You never know when you might find a bargain! Today I was Lowe's with my husband. We were browsing because we have quite a few home fix-up projects that we will need to tackle soon. As we were walking through the store, there was a rack of clearance items. There was a container of weed and grass killer for 10 cents. It was regularly $4.47. It wasn't something that I need today, but it is certainly something I will use this summer. So, when you are going through stores, pay attention and check out those clearance aisles or bins. You may be able to pick up something for a really great deal and save big in the long run!

Playing Defense

Managing money well takes team effort. In our family, my husband plays offense when it comes to our finances. He is the wage earner and he works hard to make money. I see my job as primary spender to play defense. What does this entail? It means that I pay the bills (on time to avoid any penalties). It also means that I do my best to be savvy about getting the best deals. At least once a year it is good to check if you can get a better deal on your monthly bills. Check to be sure that you are still getting good insurance rates. Call your telephone company, cable company, and Internet provider to find out if they have any promotional deals you can take advantage of. Check out your cell plan and make sure you are not overbuying or under buying for the minutes/texts that you use. Sometimes just by calling and asking, they will offer you a better deal. I also try to play defense on the smaller purchases I make. When I go to the store I pay attention to when they ring up my purchases. In the past two days I have been overcharged at 3 of the 4 places I have made purchases. I was overcharged for colored pencils at Staples, toilet paper at WalMart and pizza at Papa Murphy's. Each time I had to wait for the employee to verify the price before they corrected it for me. Though kind, none of the employees were apologetic about overcharging me. Though it is time consuming, for me it is a matter of principle. I believe that when stores have prices posted, things need to ring up right. Make sure if you are doing well on offense (making money) that you also play good defense (stretch those dollars).

Pay attention when paying for your purchases!

To avoid being overcharged at the checkstand, make sure you watch while your items are being rung up. Last week we were down in Missoula. One of the things on my list of things to get was envelopes for our business. Since we were out north Reserve, we stopped at Staples. I really didn't need a huge box, but hey, I always have to figure out which one is the best deal. The most reasonable ones were the Standard business envelopes with a gummed enclosure that were on sale for $5.99 (reg. $8.29) for 500. Then in small print on the tag it said, "buy one, get one free." Now we are talking $5.99 for 1000 envelopes! Honestly, I really prefer the security envelopes but they run $16.99 for a box of 500. Since the plain ones were 17% of the cost of the security ones, I decided I could wrap a piece of paper around anything I am concerned about showing through the envelope (which very rarely happens). Then I went up to pay for my envelopes and I was charged full price for both boxes. I politely told the cashier that the sign said they were on sale and that they were supposed to be buy one get one free. So, the other cashier who didn't have anyone in her line went back to check on the price. She was gone quite a while, so after waiting for several minutes I headed back to show her the sign. Apparently it was a sale from the previous week and they hadn't taken down the signs, but they gave me the sale price as it was marked. And now that I have a 1000 envelopes, I probably won't have to buy more for at least several years! So pay attention at the check stand. It saved me $10.58 cents on that particular trip to Staples.

2 Simple steps to save on groceries

If you are spending more on groceries than you like, here's a couple of tips to help you reduce that bill.


1. Plan your meals. Studies show that people who shop less frequently spend less money. This is because there are less trips and fewer opportunities for impulse buys. Start simple though. If you usually run to the store almost daily, aim to plan your menu (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) for three days at a time and buy all that you need for those three days. If you usually shop once a week, make a menu plan and shop for two weeks all at once. If you are able, plan your menu around what is on sale. Weekly ads usually come out Wednesday.


2. Use up what you already have. Once you have planned your meals, shop your own cupboards and fridge before heading to the store. If you already have lettuce, don't buy more unless you have a plan of how you are going to use it.

If you find yourself frequently having to toss out food, keep a diary for a month and find out how much food you have to throw away. Then list how much it cost you to buy that food. Sometimes you can't anticipate when produce will go bad, but most of that money that was wasted in food thrown away, could have been saved if you had a plan to use it. This is something I need to work on as yesterday I had to throw away a bowl of soup and some oranges and carrots that had gone bad. Oh, how I hate wasting things!

So, if you have extra food that you can't use (perhaps you have a fruit tree in your yard that has a bumper crop and you don't even like plums!) or you are going on vacation and have produce you can't use, you could give those things to a neighbor or post an ad for them on craigslist.org or freecycle.org and give them to someone who will put them to good use.

Give it a try and post your experiences for others to benefit from!