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Archive for the ‘Saving Money’ Category

A reader shared that she is planning on taking a trip to Yellowstone National Park over the summer and asked for advice on how to save money on flights.

Other than recommending obsessively monitoring every online travel search engine (Bing, Travelzoo, Kayak) for months and doing a faux mystical rain dance to evoke the flight sale gods, I’m a bit short on good advice.

I always avoid summer travel since its peak rate season so I’m not much help.

Do any of you know the best way to buy a summer flight?

Every year, my sister gives me the BEST gift and, thanks to my good for nothing memory, I forget to steal it and claim it as my own. But I figured I’d share it here so maybe you can do a better job of gift idea theft than me.

My sister bakes the world’s best cookies (no exaggeration) from scratch and as awesome as that is, it’s not the best part of her gift. She also includes all the dry ingredients for a complete dinner and prints the directions on beautiful holiday paper. This year’s selection: tortilla soup with corn bread.

Sure, nothing makes me feel older than getting far more excited over a pre-mixed dinner than the new Lady Gaga CD but… we all have to grow up (somewhat) sometime.

So, steal the idea for next year and claim it as your own. There is no shame in stealing good ideas.

Thanks Cole.

I tried Hulu this week as a trial run for canceling my expensive cable TV. I didn’t think it would hurt…not physically anyway.

Due to the dwindling daylight hours, I’ve been forced to exercise indoors. I lift a few weights and run on my treadmill while watching TV. The TV in our spare bedroom doesn’t have a cable hook up, just an old DVD player. Since we went on our debt diet, we haven’t bought DVD’s in a very long time. How long? I bounce back and forth between watching John Tucker Must Die and There’s Something About Mary. As enthralling as our movie selection is (ha ha), I force myself to work out for at least 45 minutes a day.

Our computer is also in the spare bedroom so I decided to watch Hulu instead – and don’t ask why I never thought of this before. I told you, I’m a tech idiot.

I turned on a decently recent movie and ran…and ran…and ran.

The credits rolled and I glanced down at the treadmill timer.

Two hours.

I was on the treadmill for two hours. Sure, there are people who work out that much in one stretch… they’re called ATHLETES. I am not one.

No, Hulu didn’t really give me a stress fracture. Actually, I can’t say for sure. I don’t know what happened. All I know is, my feet don’t work today. Maybe they’ll work tomorrow. I really want to watch the new season of The Office.

Hulu (and my feet) presented a pretty strong case. Watch out expensive cable company, when the roommates are gone… you’re going with them.

Each month our cable bill has inched higher and higher. This month, it reached the highest amount we’ve ever seen.

Fortunately, our roommates cover half the bill plus their pricey premium channels but once they move out, I don’t think I can justify spending so much on a luxury.

I decided to look into other options.

We don’t watch TV much, but we both really enjoy staying in on a Saturday night and laughing at our favorite comedies. It sort of makes us less miserable about the whole “we don’t spend outside the budget” thing we’ve got going. Sure I could say we will start playing card games, doing crafts together, or cooking by candlelight but… um… we won’t.

I’ve heard about Hulu.com and Netflix streaming via the Wii but I haven’t actually tried them. So, I’ve got two options. I, the tech idiot, can try to figure it out on my own OR, I can see if any of you folks have made the switch and see how it worked for you.

I may be a tech idiot, but I’ve got common sense at least.

Share your cable cutting ideas!