Money Saving Mom®

Here’s a great tip submitted by Bethany:

We have out-of-state family. While they take turns coming to see us, inevitably we need and want to go visit them. Our flights go from Seattle to Indianapolis and tickets usually come to $400 per person if we book early.

We found that Seattle-Minneapolis and Seattle-Atlanta fights are constantly overbooked. The airlines do this to insure a fully booked flight, because they expect some cancellations. When they do not receive cancellations as expected, they ask for passengers to give up their seat in exchange for ticket vouchers.

We took advantage of this not too long ago and found the travel time difference to our destination was only two hours. The $800 savings was well worth two hours of our time! Plus, on the rest of the trip, we enjoyed complementary first class.

While this worked out well for us, there are some considerations if you want to try this yourself:

1. Be quick to respond. With the economy as it is, there may be several ready for this option.

2. Ask when you will arrive at your destination and weigh the benefits. Are you going to miss a day of work? Do you have appointments that cannot wait?

3. When you travel during holidays and peak times you can expect to stay the night. You may get a free hotel stay, but you might be requried to stay in the terminal.

4. Traveling with a family is more difficult as well. If you have children, you’ll need to plan for an extra day of diapers, snacks, and formula for the little ones.

5. They may only have certain slots available. Could part of your family proceed as planned, and part wait for the next flight?

photo credit

Tip submitted by Heather from Creative Family Moments

Food goes fast at my house, especially handy to-go snacks. A bag of chips? Forget about it. It’ll be gone before I can sneak a handful.

A baked pan of brownies? The smell lingers but I think I only got a taste test.

Pistachios? The bag is left for me, full of shells.

Part of the problem is that we decided long ago that we wanted our house to be a welcoming place for the kids’ friends. We made that decision when they were preschoolers. It was a no-brainer then.

Now that they are teen, tween, and elementary, these kids and their friends can eat! Afternoons, weekends, and summer means I see many pairs of hopeful eyes looking up at me before they ask, “Is there something I can have for a snack?”

It was worth it though, for the relationships. Yet, packing cold lunches was my breaking point. Sending three kiddos and one husband off to school and work with a cold lunch meant I needed some handy to-go foods that would actually stick around long enough to make it into the thermal bags!

Snack bags came to the rescue! On sale (and/or with coupon!) I can get a pack of 100 snack bags for under two dollars. So when I bake brownies, I instantly cut them up, set aside a few for dessert, and store them in snack bags (Hide them immediately for later use!).

Find pistachios on sale? Sweet! I split up the serving portions and store them. Any special treat that goes on sale with a handy coupon (like the free Skittles I got awhile ago), I’ve learned to split up immediately so they’ll last.

I have happy kids, and a happy husband, because they have treats and good snacks that are already in serving size bags and inhibit mindless eating. It helps food last much longer and thereby saves me money and sanity!

Heather loves to live life purposefully by celebrating the ordinary every day. Her family and their often bizarre celebrations can be found at her blog, Creative Family Moments.