10 Quick Tips to finding Cheap Lift Tickets (Skiing and Snow Boarding)

10 Quick Tips to finding Cheap Lift Tickets

1. If you’re a down hill maniac (ski or snowboarder you might want to consider purchasing a season pass (if you plan on skiing at least 20 times at the same location during a season).
2. Buying books of lift tickets early in the season (before you hit the resort) may save you 50%?
3. Check out the ski packages being offered by the resorts where you plan to ski or snow board.  If you plan on renting equipment, taking lessons and/or staying at their lodge, it might be cheaper to purchase a package deal. Just like at Disney World, multi-day tickets can save you money if you plan ahead.
4. Always inquire ahead of time to see if the resort offers discount tickets for seniors, students and/or kids.
5. Checkout the continuously updated ski and snowboarding deals on  http://www.Snowbomb.com discount coupons.
6. Keep an eye out for lift ticket discounts at gas stations (e.g. Shell)
7. It is not uncommon to find lift ticket discount deals at participating Mc Donald’s restaurants.
8. Grocery and drug stores can also be great sources of cheap lift tickets.
9. Give the resorts in the area that you want to visit a call ahead of time and ask them if they are offering any ski or snow boarding deals online and/or through business or restaurant establishments.
10. Ask your fellow snow craving friends as well as local sporting goods stores if they know of any good deals.

As with most of the savings tips we provide on our web site, you should several of the ideas that we list to ensure that you are receiving the rock bottom lowest price on your ski vacation.

>> To find more FREE and Cheap Stuff check out categories to the right of your page or just use our search box at the upper part of the screen.

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March could be the best time to purchase these select products.

Every month brings new opportunities for saving money.  In March these are the items that you want to look for to be priced to sell.  Patience and timing are two powerful tools for ensuring that you get the best deal on your purchases.

• Winter coats & sporting goods (gear)
• Luggage
• Frozen food: (during National Frozen Food Month)
• Boats
• Humidifiers
• Mattresses
• Easter Crafts
• Cold Weather Accessories (mittens, scarves, gloves, hats)
• Wedding gifts
• Spring clothing
• Washers and Dryers
• Garden supplies
• Air Conditioners
• China

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FREE Conference Call Services (collaborate freely)

FREE Conference Call Services (collaborate freely)

Free Option #1

Need to connect with up to 150 people over the phone at the same time?

Wow, you’re not only popular, but lucky as well.   Just aim your browser over

to freeconference.com .   The only thing to keep in mind is that you may end up with a local conference dial-in phone number.  So, the only expense you should incur is long distance charge from your phone carrier.

Free Option #2

Need to go beyond telephone conference collaboration with 3 people (or less)?  Then  check out

openacircle.com .  According to their web site, here is what all packages include (including the free package).

• Private Collaboration Circles
• System or Free Audio Bridge
• Desktop Sharing
• Scheduling Calendar
• Video Conferencing
• Instant Messaging
• My Feed/Circle Feed

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Or if you prefer to you can follow us on Twitter.

Saving on Groceries (10 ways to save)

Some food for thought…….

Thinking back over the years, it’s really hard to believe how much food prices have increased at grocery stores over the years. According to my relatives that lived through the great depression, food prices were affordable to most people of modest means. Well, I’m not sure the same thing can be said these days. Since food is becoming a larger part of the American family budget, we thought that we would throw out a few of our favorite ways to save at your local grocery store.  So, here is the game plan that we came up with.

1. Shop with a detailed list of only what you need to purchase.
2. Larger sized packaging marked as “value buy” may not actually being saving you any money.  In fact, it may end up costing you more per unit.
3. Keep a running list of prices that you prices that you spot at different stores and either try to map out a sensible route and schedule or see if some of the stores closer to you will price match (e.g. Wal Mart)
4. Always verify at the register that you received the posted sale (or club card) price.  Double check your receipt before you leave the store.
5. Consider getting take out from the grocery store deli instead of a pricey restaurant.  This simple tip could save you both cash and time.
6. Create and stick to a weekly family meal plan.  Make sure to take a good look at the fridge as well as your kitchen cabinets before making you list for the week.
7. Keep a “to buy” list on a piece of paper in an easy to find place in your kitchen and update it frequently as you start consuming food items.
8. Plan out your tips to various store in a way that will minimize your time and mileage on your vehicle.
9. Make sure to check the per unit price on items (vs. just the shelf price).
10. Always ask for rain checks when a store is out of an item on sale.

Could you be paying more than you figured?

Most people don’t take the time to check their cash register receipt before they leave the store.  Folks tend to trust the computer scanning equipment and don’t give it a second thought.

As more and more news reports have revealed, mistakes made at the cash register are not at all uncommon.  Some areas of particular concern involve ringing up

• Produce – Since many produce items don’t contain bar codes to scan, it is easy for the clerk to enter in the wrong price.
• Sale and Clearance Items – Items on the clearance rack may ring up at full price at even though a clearance price sign is displayed on the shelf.
• Multiples of the same item – Clerks tends to grab one of the multiples and drag it across the scanner the several times until they believe the number of scans matches the number of items in your card.

Here are a few tips that might help

• Write down the shelf price of the sale and clearance items that you’re buying and compare the cash register receipt against the prices that you wrote down.
• Watch the clerk as they scan your items (especially if you’re buying multiples of the same item)
• Take a couple of minutes to double check the entire receipt before you leave the store.  If you find mistakes, point them out to the clerk or the staff at the customer service desk.

Rent your college textbooks and save big!

College students now have a new option to help them escape the high cost of buying textbooks.   Students can now rent their textbooks for the semester or quarter that they need them for and pay a fraction of the price of buying them.  Remember to include shipping when comparing one book store to another.

Here are some of the better known textbook rental outfits:

• http://www.chegg.com/
• http://www.bookrenter.com/
• http://www.collegebookrenter.com
• http://www.campusbookrentals.com/
• www.bookswim.com/

Local textbook rental option

• Textbook rental options may (or will) be available at your local college bookstore.  While some book stores have been renting textbooks for awhile now, the options are getting better with the entry of Barnes and Noble.  Click here to read more

http://www.bncollege.com/

e-Book textbook option

• http://www.coursesmart.com/iphone – over 8500 electronic textbooks you can purchase for use on your iPhone and/or your PC (course smart states “Buy and access your eTextbook instantly. Save up to 50 %.”)

College Textbooks – One of the most inflated costs out there.

Similar to the shocking cost of  your popcorn at your local movie theater,  the price tags on college text books also come as an unwelcome added expense to college students (and their parents).

OK, it may be more convenient to snag your text books from the on the college book store, but like the popcorn, you’ll end up paying dearly for it.  Instead check out these simple alternative options.

1. Cross the street – Closely located off-campus book stores stay in business by beating the prices being charged on campus.
2. Plan ahead and surf the savings – Try to obtain your upcoming course requirements and surf the web to find lower prices.  Check out Bestbookbuys.com .  It’s a great eMarketPlace site that allows people to do one stop shopping through tons of different stores. .  Note:  It is always easier if you have the ISBN number handy for searching. Make sure to pay attention to the price as well as the additional shipping charges and shop total price, not just list price.
3. Go digital and save – Look around for cheaper digital versions of text books (e.g.  ebooks, PDF’s, kindle books from amazon.com, etc)
4. Free is a good price – Check with the college and/or public libraries to see if you can check out the books you’ll need.
5. Previously owned – Check out the prices of used or earlier editions of the textbook.

Rebates. Great way to save or just a marketing trick?

Rebates

If you’re a disciplined person rebates can be a great way to save.  The folks offering those rebates are betting that you won’t mail them in within the required period of time.  Their also betting that even if you mail in the rebate, you won’t  follow all of the instructions and/or remember to follow up later to make sure that you received your check.   The fact is that it’s  a safe bet for them a good amount of the time.

Most people believe that they’ll remember to mail in the rebate, but the fact is that life offers many interruptions and distractions and it’s  really easy to forget.

The moral of our rebate story:

If the only reason that you’re buying the product is because of the rebate,  figure out a way to alert yourself to follow up later.  You can do this on a wall calendar, PDA or just sticky notes posted in a location that you frequent often.  Also, be sure to read all of the instructions carefully and follow them carefully.

The Cheapskate Family Vacation

The Cheapskate Family Vacation

How did we do?

Our family was planning a special vacation for our child’s 7^th birthday.  So, we thought that this would make a great story for our LeapToCheap.com site. To us cheap actually means “smart savings”.  The smart part should imply that you don’t need to pitch a tent to save on a hotel room

This chart shows how much money we saved on our 4-day 3-night San Diego family vacation (2 adults and 1 child).  Check out how much we saved.

** Check with your child’s school as well as your local public library about summer reading programs that may offer discounts to attractions such as Legoland California.

*** San Diego Zoo – Kids (ages 3-11) enjoy FREE admission to the San Diego Zoo ! Through October 31, 2009

Here’s how we plotted our little savings adventure………

When to go?

Considerations

• We don’t like crowds very much. If for no other reason than waiting in long lines eats away at your vacation time with your family.
• We prefer cooler weather.
• Of course we never want to pay more than we need to.

Conclusion:

• Flight, hotel and attraction prices proved to be lower off season. So, since our child had a Thursday and Friday off from school, we opted for late September / early October travel dates.

Airline tickets – Flying high on lower prices

Considerations:

• We started checking out airfare prices about one month ahead of time (and monitored fares daily). We wanted to stay over on a Saturday night which has saved us money in the past. However, this was not the case this time around. So, we switched to a Wednesday evening departure and a Saturday night return. That little day of week switch saved us over 50% off each roundtrip ticket.

Conclusion:

• Airfare savings assumptions don’t always apply.
• Airlines are constantly changing the way that they price tickets. So, start early and try different departure and return days to see if they will can save money.
• Remember, Southwest Airlines ticket prices can ONLY be found on Southwest.com. They’re not included in results on Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. Since Southwest sort of started the whole flying cheap thing, its always a good idea to check them first. Also, be sure to factor in the baggage fees when comparing airline ticket prices.

Hotel costs

Considerations:

• We were looking for a hotel with highly rated visitor reviews.
• A smoke free room was a must.
• Accommodations for two adults and one child were needed (at least two full beds).
• We wanted a microwave and refrigerator in the room.
• We wanted a really good free breakfast for the family.
• We wanted a hotel in a safe area and close to either Legoland or the San Diego Zoo.
• We always insist on a really clean room in good repair.
• It would be nice to find a hotel that matched up with our frequent stay programs.

Conclusion:

• Hotels.com is one of the best sources of hotel reviews. We checked there and found a 4.5 of 5 user rated suite hotel near Legoland for less than $100 a night (taxes included). The hotel had the best breakfast buffet that we had ever seen. The hotel was nothing fancy, but it was in excellent repair, super clean, great customer service and a pool. On top of all that, they offered Legoland and San Diego Zoo tickets at the awesome prices. We ended up booking through Hotels.com so that we could snag their welcome rewards points. If you’re curious, the hotel was the Ramada in Carlsbad, CA.

What lessons did we learned on this trip?

• Planning paid off big.
• The food and drink at both Legoland and the San Diego are anything but cheap.
• Packing your own soda, water and snacks in your backpack saved us quite a bit of money.

Kids and money…

Keeping money in perspective.

One simple idea to help your child to put money into a healthy  perspective is to:

• Ask your kids to close one eye and hold a quarter a few inches in front of their eye.
• Now ask them what they can see out of that eye.
• Next ask them to hold the quarter as far away from their opened eye as possible (still holding it level with the single open eye).
• Next, ask them what they could see when the quarter was close (the typical answer is just the quarter).
• Now ask them what they could see when the quarter was held farther away from their eye (the typical response is that they can see both the quarter and  all the other things in front of them).

So, as you guessed, this object lesson is intended to communicate that if all you pursue in life is accumulating money and wealth, that will block out everything else in your life.  However, if  you keep money in a proper perspective, you will enjoy a more balanced life.

Here are some great ways to teach you kids about money

1. When your kids are young,  consider setting up a weekly allowance for them. There are several considerations that you may want to think out  before offering the allowance.  For example:
   • Do you want the allowance to just be automatic, no strings attached?
   • Do you want to the allowance to be tied to work that they do around the house?
   • Are you willing to consider paying your kids a little extra when they choose the save some of their allowance (paying interest on savings)?   Likewise, are you willing to charge them a little extra money when they ask for an advance on their allowance?
   • Do you want to encourage  (or require) your kids to set aside some money to share (with those less fortunate than them)?
2. Ask your kids where they think money comes from.
3. Ask your kids if they think it is a good idea to save money (and why)?
4. Sit down with them and try out this “what if “calculator to show your kids how fast money grows when invested  (the lesson of compounding).

The follow is an interview with a six year old child regarding their views about money.  You may be surprised by the responses.   Try asking similar questions to your children and you may be surprised as well:

(Q)  What is money?

It’s tender.  A dollar and coins.

(Q) What  do you do with money?

Spend it save or share it.

(Q) What happens when you only have a little bit of money?

You could end up with no money if you keep spending.

(Q)  What can happen when you have way more money than you need?

You can get greedy or rich.

(Q)  How do people get money?

They work at work.   If you’re like a kid you can have an allowance.

(Q)What’s an allowance?

Money that you can either save or spend.

(Q) Can you be happy with just a little money?

Well, kinda, well if you save or spend?

(Q)  What do you do with the money you share?

At church we have like this little bank.  We put money it and give it to people that need it.