Kileab's Blog

With Christmas right around the corner I want to make myself available to my readers with suggestions for gifts. So For the next week (which will give you enough time for internet deals to ship to you) I will try to post frequently with deals I am finding throughout retail. If you have something you are searching for, feel free to use the

I joined

The best deals on travel are never posted on any website and you cannot get them through direct contact with the companies themselves. The only way I have found to access the hidden deals is to bid using

There seems to be a million websites where you can book travel these days. When it comes to searching for travel deals I only use three. The first is Travelocity. I like

Traveling long distances is never fun and rarely inexpensive. It used to be there was too little information for the common man to get a good deal, so he would employ the help of a travel agent. Now, with the internet, there is so much info weeding through it all is hard to comprehend. Which site do I use? What info sites can I trust? Why do these guys have all the access to information and not me? The reality is the info is available for us all we just have to know where to get it and how to use it. I originally planned to have two posts on travel, but after reviewing the information I want to share with you it is going to take three. Today we are going to look at the list I look at every time I need to travel. It reminds me how things need to be done if I can help it.

* Is your passport up to date? If not get a new one NOW!!
* Airlines will give you last minute deals so If you cannot get a deal ahead of time be patient
* Hotels hate last minute deals so make sure you get your hotel booked early afor a lower price.
* Rental car places run their deals at random times. Just keep trying and you will find one.
* NEVER NEVER NEVER ACCEPT A 2 STAR HOTEL!
* Get your hotel near the airport on the weekend and away from it during the week. The business travelers always stay near the airport so they are almost empty on weekends
* If you can get a discount airline for the same price take it. They are better at taking care of their customers. That is why they are taking over the market.
* Be prepared to pay 20% more than whatever price you get online. Local governments have figured out that taxation without representation works in the favor of those who govern.
* NEVER NEVER NEVER ACCEPT A 2 STAR HOTEL!!!
* Do you know someone near the are you are traveling to? See if they can get you a deal
* Always think off season for travel. Beach when it is colder, mountains when it is warmer, and anywhere you want in the first two weeks of December.
* Never buy a timeshare from a timeshare company (repeat in head three times).
* NEVER NEVER NEVER ACCEPT A 2 STAR HOTEL!!!!!!
* Traveling is expensive but it is one of the reasons we put forth so much effort to save money every day.

Check Out my other two posts on travel:

I saw a comment on a post at

Apparently there are a lot of women who love the free samples I find so I thought I would have a clip of freebies for them.

I am a firm believer in giving a portion of what you make to some sort of charitable organization. Whether you view that as your local church or some charitable organization is up to you. Many people, myself included, believe that giving is a major part of financial health since it takes your eyes off of just making money and helps you realize what you can do with money. With all this time we spend talking about money we need remember that money is a tool not a prize.

That being said you should be careful about who or what you give your money to. Find a cause you believe in but make sure the people “leading” that cause are taking care of the money they are given. When we donate to a charity outside of our normal giving, my wife and I give to the

The sale of premium mattresses in the U.S. is going through the roof! It seems Americans are sleeping less than they used to and to compensate they are spending a fortune on mattresses. To clarify a premium mattress is one that costs $2500 or more. $2500!!! Now I have searched and searched and found no real scientific evidence that one of these mattresses actually helps you sleep better. My wife and I sleep on a comfortable queen-size pillow top mattress that we bought at one of the warehouse clubs (with box spring) for just over $400. Yes, it was on clearance. Now I am not saying go get a crappy bed but the truth is your body adjusts to what you are sleeping on in about three nights.

There are many factors that can help you get a good nights sleep. The most comprehensive list I found was at

Following up on my post last week

Ever look at something on the shelf and think, “man, I could really use that but am I getting a good deal?” That question can now be answered as long as the item you are looking at has a bar code. Introducing

Yes it is Cyber Monday. This is the online equivalent of Black Friday. Almost every retailer has something going on today so get out there and find the best deals on Christmas presents (or whatever holiday you celebrate). There are not as many options to find deals on Cyber Monday as there are for Black Friday. The best place I have found is a forum from

Well I had a reasonably successful Black Friday and yet completely frustrating. Although I had planned to go to five stores ,I only made it to two because neither one was ready for the onslaught of customers. I was in Warner Robins, Ga visiting family for Thanksgiving so I went out on Friday morning at 4AM with my brother-in-law. We went to Circuit City first and he scored a 46 and 32 inch television. This took so long I had to abandon him there and head to Staples. At staples I got a GPS, some PC memory, and a cool pad for my wife’s laptop. By the time I got out of Staples, which opened at 6AM and picked up my brother-in-law at CC it was 8:30 so we went home and played with our new toys and forgot about the smaller items on my hit list. Did anyone take a shot at Black Friday and come out ahead?

Have you ever had an experience with a doctor (good or bad) that you wanted to tell others about? Or have you ever moved to a new area and were at a complete loss for where to find a quality doctor? Both these problems can now be solved at

I have a 105 pound Dog. She really is a sweet dog, well, except to the unfortunate wild life that wander into our back yard. Unfortunately she likes to dig a hole once in a while. This is not an easy thing to fill in. It seems she doesn’t get tired until the back yard starts to look like a war zone. So I have been trying to figure out a way to get some cheap dirt (preferably free) to fill in these holes. So who digs holes and then has more dirt than the holes can hold? THE CEMETARY!! That’s right, I am going to call the local cemetaries to see if I can get some free dirt. I will let you know how it goes. Does anyone else have a better idea?

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A good friend complained that I have shown him all sorts of ways to spend less money on things he buys regularly but have not shown any ways to make a little extra cash on the side. In response to his whining request I introduce

Just a few free samples for you to enjoy

The title is not trying any thunder from Lazy Man and Money (this is an awesome blog you should check it out), but emphasize how the adoption of online retailing by the larger box stores is making it easier and easier to not have to go out on Black Friday. Now the best door buster deals are not usually available online, but a lot of the good deals will be. Each retailer is different in how they will be handling online sales so you have to research each one. I do know that Wal-Mart and Best Buy will be offering some of their BF sales online.

Now for the person who doesn’t want to bother with Black Friday at all there is a fairly new phenomenon called Cyber-Monday. This is the Monday after Thanksgiving when everyone is dragging back into work. Basically a large number of on-line retailers (Amazon, NewEgg, Buy.com, etc.) use this day as the start to the Holiday Season and begin all their big sales that day. The deals for Cyber-Monday are much harder to hunt down than Black Friday deals. Apparently either the online retailers are able to keep their ads from leaking (no paper) or the monkeys who run the message boards feel some loyalty to their online brethren. So far all I have found is a tidbit here and there and two sites,

Here are a few free items to reduce stress in your life.

No need to worry about smelling bad so I found some

O.K. so you have honed your body, and prepared your information for this great day of shopping. Now you need an A+ strategy for attacking the stores on Black Friday. The first step is decide, what is your have got to have number one item? Once you decide on your top pick you will need to know if there are other things on sale at that store that you want to pick up. However many individual items you want to purchase at the alpha store is how many people you need to take with you to that store. In my personal experience Wal-Mart is a lost cause. Why even put yourself in a place where you could get trampled? I would focus on the next tier Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, and other big box stores.

Now that you have determined your alpha target it is time to determine targets Bravo through golf (that’s 2-7 if you have that many). The way I do this is two fold. I list all the items I want to purchase in one column followed by the store that each item is on sale in the second column. I then rate how busy that store will be. If one item is more important than the others it moves to the top of the list and that store will be visited second. If they are all equal value I then determine the likely hood of that item selling out by how busy that store is likely to be. For example: If I were trying to get a great deal on a thumb drive and it was on sale at Circuit City (a high traffic store) I would go there much earlier in the day than if it were on sale at Staples, because people do not as easily think of Staples as a place to get a great deal on Black Friday. To Help you out here is my list rated from 5 to 1 (5-most traffic, 1-least traffic). This of course depends on if you have these store in your area.

5-Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us
4-Circuit City, Comp USA, K Mart, HHGregg,
3-All the department stores (Sears, Macy’s, Etc.), Radio Shack
2-Home Depot, Lowes
1-Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, Ace Hardware, Pep Boys (yes even Pep Boys is in on the fun)

I have decided to add one more post onto this series so check back tomorrow for my the conclusion.

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On Black Friday there is a miriad of advertising and tempting deals to lure you in every direction. The second key to a successful Black Friday shopping experience is knowing what stores you want to hit. In the old days, before the internet, everyone had to wait until all the ads were released which was usually just a few days before. You can still use these ads but with the internet now available it gives you much more time to prepare your hit sheet. Different sites will have different ads available so your best bet is to look for the stores that are in your area on the different sites and then collect data accordingly. The two sites I like the most are

Black Friday is next week and the hype surrounding it is in full swing. The day got its name for the day when retailers typically make a profit for the year or are “in the black.” As someone who used to work in retail full time I am always amused by the rumblings of what is happening with black friday. The big box stores are always out there threatening to sue people for releasing their Black Friday ads early (especially Wal-Mart), people are going nuts over the next “favorite” toy, and the commission sales people are raking in the dough.

If you are going to venture out and go for the big prizes on Black Friday you must realize that this is not a fun and games shopping experience. It’s more like a blood sport. There are three areas you will need to take into consideration to be successful at Black Friday shopping and the first is physical preparation.

To prepare physically you will need to go to bed early. Please do not try to hit 7 stores in one day with no sleep. You want to know why someone gets trampled every year? Because they fell asleep near the front of the line. If you are going after one of the door buster deals you will be up by at least 3am, if not earlier, trying to get a spot near the front of the line. This means you will need more than just yourself to be out there. That way someone can hold your spot so you can go to the bathroom, or while one of you goes for food. You will need the same number of people as items you are trying secure. So if there are three specific door buster deals you want from Best Buy then you will need two other friends or family that will go get those items while you go for the most important prize. They will not be there if you try to run around the store picking each one up individually. As per the BF rules everyone from your party must start in line together. That way no one can complain about you not having been there from the beginning. For good measure, if one of you goes out for food offer to get something for the person behind you in line. By extending this act of kindness they are not likely to get upset with you for not having everyone stay put. So, now that you have enough sleep and you have enough bodies you are physically ready for BF and can move on to the second area of preparation… information. Which we will talk about tomorrow.

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I used to live just south of Charlotte, NC (SC has lower taxes). I would commute to the north side of Charlotte for work driving about 30 miles one way. It was at this point in time that I became fascinated with autowrapping. You have probably seen cars that have advertising that completely covers the car. Many of these vehicles are owned by the company that is being advertised, but some of them are just private citizens that are being paid to advertise with their vehicle. My problem was that my cars have always been so old that no one wanted to advertise on them. Now that I have a new enough car I don’t drive far enough to entice an advertiser (plus I live in the country so not enough possible customers either).

Now I am sure some are curious as to why I would want to do this. The reason is they pay you somewhere between $200-$400 per month. That could pay off your car!! It could cover the rising cost of gasoline. I mean that is a significant chunk of change for letting someone advertise on your vehicle. The contracts vary in length but I found two companies that still do this type of advertising. They are