I’ve become accustomed to flying a couple of times per year (at least) to visit family or go on vacation.

This year, we flew to LA for a wedding and Mexico on vacation, both for well under $500 per person. And I remember after college grabbing tickets to San Francisco for $150 round trip. For Labor Day 2006 our family of four flew to Chicago for about $300 (the little guy didn’t pay for a seat, though).

But I worry that cross-country leisure travel for people with average-sized pocketbooks could be a thing of the past.

My price threshold for buying a domestic plane ticket is set at a somewhat random $350 per seat. That means no trip to see my cousin get married outside Harrisburg, PA (seats are around $470) or to see a family friend marry in Connecticut (seats were a whopping $509 to fly into Hartford). At those prices– and with airlines charging for bags, food, you name it– we’ll be grounded for some time.

Auto travel is no better with gas prices approaching $4.00. The AAA predicts that the number of Americans driving more than 50 miles away from home over the long weekend will decline by about 1 percent, a small number, but a big sign because it rarely declines.

We’re a contributor to that decline. We were planning to go to Kansas City to see a two-day kids music festival where They Might Be Giants and Justin Roberts are playing– two bands my kids as well as my husband and I really enjoy. There’s an elephant at their zoo too. But we decided loading up the car would be tiring and expensive. We’ll be digging up tree roots in our yard instead.

Day-to-day,I am driving shorter distances when I can. I haven’t set foot in my beloved Costco for months now because driving from St. Paul to St. Louis Park for cheap milk just doesn’t feel like a bargain (although I’ve yet to run the numbers). I’m also trying to bike to work more.

How about you? Have you made any changes– big or small– to cope with higher fuel prices? Skipped trips? Traded in the SUV for a Hybrid?

Hello. I’m back from sunny California, the land of heavenly weather, wonderful scenery, heavy traffic, $3.93 gas and $5.99 almonds (they were only $3.99 back home on the tundra).

Apologies to those of you whose comments were stuck in moderation all weekend. And stuck in the rain/snow.

Many thanks to brilliant budget bride Aimee for holding down the fort.

I didn’t pay much attention to the money news when down in the valley. It was a vacation, after all. But I did notice a few stories about retailers offering deals to shoppers who use their stimulus checks to stimulate their earnings– and the economy.

As my colleague Jackie Crosby reported today, Lands’ End, Kmart, Sears, Roundy’s (Rainbow), and Cub are offering discounts to those of us who spend our rebate with them.

What if your rebate will be directly deposited into your bank account? Cub spokeswoman Haley Meyer said that Cub “will work with shoppers” who “show us proof” that the rebate was deposited. The proof needed is a copy of your bank statement or print-out of your online bank account. My guess is other retailers will also accommodate e-deposited funds.

I don’t know about you, but I’m planning to milk the “spend $300, we’ll give you $30 deal” that Cub announced and Rainbow matched.

Here’s my reasoning: I spend about $100 in groceries each week. Yes, that’s a lot of money tied up in grocery gift cards if I throw in the entire $1,800 my family expects. Yes, it will take me almost five months to use up those gift cards, but that’s a free $180–almost two weeks of groceries.

Tell me this: Where else can you get a risk free rate of return of 10 percent on your money in five months? Certainly not in an online savings account with the Fed expected to lower rates once again. Not in a CD. Not under my mattress. Not in short-term bonds. This is about the best short-term investment around. And if they’ll let me use my credit card that earns me 6 percent back on groceries to buy the gift cards, I’ll earn another $108.

Milk it? You bet.

Hello, Aimee Blanchette here filling in for Kara who is in L.A. with her family for a wedding. Peak wedding season is officially upon us.

I contributed to KaBlog several months ago when I was in the early stages of planning my own wedding. Now I have just two months to go before the BIG DAY. The invitations have been sent and a few nights ago we finished bottling our second batch of wedding wine … yes, wedding wine.

Among all the other things on our plate, we somehow managed to talk ourselves into making our own wine to serve at the wedding. Here me out, though: doing so saved us money, we had fun together, the wine tastes darn good AND it fits our overall “theme” for a homemade wedding.

The idea came about when my future father-in-law (an avid home-brewer) offered to brew the beer for the wedding (he just finished his seventh batch of wedding brew). For a long time, I’d wanted to try making wine, but the whole process was really daunting. Would I have to ship in grapes, stomp them with my feet and let them age in oak barrels?

I looked into the process, talked to some people at the local wine/brew stores and realized I could make a high-quality wine for about the same cost of a bunch of “Three-Buck-Chuck.”

The process is actually pretty fool-proof IF you follow the instructions provided with the wine ingredient kit. There are a few places in the Twin Cities where you can find everything you’ll need to make wine from beginning to end. Northern Brewer is in St. Paul and Brew & Grow is in Spring Lake Park.

A basic wine-making kit costs $100 and includes all of the supplies you’ll need, minus the bottles and corks. We didn’t have to buy this kit, because we already had a beer-making kit, which includes many of the necessary supplies. We only had to supplement the beer-making kit with a few items.

Here’s a breadkdown of the estimated cost-savings:
Supplies (tools, cleaners and sanitizers, and corks) = $65
Recycled bottles = free
Wine ingredient kits = $225 for three kits

Total = $290

Each wine ingredient kit (which includes a juice concentrate, not grapes) costs between $55 and $165. Each kit makes 6 gallons of wine, or 30 bottles.

We made 90 bottles of wine for $290, or $3.22 per bottle. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it and it saved us a ton of money. If you are planning to make wine for your own wedding, start early. The earlier the better. We started the process about six months ago.

So readers, what lengths have you gone to save money for your wedding (or any other big event) and was it worth it? Later today, I have a story to share about how trying to be thrifty, or shall I say … cheap, backfired BIG TIME. And it has to do with my wedding dress.

Even if economic uncertainty and financial trouble hasn’t hit your household directly, my guess is you’ve thought about it now and then since the start of the new year. Or is it just me?

I don’t think so. I was talking to one woman today who’s been selling unwanted stuff on Craig’s List, not because she had to, but because it makes her feel better. I relate. I’ve only had one garage sale that’s ever felt worth the time and effort. But I look at the amount of stuff I have that I no longer want and want to take a blowtorch to the snow in my yard.

My personal reaction to all of this doom and gloom is to do as little shopping as possible. Even today, I resisted a sale rack shirt for my son, which in the past I would have justified as a need. But c’mon, the kid is two and I have a washing machine.

What he does need is socks, so I used a $10 gift card to get those for free. How satisfying to walk out of a store with what I need and the same amount of money in my pocket.

Are you changing your shopping or spending habits? If so,  are you making changes because you need to? Or are you wanting to fluff up that cash cushion to relax your mind? Maybe you think all of this worrying is silly.

We have a week for everything in this country, don’t we? America Saves Week aims to: “increase awareness that people need to save money, reduce debt and build wealth,” according to the America Saves Week web site.

Can’t say I know of anyone blissfully unaware of those issues, especially these days.

Anyway, in addition to savings calculators, the site also has a list of savings tips. Submit your own and you could win a $50 EE Savings Bond. It’s not much, but have you heard that every little bit adds up?

The sponsors held a conference call yesterday during which an earnest group of government and nonprofit leaders involved in the campaign talked about the importance of saving.

Now don’t get me wrong (here’s my disclaimer before my mini-rant), I’m a huge believer in the need for people to start saving already and am glad that the issue is getting a lot of attention. But I’m frustrated. Study after study comes out beating the retirement shortfall drum. Yet the stats and the solutions fail to sink in.

Some of it, of course, comes down to money. Not everyone makes enough to afford to live well, let alone save. But some of it is systemic and societal. When a reporter on the conference call asked the officials what they thought of the stimulus package and the message it sends from an indebted nation to indebted citizens, my ears perked up (yes, I admit I was looking at the best dressed Oscar pics).

Boy, did this group dodge that question like an actress trying to avoid Joan Rivers on the red carpet. Most were silent. A couple trotted out the typical, start saving early, teach kids about money lines. Another brushed off stimulus as an issue economists are best left to worry about.

I’m no economist, but I am worried– that these oh-so-trendy, dime-a-dozen financial literacy and savings efforts are failing to inspire those that need it most. And we’ll all pay in the long run.

Anyone have any bright ideas?