Are you in the market for a new car? If so, you're probably trying to save up as much money as possible to make the purchase. It's important to be smart about your spending and put aside money each month so that you can afford the car of your dreams. In this blog post, we will discuss some tips for saving money so that you can buy your next car without breaking the bank.

Calculate how much money you'll need to save for your next car purchase

If you're in the market for a new car, it's important to start by calculating how much money you'll need to save. You have to consider more than just the price of the car. You will need funds for taxes, title, registration, inspection, insurance, extended car warranty, and gas. The first step is to figure out what type of car you want. Whether you're looking for a luxurious SUV or a simple sedan, there's a car out there that's perfect for you.  

Once you've decided on the type of car you want, it's time to start looking at prices. Check out websites like Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds to get an idea of what different cars are selling for.  

Then, use a calculator to figure out how much money you'll need to save each month in order to reach your goal. Finally, set up a savings account and start putting away money! With a little planning and perseverance, you'll be behind the wheel of your dream car in no time.

Decide on a budget and stick to it - even if that means cutting back
on other expenses

Anyone who has ever gone on a shopping spree knows the allure of spending money. However, it's important to remember that money doesn't grow on trees. In order to stay financially healthy, it's important to set a budget and stick to it - even if that means making some sacrifices.  

For example, instead of going out to eat every night, you might cook at home more often. Or, instead of buying the latest designer clothes, you might shop at second-hand stores or wait for sales. By being mindful of your spending, you can make sure that your hard-earned money goes where you really need it. And that can make all the difference in the world.

Make a plan for how you'll save money each month, including setting aside money specifically for your car fund

It's always a good idea to have a plan for your finances. After all, when it comes to money, you can never be too prepared. One way to get your finances in order is to set aside money each month specifically for your car fund. This way, you'll be sure to have the money you need when it comes time to buy a new car.  

To do this, you can set up a simple budget and allocate a certain amount of money towards your car fund each month. Then, all you have to do is stick to your budget and watch your savings grow! Not only will this help you get a new car sooner, but it will also help you stay on top of your finances. 

Research different types of cars and what the average cost is in your area

Cars are a big purchase, and it's important to do your research before you buy. There are a lot of different factors to consider, from the type of car to the average cost in your area. When you're looking at different types of cars, it's important to consider your needs and budget.  

If you have a large family, you'll want to look for a car with plenty of space. If you're on a tight budget, you'll want to look for a more economical option. Once you've narrowed down your options, it's time to start looking at prices.  

The average cost of a car will vary depending on your location and the type of car you're looking for. In general, compact cars are cheaper than SUVs, and luxury cars are more expensive than economy cars.  

However, there are always exceptions to these rules. Once you've done your research and found the perfect car for you, it's time to start shopping around for the best deal. Comparing prices from different dealerships is the best way to make sure you're getting the best possible price on your new car.

Compare interest rates at local banks and credit unions to find the best deal
on a car loan

When it comes to getting a car loan, it pays to shop around. Interest rates can vary significantly from one lender to the next, so it's important to compare offers from multiple banks and credit unions before making a decision.  

By taking the time to find the best deal, you could save yourself hundreds or even thousands of dollars in interest charges over the life of the loan. And that's money that could be better spent on gasoline, car insurance, or upgrades for your new ride.  

So don't settle for the first offer you get. Shop around and make sure you're getting the best deal possible on your car loan.

Keep an eye out for used cars that are in great condition and have
been well-maintained

Used cars are a great way to save money on your next vehicle purchase. However, it is important to carefully select a used car in order to get the best value for your money. Look for cars that are in great condition and have been well-maintained.  

Avoid cars with excessive wear and tear, or those that have been in accidents. Also, be sure to check the vehicle history report to ensure that the car has not been recalled or had any major mechanical issues. With a little bit of research, you can find a used car that will provide years of trouble-free driving.

No one likes it when drains don’t drain, toilets don’t flush, sinks overflow, and general plumbing problems rear their ugly heads in the house. However, instead of rushing to call the nearest plumber, why not try to fix the problem yourself? Here are some of the common plumbing fixes that you can carry out yourself, as well as when to know when to call for that plumber!

A Clogged Drain

This one might be a no-brainer because with the number of times something clogs in your house you don’t want to spend money on a plumber every single time. You can easily unclog the drain using simple household materials like hot water, baking soda and vinegar, and drain cleaners.

There are other tools and materials you can use from your local hardware store and they will get you a faster result than waiting on an expert.

Repairing Leaks

Not only do leaky pipes and faucets waste water, but they can also be an annoyance and the catalyst for a huge mess! Thankfully, repairing most faucets only requires a wrench and a light source, and making your pipes leakproof is pretty simple too.

Often the hardest part is finding sneakier leaks that don’t leave pools of water or constant dripping sounds as clues to their location. But once you find them, most of the time you either need to tighten the pipe or replace the seal around the joint.

Stopping A Running Toilet

If you’ve flushed your toilet but the toilet simply won’t quit, then you need to work on how to fix that before your water bill goes through the roof! You will need to take your toilet apart and use some tools, but it shouldn’t be too massive of a procedure. 

Often, it comes down to problems with the flapper and the chain connected to it, so you need to either adjust the chain or completely replace the flapper. With a trip to the hardware store and maybe a guide, you will be able to make the plumbing fixes you need to get your toilet to flush fully.

Plumbing Emergencies

However, there are some plumbing emergencies that will depend upon you knowing when to call an expert. Often, if you don’t think you can do the fix without harming your home or causing more problems than the fix will solve, you need to call in a plumber.

Because they will have the know-how to start tackling plumbing issues promptly before they can damage your home and your piping.

Additionally, if something happens and you don’t have the know-how to fix it, such as an overflowing sink or a complete lack of hot water in your home then you need to call a plumber. Many services offer same-day service so they can solve your small problem and get your plumbing working again.

Whenever it comes to calling an expert vs doing it yourself, you need to trust your gut. If you think you can handle the small problem yourself, why not give it a try?

However, if the problem is too big for you and you don’t feel confident in your ability to handle it, then you need to call for an expert.

After all, you don’t want to have a problem that can be very easy to solve, to be made much worse by your messing up. That will cost you and your plumber a lot more in both time and money, and no one wants that!

BOZEMAN — The carbon fiber material used to make aircraft lightweight and strong could soon get a major makeover as a result of a Montana State University project that’s rapidly catching the attention of industry.

For the past four years, a team of MSU scientists, students and collaborators has pioneered an innovative way of making “stretch-broken” carbon fibers that are more easily formable to the complex shapes of aircraft and could significantly cut manufacturing costs. The project is funded by a total of $25.8 million in contracts from the U.S. Army.

“We’ve invested a lot into this and now we’re approaching a major milestone where we’ll demonstrate actual manufacturing at a small scale before transferring the technology to industry,” said Douglas Cairns, the lead MSU researcher on the project. “We’re very excited about the potential impact.”

Traditional carbon fiber composite — made by embedding the long fibers, which are stronger than steel, in a hardening resin — is the gold standard in the aerospace industry because it’s exceptionally strong and durable for its weight, explained Cairns. But the fibers are so stiff that forming them into the tight curves of an airplane wing, for instance, requires complex and expensive machinery. It also often requires a scaffold-like metal substructure that’s prone to corrosion, costing the U.S. military billions of dollars each year in maintenance and repairs.

By contrast, MSU’s new carbon fiber material — created by precisely stretching the material so that some of the fibers break at natural weak points — is about eight times more formable while being roughly the same strength, according to Cairns. That means the material can be shaped with simpler equipment and without metal substructure.

"Because it’s so much easier to form, we're conservatively estimating that we can lower the manufacturing costs by a factor of four,” said Cairns, the Lysle A. Wood Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. “That’s a huge deal.”

Although the concept of breaking carbon fibers to improve their formability has been around for decades, previous methods such as randomly cutting the material proved to significantly compromise strength, said Cairns, who has worked in aerospace materials for nearly 30 years. The idea of stretch-breaking also isn’t new, but until now nobody had figured out a way to consistently and efficiently do it in a way that could be scaled for industry. “The concept is easy, but the control of it is very difficult," Cairns said.

Working with nearly two dozen Montana companies to help with design and machining, the MSU team developed a new kind of stretch-breaking tool called the Bobcat Head. As a flat strand containing thousands of individual carbon fibers is rapidly passed through a series of rollers, precise force is applied to break the fibers where there are nicks and other imperfections. Only about 2% of the fibers are broken across a given area, Cairns noted.

The researchers then studied the properties of the resulting material. Roberta Amendola, associate professor in the mechanical and industrial engineering department, led a team of fellow faculty and students to test how easily the stretch-broken fibers could be bent into complex shapes and set with resin.

“The material keeps surprising us,” Amendola said. “What we’ve confirmed is that it’s as strong as material made with continuous fibers but is very easy to form. It’s a remarkable result.”

The next step, according to Cairns, is to scale up the stretch-breaking machine for a pilot demonstration of how it could be used in actual manufacturing, which would pave the way for licensing the technology to aerospace companies that produce both military and civilian aircraft. There’s the potential for the material to start being used industrially in the next few years, he said.

In the meantime, the work is having an educational impact at MSU, with more than eight undergraduates and a dozen graduate students having contributed to the project, Cairns noted. Other MSU faculty on the project are professor Dilpreet Bajwa and associate professor Cecily Ryan, both in the mechanical and industrial engineering department.

Federal appropriations for the $25.8 million in Army contracts for the project were supported by Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines.

“The scientists and engineers at Montana State are consistently at the cutting edge of innovation, and I’m proud to see some of Montana’s brightest minds helping to keep our nation safe through this partnership with the United States Army,” Sen. Tester said. “As Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, I was happy to help secure funding for this partnership and am confident that MSU’s breakthrough carbon fibers will deliver for our armed services.”

Cairns said the project is already attracting attention from advanced material supply and aerospace companies that have come to the Bozeman campus to see the material for themselves and are eager for material samples, which the MSU team is working toward providing. "When we talk with aerospace companies, their eyes light up,” he said. “They recognize how much this could impact their design and manufacturing."

BOZEMAN — Montana State University and Gallatin Valley communities pulled out a win in the 23rd annual Can the Griz food drive, with supporters donating the equivalent of 613,054 pounds of food to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank and MSU’s Bounty of the Bridgers food pantry.

Can the Griz — and the corresponding Can the Cats food drive in Missoula — is an off-field competition between MSU and the University of Montana to see which school can collect the most donations for its local food bank. The competition is held each year as part of the celebration of the Brawl of the Wild football game between the two rival schools.

This year, MSU and Gallatin Valley communities donated 207,854 pounds of food and $405,200, according to Kim Cleary in the MSU Office of Student Engagement, which coordinates Can the Griz. Pounds and dollars are added together for the contest, resulting in a total this year of 613,054 pounds donated. The Can the Cats food drive in Missoula brought in the equivalent of 428,022 pounds of food for the Missoula Food Bank, Cleary said. MSU and the Gallatin Valley communities have won the competition 19 out of the 23 years it has been held.

“We are so thrilled to have secured our 19th Can the Griz win,” Cleary said. “It is so inspiring to see both the Bozeman and Missoula communities come together to support their friends and neighbors in this especially difficult year. At the end of the day, we are all winners when people are being fed and the people who run our local food banks have the resources they need to continue to serve individuals that need their support.”

The donations from Can the Griz will help the Gallatin Valley Food Bank, as well as the Bounty of the Bridgers food pantry, provide food for families in the community through the spring and summer. The Gallatin Valley Food Bank is one of the HRDC Food and Nutrition Programs’ Initiatives. The Bounty of the Bridgers, housed in the Office of Health Advancement, is a student-driven initiative to combat food waste and food insecurity on the MSU campus for students, faculty and staff.

Donations to the food bank may still be made. Donation information is available at canthegriz.com.

On November 17, 2022, at 7:40pm, Gallatin County 911 received a call for a person with severe mental disabilities that had walked away from home. The person was not dressed appropriately for the weather and the direction of travel was unknown. With temperatures being dangerously cold assistance was requested to help find the individual.

Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue (GCSSAR) volunteers from the Valley Section, Bozeman Police Department officers, and the Bozeman Fire Department coordinated their efforts to search the area. GCSSAR Dog Teams and the Drone Team were also utilized.  With numerous law enforcement officers, firefighters, and GCSSAR personnel searching a large area, the missing person was found cold but in overall good health.

Sheriff Dan Springer would like to remind everyone, with the cold temperatures upon us to remember to dress warmly and prepare appropriately for the elements even if you are in a city.

Photos courtesy of the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.

CARDWELL – Game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking information on a deer that was killed illegally at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park.  
Sometime between the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 11, and Saturday, Nov. 12, a deer was shot in the eastern half of the park, where hunting is prohibited. The whole animal was removed and was not field dressed at the kill site.   

Anyone with possible information about this case is encouraged to visit myfwp.mt.gov/fwpPub/tipmont to provide details or call the FWP violation reporting hot line at 1-800-TIP-MONT. They may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000. 
Hunting is allowed in the western half of Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park during the general season. The eastern half is closed to all hunting and firearm shooting year-round. Hunting access to open areas and game retrieval is not allowed through the closed eastern half of the park. Hunters must use designated access points along Montana Highway 2. For more information about hunting opportunities and rules at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park, call 406-287-3541. 

Some of Montana’s other state parks provide hunting opportunities. However, certain restrictions may apply, such as no-hunting safety zones and restrictions on the type of hunting weapon or firearm that may be used. Contact the specific park and refer to fwp.mt.gov for site-specific information regarding hunting opportunities and restrictions.   

BOZEMAN — Stephanie Land, the author of a bestselling memoir about overcoming food and housing insecurity as a single mother while earning a college degree, will speak at Montana State University’s First Year Student Convocation next August at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023, and it is free and open to the public. 

Land is a writer and public speaker known for her memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive,” detailing her exit from an abusive relationship, trials of single motherhood, a series of events that brought her to a homeless shelter and her journey scraping by as a house cleaner to provide for her young family.  

Land’s memoir addresses pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line while cutting through stigmas of the working poor, said a reviewer from The New York Times. "Maid” has been at the top of many bestseller lists, including Times’ list, and is the inspiration for the recent Netflix original series of the same name.  

Driven to create a better life for herself and her daughter, Land cleaned by day, took classes by night, and wrote relentlessly as she worked toward earning a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from the University of Montana. After graduating in 2014, Land stopped using food stamps and started working as a freelance writer. “Maid” was published in 2019. 

“As many of Montana State University’s students regularly show us, a relentless sense of hope, coupled with grit, can help individuals conquer challenges and forge new paths for themselves,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado. “Stephanie’s story, like the stories of many other working-class Montanans, is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and to how education can transform a person’s life.”  

While MSU convocation is free, members of the public must reserve tickets. Tickets will be available beginning in January 2023 at the Bobcat Ticket Office and all TicketsWest outlets. 

MSU’s First Year Student Convocation is the formal welcome of the incoming class, where the university focuses attention on the start of the academic, intellectual and personal journey of first-year students. Convocation demonstrates the support of the university and community to help students reach the goal of becoming the graduating class of 2027. Land’s lecture will be part of MSU’s 16th convocation. 

BIG SKY – Game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking information on an elk that was killed illegally near Big Sky. 

Wardens initially received a tip via FWP’s violation reporting hotline, 1-800-TIP-MONT, reporting that an elk was killed around 9 a.m. on Nov. 10 on private land without the landowner’s permission. The site was on Chief Joseph Trail in Big Sky.  

Wardens located what was left of the elk near the road. The tenderloins and half of the backstraps had been left with the carcass and wasted. The elk was a spike bull. Harvesting spikes in this hunting district, HD 304, is only allowed for youth hunters and disabled adult hunters with a permit to hunt from a vehicle. 

The person who shot the elk was reported as a white man in his 50s of average height, with a round face and a short graying beard. He was seen with six Hispanic men packing out the elk in white garbage bags. They carried the elk to two new Polaris Ranger UTVs—one black, the other camo—both with four-door hard cabs. 

Anyone with possible information about this case is encouraged to visit myfwp.mt.gov/fwpPub/tipmont to provide details or call the FWP violation reporting hot line at 1-800-TIP-MONT. They may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000. 

                                       John Lowell photo by William Campbell

(Livingston, MT) - The International Western Music Association gave out awards on Nov 12th at their conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

John Lowell won “Working Cowboy Song of the Year” for his song “Angus Mackenzie.” The song features a melancholy and regretful Scotsman

who sees being a cowboy isn’t all it was cracked up to be and is featured on his recent release, “She’s Leaving Cheyenne.”

Lowell was nominated twice in the Song category, as well as Songwriter of the Year and Album of the Year. “She’s Leaving Cheyenne” was released late in 2021 and was named Album of the Year by Wyoming Public Radio. 2021 also brought Lowell the Grand Prize in the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest.

“This award means so much to me,” said Lowell from his home in Livingston, Montana. “This was a pandemic project to honor some of the great cowboy songs I’ve grown up listening to. I’m glad the IWMA recognized the original works I submitted and liked the classics I covered.”

John Lowell will take his show on the road early next year, with a stop at the prestigious 30A Songwriter Festival in Florida. He’s also performing in Key West, Orlando, Gainesville and Ocala, then on to Dublin. John will be teaching at the UK Sore Fingers camp this spring, Montana Fiddle Camp, the Kerrvillle Folk Festival in Texas this spring, the Antlers and Acorns Songwriter Festival in Boone, NC this fall, and a German tour. For all concert dates and more information, please go to www.johnlowell.com. To listen to John Lowell’s award-winning song, please go to https://johnlowell.bandcamp.com .

For booking information, contact Joanne Gardner at joannegardnermt@gmail.com.