Steals and deals: Modern furniture on sale at Roam

Most of the furniture and accessories at Roam Interiors are discounted 40 to 60 percent as the contemporary home furnishings store starts its moving sale Tuesday.

It's a good time to find rare discounts on Blu Dot, Alessi, Gus, chairs by Magis and Kartell, and Jonathan Adler accessories, furniture, rugs and lighting. The store (813 Glenwood Av., Mpls., 612-377-6465, www.roaminteriors.com) will be moving into the former Booksmart location in Uptown in August.

Double the food outlet The Twin Cities has no shortage of clothing outlet stores, but most of us would be hard-pressed to name even one food outlet. One of the few, Mike's Discount Foods (230 Osborne Rd., Fridley, 763-572-2254), more than doubled its size last week.

Co-owner Nick Abernathy describes Mike's as having Aldi's pricing but with more name brands. Fresh and packaged items are at or near expiration dates, are closeouts or have discontinued packaging.

Sample savings include cereal for $2, a dozen Yoplait or Dannon 6-ounce cups for $1.99, Dole 8- to 12-ounce packaged salads for 99 cents, Ben & Jerry's pints of vanilla ice cream for $1.49 (regularly $3), fresh strawberries for $1 a pound or $5.99 for 8 pounds. Coming soon: more paper products, soaps and pet food.

Which gas tips save? Every summer holiday, you can bet that some group will issue gas saving tips. The nonprofit Consumer Federation of America (www.consumerfed.org) is the first one that I've seen to rank the tips in order of most potential gas saved:

1. Drive smoother with less accelerating and decelerating (up to 33 percent savings on the highway and 5 percent in town or up to 68 cents a gallon).

4. Follow the speed limit (up to a 10 percent savings if you slowed down to 65 instead of 70 miles per hour or 27 cents a gallon).

Less significant? A tune-up (4 percent savings or about 15 cents a gallon), properly inflated tires (2.8 percent savings or about 11 cents a gallon) and a clean-out of dead weight (1 to 2 percent savings or about 6 cents a gallon for every 100 pounds removed).

Savings were based on gas at $3.85 a gallon.