Money on sale at Staples, miles for a Mercedes, how to earn Hyatt elite status in Vegas, and Nicaragua news

MONEY SALE AT STAPLES: “Money often costs too much” — Ralp Waldo Emerson

Of course, Emerson was never lucky enough to shop at Staples! Now through July 20th, Staples is offering a $15 Staples gift card when you buy a $200 MasterCard gift card. And thanks to Slickdeals, I see Staples has some other good sales this week as well:

• 4oz Staples School Glue $0.25
• Slider Pencil Case $0.25
• 24-pack RoseArt Crayons $0.25
• 200-sheets Staples 5.5″x4.25″ Fat Book $1
• Staedtler Protractor $1
• 7-pack Zebra Z-Grip Mechanical Pencils $1
• 5.5″x8.5″ Dry-Erase Board $1
• 35-piece Staples Erases and Grip Combo Pack $2
• 4-pack Staples 3/4″x300″ Invisible Tape $2
• Staples 3-Hole Binder Hole Punch $2

But wait, that’s not all! Points, Miles, & Martinis points out that Staples has paper towels on sale at prices so low, they’re practically giving them away–and you can earn 8X UR points by using Chase’s portal. As someone whose basement is currently stacked floor to ceiling with paper towels and toilet paper purchased at Staples several months ago (if you’re going to jump on a deal, you may as well go big), I’ll also add that Staples sometimes has a catalog at the front of the store with coupons giving you a discount on breakroom supplies, a category which includes paper towels. I have no idea if such coupons are available, but it might be worth a look if you happen to be passing by.

MILES FOR A MERCEDES: I’d never heard about this program before, but apparently you can get up to 25,000 United miles by buying a Mercedes. Of course, my readership tends to favor high-end Italian vehicles, but I just thought I’d throw this one out there just in case. (H/T: Maximizing Money)

HOW TO GET HYATT ELITE STATUS IN VEGAS: Hyatt recently started a partnership with MGM resorts, which means there are now 12 properties in Vegas you can use to help score elite status with Hyatt. The Points Guy has a nice rundown. For example:

…one of the participating resorts is Excalibur (which counts as a Hyatt Category 2 property now). Looking at the week after Labor Day, rooms are going for a low of $29 per night for several nights. Granted, that gets bumped up to about $47.50 with taxes and a $15 per day resort fee. But if (and I’m not saying this is likely since it would take an incredible amount of planning and spending a fair amount of time in Vegas), I wanted to book 25 individual one-night stays at similar rates in order to reach Diamond status, it would only end up spending $1,187.50– that’s less than a single night at some top-tier Hyatts cost!

If you’re interested in working the Vegas angle, there’s a lot more here.

A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL: I’ve been meaning to get around to mentioning this for a while, but did anybody notice that they’re actually going to move forward with a competitor to the Panama Canal?:

The £25bn Great Interoceanic Canal will be built by the Hong Kong-based company Nicaragua Canal Development Co Ltd (HKND), which has been granted a 50-year concession to build it with an option for another 50 after that to run it once it is operational.

Plans to build a canal through Nicaragua have been proposed in various forms for at least two centuries, and indeed the United States had planned to build a canal there until it realised it would be cheaper to buy out and finish the then under construction French canal in Panama.

Since I have in-laws there I’m predisposed to find news out of Nicaragua more interesting than most, but even taking that into account this is still pretty cool.

Back before the Panama Canal was built Nicaragua was actually one of the best ways to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific on account of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, which allow you to make most of the journey by water:

The Accessory Transit Company was a company set up by Cornelius Vanderbilt and others during the California Gold Rush in the 1850s, to transport would-be prospectors from the east coast of the United States to the west coast.

At the time, an overland journey across the US was an arduous undertaking and could last many weeks. The Accessory Transit Company instead took passengers by steamer from New York to San Juan del Norte on the Caribbean or Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. From there, they traveled up the Rio San Juan to Lake Nicaragua, crossing the lake to the town of Rivas. A stagecoach then crossed the narrow isthmus to San Juan del Sur, where another steamer traveled to San Francisco.

The ATC provided the cheapest route to California from the east coast, and was soon carrying 2,000 passengers a month at a fare of $300 each, later reduced to $150.

Mark Twain famously made the journey when he went from San Francisco to New York in 1866.

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if they can pull this off. I guess Nicaragua’s the next Costa Rica and the next Panama?