Great Ways to Save Big!!!

Don't play the lottery. Just don't do it. You might as well flush your dollars down the toilet. Save $50-$250 a year. Cancel cable TV premium channels. You know they are a big money waster. Save $200 a year. Going out to dinner once a month instead of twice can save at least $500 a year. You know you've been eating out too much lately when your child says "Mom, why is the oven door hot?"

Instead of buying expensive bottled water, use a water filtration system such as one from Brita or Pur. It turns your free tap water into the same pure water you're buying at the store. Evian spring water, by comparison, costs $21.19 a gallon. And you thought gasoline is expensive! I'm saving $250 a year. Eat less red meat. Pasta and chicken are inexpensive and better for you. Three meatless meals a week will save your family over $500 a year. Break the McDonald's / Pizza-Hut / Taco-Bell / Kentucky-Fried Chicken habit. My family was spending over $40 a week, which was over $2,000 a year. If you have a $3.00 a day Starbuck's habit like I did, cut it down to 4 days a week. Save $500 a year. Bring a sack lunch to work. Are you paying $5.00 for a deli sandwich? That's throwing away over $1,000 a year. When shopping for the sack lunch or the kid's lunches, those individually packed snacks and drinks look so convenient. Buy juice in bulk and use a thermos. Buy fruit and cheese in bulk, and use your Tupperware. Snack-size chips cost twice as much as filling a plastic bag from a big bag of chips. You get the idea. Save hundreds of dollars a year. If you smoke, you are blowing $1,500 a year on cigarettes, and paying double for health care over your lifetime than the average non-smoker. Kick the habit and your car, health and life insurance will be cheaper too. Every night, put all the change and dollar bills from your pocket or purse into a change jar (do they still make piggy banks?). Save maybe $1,000 a year. Popcorn is a very healthy and inexpensive snack. Not the microwave kind smothered in butter at a dollar a bag. Get a hot air popper and use the $1.50 a pound bags of corn. It's as fast as a microwave and uses less electricity. My family saves $300 a year on snacks. Save on gas. Drive smart, keep your speed down. Leave extra room between you and the car ahead of you. Smooth, lawful- speed driving will save you at least 3 mpg. Besides saving $200 a year in gasoline, there will be less wear and tear on your tires and brakes, and less chance of an accident or tickets causing higher insurance rates. There is probably no bigger waste of money than payments on your credit cards. Interest on your cards should not be part of your cost of living. If you have to charge it, you probably can't afford it. Hey, your credit cards don't get up in the middle of the night and go shopping all by themselves.

*Smart Ways to Save on Gas*

By Earl Swift, PARADE Magazine

With gas hovering at $4 a gallon, a year of weekly, 20-gallon fill-ups now drains $2000 more from your wallet than just four years ago. Here are a few tips to help you squeeze more miles out of every tank


DRIVE INTELLIGENTLY

Avoid aggressive driving. "Drive as if you had a hard-boiled egg between your foot and the gas pedal," says John H. Davis, host of PBS's MotorWeek. "It's OK to break the eggshell, but you can't squash it." By observing speed limits and avoiding abrupt starts and stops, you can increase mileage by 5% on city streets and up to 33% on the highway — that's $27 per 20-gallon fill-up.

Control your speed. Using cruise control automatically reduces the amount of fuel you burn on the highway. When you set your speed, keep in mind that gas mileage decreases dramatically when you exceed 60 mph. Stick to the right lane, and you can reduce your fuel consumption by up to 20%.

Lighten your load. An extra 100 pounds of weight reduces mileage by as much as 2%, the equivalent of 8 cents per gallon. In other words, you can save up to $50 per year simply by cleaning out your trunk.

Don't idle. If traffic is at a standstill, turn off the engine. An hour of idling can swallow a gallon of gas. Also, avoid long lines at drive-through windows. You'll save money by going inside.

GET YOUR CAR IN SHAPE

Tune up. Keep your spark plugs clean, your engine tuned, and your wheels aligned. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve your gas mileage by 10%, saving up to 40 cents per gallon. Ignore the hype about additives — from chemical mixes to mothballs — that claim to boost mileage. They're not worth the money and may even damage your engine.

Use the right motor oil. If the oil is too thick, your engine will have to work harder — burning more fuel. If it's too thin, you won't get the needed protection. Stick with the type recommended by your owner's manual for maximum fuel efficiency.

Take care of your tires. Keep tires inflated to the pressure recommended in your owner's manual. Soft tires use more gas, but overinflating your tires (as some mileage fanatics suggest) will mess with your car's handling.

If you have two cars, use the one with better gas mileage. If you drive 12,500 miles a year, switching half of your trips from a car that gets 20 mpg to one that gets 30 mpg can save more than $400.

CHEAT THE WIND

Roll up your windows. It may seem odd, but you'll get better summer mileage by cranking the A/C on the highway, since open windows create drag at high speeds. (If you're just running errands around town, fresh air is best.)

Maintain a sleek profile. Avoid accessories like luggage racks, which increase drag, and keep your tailgate upright. Fix any dents, especially to the front of the car. A high-gloss finish won't help your mileage much, but keeping the body straight will.

DELIVERING GAS SAVINGS

UPS squeezes every last drop of mileage from its fleet of 94,000 vehicles, saving 3 million gallons of gas a year. Some expert tips:

Plan ahead. Map out the most efficient routes and make single stops for multiple tasks in the same area. "Do all your work in one trip," says Jack Levis of UPS, "and time your trips so you don't run into congestion."

Keep moving. "Left turns waste time and energy," says UPS spokesperson Donna Barrett — you don't want the engine idling at a green light while you wait for oncoming traffic to pass. When you do make a planned stop, turn off the engine.

Happy 4th of July!

Me, my husband and my daughter went with my Aunt & Uncle to their annual family reunion today! It was great to be able to spend time with them, they are truly a huge blessing in our lives.

They let us ride with them on the 45 minute journey to the reunion. I'm very frugal, so by me not driving all the way there was a true blessing. Plus, they don't mind, I think they liked the company.

It was very hot today! So, my uncle had the car AC on full blast. Most of the journey was via the interstate, but when he had to exit, he had to go down a lot of side roads. In total for the entire journey, he must have used 1/4 of a tank of gas. For his size car, which is just a tiny bit bigger than mine, the gas for 1/4 of a tank of gas is easily $17. It doesn't seem like that much, but it is.

When I think back to how much gas was just a year ago, the cost of 1/4 of a tank of gas was around $12.50. That is a huge increase in just one year. By my calculations, I personally am paying around $1,000 more a year just to fill my tank. That is a huge increase, but is the population really seeing how this is or will affect your income? My $1,000 increase is probably on the low scale of the "normal" driver's increase. I don't drive that much and normally only fill my tank up four times a month. So, say I was one of my past co-workers that had to fill up their tanks three times a week, because they live a lot further away from their job than I do. That is twelve times a month. Their increase would be around $3,000 more a year just to fill up their tank. THAT IS HUGE!!!!

So, I hear on the news the other day that the gas prices may go up to $7 per gallon????? Did anyone else hear this? Who has that kind of money for gas? It would probably be cheaper for most of us to just find a job close to where we live, even if it means taking a huge pay cut. Because after paying for all of that gas, we have to determine if our job is worth it.

A few things I have heard of people doing, to cut back on gas, is some are getting cheap motorcycles (which I do not know how to ride), and some are selling their homes and moving closer to their job by renting.

So, if anyone is actually reading this blog, do you have any tips you would like to share on how to save gas? Or, if you have another tip, please do share.