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Ten Tips To Save On Gasoline
By Jeffrey Strain
Gas prices continue to be near all time highs meaning that car travel is taking a a larger portion out of each of your paychecks. AAA estimates that the cost of driving a car including all direct and indirect costs has surpassed 50 cents a gallon with that price expected to rise. Reducing the cost of driving your car can be done fairly easy simply by paying a bit more attention to your car. Here are 10 easy ways to cut the amount of gas your car uses:
1. Purchase your gasoline when it's coolest outside such as in the early morning or at night. Gas becomes denser in cooler temperatures. Since gas pumps only measure the volume of fuel - and not the density - you'll get better overall gas mileage for your money by purchasing fuel when it's cool outside rather than in the heat of the day.
2. Religiously check your car's tire pressure each month (make sure to purchase a good-quality dial-type gauge for yourself -- pencil-style gauges and the ones mounted on the air hose are unreliable according to federal government surveys). Under inflated tires reduce fuel efficiency by 2% for every pound they are under inflated. Under inflation also causes premature tire wear giving your tires a shorter use life.
3. Slow down and drive at the speed limit. Cars use about 20% more fuel driving at 70 miles per hour than they do at 55 miles per hour.
4. Avoid using air conditioning whenever possible. Air conditioning reduces fuel economy by 10% to 20%. Use the air ventilation system instead.
5. Don't drive with open windows when traveling at high speeds. Open windows on the highway can reduce fuel efficiency by 10%. It's much better to use the ventilation system.
6. Remove car racks and other items which make your car less aerodynamic when they're not being used. Leaving them on only makes your car less fuel efficient and costs you money.
7. There is no need to let your car idle. Even on cold mornings, cars don't need to idle more than 30 seconds. Newer cars are designed to be driven almost immediately and letting your car idle longer is a waste of gas.
8. It's more efficient to turn off your car and turn it on again than to let it idle for more than 45 seconds while waiting.
9. Remove all the excess weight from your car. Many people use their car trunk as a storage space adding unneeded pounds to the car's weight. This unnecessary weight reduces the car's fuel efficiency by about 1% for every 100 lbs.
10. For most cars, higher octane gas is simply a waste of money. Regular unleaded (approx. 87 octane or so) is the least expensive and what you should purchase. It's important to remember that octane is a measurement of how hard it is to ignite the gas, not the quality of the gas. Purchase mid or high octane gas only if your engine pings, knocks or rattles when using regular unleaded fuel.
About the author: Copyright (c) Jeffrey Strain. He is owner of www.paidtodriveautowrap .com - a website dedicated to telling you the truth on why getting paid to drive a car isn't as easy as many make it out to be.
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New Year's Resolution: Saving Money Did you recently make a "New Year's Resolutions" to start saving more of your money in 2004? How's it been going with that goal so far? Written by Gregory Thomas, editor of http://www.SavingSecrets.com - Effective money saving tips, articles, newsletters, and ebooks all accessible directly at our website. Stop by and see what's available to you: http://www.SavingSecrets.com |
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Cut Your Grocery Expenses In Half
by Gena Everhart
If you’re like me, you constantly look for ways to cut your grocery expenses. I’m going to give you some ideas which will cut your grocery expenses in half.
B1G1F – This stands for buy one get one free and it’s the hottest thing going in the lure of advertising for grocery stores at the moment. You should take advantage of these special offers by doing the following homework before buying one of these ‘specials’. Make sure it’s really a good deal – some grocery store chains hike the price up to recover their money on the ‘free’ item. Keep a price comparison book with good sale prices for common items that you buy all the time – this way, you’ll know before you ever set foot in the store if the sale prices are good ones or not. Use your coupons on the B1G1F items. Even if the price has been increased for this ‘sale’, you still may be able to come out ahead by using your cents off coupons. Remember – if you have two coupons for 50 cents off each box of Cheerios and the store is having a B1G1F on Cheerios, you can use BOTH coupons. This reduces the price you pay even more.
The Best Coupons – Did you know that the best coupons with the best expiration dates or even no expiration dates come directly from manufacturers? I’m here to tell you – they do. How do you get these coupons? Pick up a bottle of shampoo in your home. Not a generic brand but a name brand. Look at the bottom of the back label. You will find a distributor or manufacturer’s name, address and/or 1-800 number. Do you like the shampoo? What do you like about it? (or dislike?) Call the manufacturer at the 1-800 number and ask for customer service. Offer your comments. Most of the time, the manufacturer will thank you and will ask you for your name and address. They will then send you – coupons! Often, these coupons have no expiration date and are even for FREE product. I used a name brand hair color because they stopped making the color I had been using. I was VERY dissatisfied with the color results. The color product itself produced wonderful body and beautiful color results – it was just the wrong color for me! I called the company and explained my situation. They offered some suggestions on what to do to correct the color then got my name and address. They followed up by sending me $10 worth of coupons for ANY type of product they make completely FREE. That’s worth the time it took to call. This is not just for personal care or beauty products either. You can offer comments on foods your family likes/dislikes, etc.
The Dollar Store – Dollar stores have popped up everywhere. It takes a bit of shopping around to find one you like but it’s well worth the time it takes. I don’t use these stores for everything but have found that they are splendid places to shop for housewares, household cleansers, notepads, pens and pencils, candles and even candy for the occasional treats for your children. Investigate these stores and use your price books to compare for yourself.
Bakery Thrift Stores – These stores have also appeared in most towns and cities. Some small cities even have more than one. My local bakery thrift store sells short loaves of day old bread for 39 cents and long loaves for 3 for $1.49. That beats the grocery store prices by a long shot. I usually make a trip to the bread store once every two weeks to buy bread, rolls, and even donuts for my family for a two week period. I bring them home and pop them into the freezer to be used as needed. Great savings are at these stores – try it.
Dilute Cleansers and Personal Care Items – This does not work for every product in your home. You must experiment and decide which products can be diluted. I have found that some shampoos, hand soaps, facial cleansers, shower and bath gels as well as cleansers are just as effective if diluted up to one-third with water – but some are not. The thicker products usually produce the best results using this dilution method because they are so concentrated. If I don’t make my own cleansers, I usually buy two types of liquid cleanser in it’s concentrated form – a good de-greaser product and a sanitizing cleanser. I dilute them according to directions and use in a spray bottle. It’s much cheaper than buying already diluted products.
Make Your Own – I have made it a personal goal to learn to make or re-use items this year. So far, I have made my own mouthwash using vodka, water, peppermint oil or flavoring and a little food coloring; my own hand soap for all types of uses (see my other articles for further instructions); my own household cleansers; new bars of soap from small leftover slivers of soap; mixed my own shampoo and conditioner combination and my own aromatherapy items. The library and the internet are great places to look for ways to make your own everything. Take a look at some of my other articles for instructions for some of these make your own items.
Office and Computer Supplies – Don’t necessarily think of the local office supply store as your first stop for these items. Consider your local supercenter instead. Many times you can combine your trips for groceries with picking up items you need in the office supply area to save money on running all over the place.
Laundry Products – Again, make your own laundry detergent. It works just as well as all that perfume, water and coloring you pay for along with the fancy packaging. If you use dryer sheets, tear them in half. They work just as well.
Paper Goods – Consider locating an industrial or janitorial supply outlet to buy your paper goods from. You may have to travel a little to do this so make your trips count. Stock up and store these wherever you have room – under the bed, in the attic, in a closet.
Overstock and Scratch and Dent Shopping – Follow the same advice here as given above in the dollar store section. Sometimes you can get some really good deals at these stores but be careful, sometimes you can get just what you pay for! Refer to your price book often and examine the quality of the item you are considering. I have personally found our local overstock store a great place to buy kid’s toys and games, some household cleansers and pet products, housewares and even socks.
I hope you will try these ideas to cut your grocery expenses in half. You really can do it! I know this method isn’t for everyone because it does take time to investigate these resources and shop them regularly, but if you do, I believe you will find that you will be rewarded by keeping more money in your pocketbook.
For more money-saving ideas and organizing tips, please visit my web site at http://genaeverhart.homestead.com
An Emergency Fund: Your First Line Of Defense
by David Berky
Downsizing, rightsizing, forced retirement, layoffs, firings, outsourcing, and being made redundant.
All could mean the same thing to you: financial catastrophe.
No, you may not have to declare bankruptcy or move back in with your parents, but losing your job could put a big dent in your financial goals and even set you back several years. You may need to live on your savings or liquidate some of your investments.
If you have no savings or investments you may have to rely on credit cards and could rack up significant credit card debt. Then when you find a new job, your expenses may have increased because of the additional credit card payments.
And the job you eventually find may not pay as much as the one you lost. So you are now forced to live on less while your expenses have either continued at the same level or even gone up.
Studies show that the average worker will have six career changes in his or her lifetime. Not just job changes, but career changes.
So how can you prepare for your own financial "downtime"?
An emergency fund.
An emergency fund is really just savings. But it is not savings for a particular item or even an investment for your future or your retirement. It is your "rainy-day" fund. But unlike insurance where once you pay your premium, the money is out of your hands, your emergency fund is yours to keep.
So how much do you need? How can you build your emergency fund? And where should you keep the money?
The easiest way to figure out how large your emergency fund should be is to take your current income and multiply it by the number of months you could be out of work. If you make $3,000 each month and you want to be prepared for a 6 month "vacation", you will need $18,000.
But obviously saving $18,000 will take some time. How quickly you want to build your emergency fund depends on how concerned you may be about your current and future employment prospects.
Saving $100 each month will take you 180 months or 15 years. Saving more each month means you will be protected sooner. Also consider that during the next 15 years your income may increase and your expenses usually rise to match your income.
Also consider inflation. (If you own your home, your house payment may not rise. If you are renting, your rent probably will.) The cost of food, utilities and taxes also rise over the years. At a 3% inflation rate after 15 years your $18,000 will only buy $11,400 worth of goods.
A good rule of thumb for saving is to try to save enough each year to supply you with one month's income. This means you are saving 1/12 or 8.3% of your monthly income.
This will allow you to build your emergency fund by one month every year. After only six years you will have a six-month supply of emergency cash. Then you can continue to extend your "coverage-period" or you can divert the monthly payment into other savings or investments.
Most people find that "billing" themselves for savings and investments is a good way to put your savings on auto-pilot. If an amount is taken automatically from your bank account each month, it is easier to handle than if you wait until the end of the month and try to save from what you have left over. (How often do you have anything left over?)
So where is the best place to keep your emergency fund? Probably not a place where you can have easy access to it - too tempting. Definitely not as cash in the cookie jar - too unsafe (and no interest). And probably not in 5 year CDs - too restrictive. You may want to avoid CDs altogether so that you are not charged an early withdrawal penalty when you can least afford it.
Savings accounts are OK, but usually pay very little interest. If a savings account is your choice, open one at a bank that you don't regularly use. Also don't get a checking account to avoid the temptation to spend "just a little" bit here and there.
Or look for a money market account that pays a reasonable interest rate. You may want to consider a money market account that only invests in tax-free securities. This way you won't have to worry about paying taxes on your interest.
Then set up an auto-withdrawal from your regular checking account or direct deposit amount from your pay check right into this new account. Adjust your budget to accommodate having less money each month and forget about it.
You can also give your emergency fund a boost now and then by putting "windfall" money into to it. You know "free-money"; birthday gifts, inheritances, insurance settlements, escrow overages, rebates, tax refunds, etc.
Your emergency fund becomes your own financial insurance policy. And if you never use it you will have that much more money to play with when you retire. Or even retire early with the extra money you have saved.
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© Simple Joe, Inc.
David Berky is president of Simple Joe, Inc. a marketing company that sells simple software under the brand name of Simple Joe. One of Simple Joe's best selling products is Simple Joe's Money Tools - a collection of 14 personal finance and investment calculators. This article may be freely distributed so long as the copyright, author's information and an active link (where possible) are included.
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