Image: alamosbasement

When it comes to saving, sometimes starting small feels almost like not starting at all. A bit here and a bit there tends to add up like drops in a bucket. The important thing to remember though when it comes to saving money is that those drops can eventually grow to a trickle, then to a stream, then a torrential current of cash.

Using small ways to save is similar to the bundle of sticks story – remember the one that starts with the man easily breaking a single stick. Then he snaps two, even three sticks together. But when given an entire bundle of sticks, he finds it is virtually unbendable, let alone breakable. It’s much the same with small savings techniques. Many, seemingly inconsequential savings methods bundled together can significantly grow your nest egg to immense proportions.

1. Get rewarded for spending on a credit card

It might seem odd to begin an article on ways to save with a topic like credit cards. With interest rates often ranging anywhere from 10-20% percent (unless you get a zero balance transfer credit card), credit cards can be the arch nemesis to a savings plan, but only if you let them. First, you must ensure you pay off your balance each month to avoid those hyper-inflated interest rates. Second, get a credit card that offers cash back, store discounts, or other rewards and incentives, so that when you do spend, you also save.

2. Take advantage of balance transfer cards

If you are carrying a credit card debt then it will definitely be beneficial for you to transfer your credit card balance between cards, which will allow you to avoid paying the sizeable interest rate on a balance. Making such a move with your debt, say from a card with a balance of $1,000 and a 15% interest rate, to a card with an significantly lower or introductory 0% rate, can save you hundreds of dollars, if not more depending on the time it takes to pay off your balance.

3. Coupons will save you money

What if you saw a dollar bill taped inside the Sunday newspaper? Would you take it? Of course you would. Yet, there is a missing sense of urgency among many of us when it comes to coupons, which are essentially the same as cash. Certainly not all coupons are money savers, especially if they are used on particular name brand products that are more expensive than their generic competitors, but if you comparison shop and know a deal when you see one, coupons can turn small savings into big cash.

4. Start to save your spare change

Hey, if it worked when you were seven, it might just work when you’re thirty-seven. Hauling all that change to the bank to be turned in is often a big enough deterrent to make most people leave the jar where it is. Moreover, while all that change probably doesn’t look like much, you might be surprised how much cash you get when you eventually turn it in.

5. Save tax-free with government bonds

Putting money into government issued savings bonds can be a great way to save. These investment vehicles offer a low initial investment ($25 is the minimum E-series buy in), a secure way to save, and guaranteed (albeit sometimes low) returns. Taxes on U.S. government savings bond interest can also be deferred until the time the bond is cashed, allowing your investment to grow for up to 30 years tax-free, and if used for educational purposes might be tax-free altogether.

6. Set up a monthly direct deposit to a savings account

Direct deposit can be a small saver’s best friend. Diverting a portion of your paycheck, even if it’s only $20 each pay period, to a separate account, can add up to big savings over the years. That $20 deposit every two weeks is $520 a year, $5,200 after ten years, and that’s before you add any interest earned on the account.

7. Payroll deductions

Having certain items removed from your paycheck before you are paid is a small way to earn some big savings. Using deductions for an employer sponsored health plan, retirement account, or savings plan, can be a wonderful way to save without really noticing the loss of money. Not only are you stashing cash, but some of these deductions are pre-tax, saving you even more, especially over the long run.

8. Avoid taxes to increase your savings

There is a big difference between evading taxes and just avoiding them for a while. As we’ve already seen, everything from savings bond interest to certain payroll-deducted items can be tax deferred. Avoiding taxes will allow a larger portion of your money to grow, increasing your savings over time, and delaying the cost of taxes for years – sometimes indefinitely. When buying products or considering retirement, it is also important to consider sales and property tax rates since they can range widely depending on cities, counties, states, or regions.

9. Let your savings save

Once you’ve managed to start saving, let your stash work for you. Compound interest, dividends, and similar returns on investments can grow you’re money without you having to lift a finger. While sometimes the returns are small, over time, they can grow exponentially, and who can deny that free money, no matter how little, is nice to get.

10. Liquidating leftovers

Few people realize just how much money they have in their home, either in the form of books, CDs, DVDs, antiques, or other household items. Strip mall stores, resale shops, and a growing number of internet sites offer to purchase specific items such as textbooks, CDs, DVDs, and more. These businesses have made selling personal items a lucrative source of income for many. Reselling such belongings can be a great way to turn your unused items into cash.

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About the author

Kris is a personal finance writer who blogs about money management techniques for an Australian comparison website where you can compare credit cards such as cashback credit cards that actually help you make your money go further.

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I personally believe that Cash for Clunkers was a mistake . . . you might disagree  and you are welcome to your opinion – it’s a free country! (at the moment) If you do happen to believe that incentivizing consumer deficit spending through the use of government debt is a good idea, you will be happy to know that the next big thing is on the way this fall: Cash for Refrigerators. The government has set aside about $300 million for states to use to give out rebates to buyers of energy-efficient appliances like freezers, refrigerators, furnaces and central air conditioners.

The details of the program are still taking shape, but the hope is that the program will jumpstart the sale of energy efficient appliances.  Sales for household appliances are at their lowest level ever and there seems to be no signs of recovery. The stock prices for appliance companies like General Electric, Electrolux and Whirlpool have seen a small jump as news of the program has started to trickle out, however, I believe it is unlikely that there will be any sustained growth in this sector. (FYI: I am not an investment advisor and anyone who would make a a stock purchase because of something I write on this blog needs their head examined.)

Here are some of the details that I have uncovered in my research:

• States are responsible for deciding how to specifically spend the money.
• The amount of funding is roughly equal to $1 per person, so more populous states will get more funding.
• Refunds will range from $50 per appliance up to $200 per appliance.
• Most sources estimate that the rebates will begin to become available in late October or November.
• You can get more information from the Department of Energy website.

If you are already considering the purchase of an energy efficient appliance in the near future, you might want to wait until the details of the plan become available for your state in October or November.

So what I do I really think about this program? Well, I do not want to upset anyone who reads this blog, but here are a few questions/statements that I think are relevant:

• This is money that the government does not have, but it will have to take from us (or our children) at a later date. It must be repayed with interest.
• What happens when the $300 million runs out? Appliance sales will probably drop even further than they have over the last year.
• What happens when people who have a perfectly good refrigerator, but decide to go out and put a new fridge on the credit card because of a government rebate? Is the addition of more debt to their household a good idea right now?
• Remember that there are administrative costs to any program like this. How much money is the government spending in order to send all of us $300 million that belongs to us in the first place?
• When will our government give us incentives to save money?

The Smiths have an older washing machine and could save up to $80 in yearly energy costs by purchasing a new Energy Star model. So they go to Sears and find a new washer for around $700. The state rebate on this machine is $100, so they finance the rest with an in-store credit card at 10% APR. The Smiths will take three years to pay off the remaining balance. The total cost of the new machine for that family will be approximately $650. Over the three years, they will save about $80 in energy costs. So they spend $650 to save $240. If the machine lasts eight years, they will have broken even.

But that is not the whole story.

Our government is now another $100 in the red and it cost them another five bucks (estimated) to process the paperwork and reimburse the retail outlet. This money adds to our debt and the interest rate on our national debt is around 5%. Eventually, Congress will have to raise taxes on the Smiths in order to finance the $105 and since our government never pays down principle, the Smith’s, their children, their children’s children and on into perpetuity will have to pay a extra $5.25 in taxes every year. Of course, this does not take into account the inevitable rise in inflation due to the devaluation of the dollar.

Now I am not an economist any more than I am an investment advisor. I am just trying to do the math. If you understand this scenario in a different way, feel free to nicely explain where I went wrong! And if you can get a new appliance for $50 or $100 or $200 less than the asking price, I do not fault you for taking advantage, but make sure you understand what you are doing.

Photo by Ingorr

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I decided to share a few of my tricks to save money. Since my wife stays at home with our two kids, we must be careful with our spending and make sure we make savvy purchases.

We have lived together for the past 10 years. When we first started, we got all our furniture from friends and family. Absolutely nothing was new. While it was great 10 years ago, second hand furniture still has a maximum life expectancy! Recently, we had to buy a new bed for us (my mattress and my bed was 30 year old!) and another one for Amy (she just turned 2 so it was time for her to move up, into a real bed).

I always found there is a very thin line between wasting money away on goods and treating one’s self to something you really like. I must admit, I am not the model of frugality. I try to not waste money on emotional purchases and I also like really nice stuff. This is the internal fight between the angel of saving and the devil of spending… I have a strange feeling this will last forever!

Since we plan to keep our bed for another 20 years and Amy will probably keep hers for a good 10 years, we decided to look for brand new furniture.

How can you save money on brand new goods? Use your Network!

In this specific case, it was quite easy for me to buy cheap furniture as my sister-in-law works in a big furniture store. She gave me the “family discount” which was cost + 10%. Since she is working for a family owned company (not hers), they encourage their employees to refer their families with this huge discount.

One of my colleagues at work benefited from the very same trick (using her network). She was building a new house and needed new furniture. I had suggested that she take a look at this store and they gave her an additional discount since she was referred by someone “from the family”. Since I believe in helping others, I always try to introduce people I know to my network.

I always ask people what they do for a living. I ask pretty much everybody I encounter. More often than not, I even ask them what others in their family do as well. Occupational hazard I guess, comes from my day job (financial planner), it’s still a great way to learn about others and open your network of contacts. Usually people like to talk about themselves and their friends & family. On top of that, they love when their connections can help others. As such, I am never afraid to ask if I can call one of their friends for advice or to buy goods…

By using my network:

- I buy meat from a local butcher that is a my father’s friend. The meat is less expensive and tastes a lot better than what is found at the grocery store!

- I bought the ceramic for my new bathroom from a small shop owner who worked with my brother-in-law.

- The guy that did the renovations in my basement was a friend of a friend. Great job, cheap price (he did the electrical work as well!)

- I get suits half price from a co-worker I trained a few months ago.

- I did an amazing landscaping job for the front of my house and it cost me nothing! People we know gave us the plants, trees and flowers we used.

- I get a cheap price for a condo in France from one of my client’s mother for my future vacation (I still have to pay for it because of potential conflict of interest).

- I got flowers for my wedding at half the price as the sister of my wife’s colleague studied to be florist back then.

There are so many ways you can save when you are dealing with friends and their connections. They say that an individual has more than 100 friends/family members that he talks with on a regular basis. Therefore, if you talk to your 100 connections and they talk to their 100 connections and their connections do the same thing… you are building a saving network of infinite possibilities!

I was blessed to benefit from my father’s network to start mine. He is actually the master of networking. He talks to absolutely everybody he meets. The funniest part is that he does it naturally and as a result, makes friends. He just has a big mouth and loves to talk It turns out that people in general are more than willing to help and always find solutions for him when he talks about something he would like to do or buy… So don’t talk to people with a specific interest in the back of your head, just be friendly with as many people as you can and you will be rewarded one way or another.

image source: Luc Legay

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A frugal vacation is almost an oxymoron, but there are some small ways that our family has developed to reduce travel costs. Frankly, my idea of a vacation involves staying home . . . so maybe there is such a thing as a frugal vacation. Anyway, my job and our current financial situation do not allow for traditional vacations in the sense that we go to a particular location for the purpose of relaxation and entertainment. Our vacations merely consist of traveling to see family – we live roughly a thousand miles from both major relative groups – or work related trips. We spend a great deal of time on the road.

Sometimes my job allows me to combine work and play, so I try to book a “job” in a place that my family might like to visit and then take them along. As a result my three children, currently all under the age of seven, have accompanied me on trips to Georgia, Illinois, Florida (Orlando and Miami), Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and South Dakota – all via the road. The longest trip that we have taken as a family involved over thirty hours of driving. One of the worst trips that we ever took involved a four hour traffic stand-still in 20 degrees-below-zero temperatures in the middle of Iowa.

There is no way to really avoid spending money on the road, especially if your trip is long enough to require overnight stays and meals and there are times when traveling with three young children, that we throw frugality out the window and just get whatever will keep the kids quiet . . . admit it, we all have those moments. However, well planned trips can keep costs low. Here are a few suggestions:

Food

Pack snacks that are satisfying and don’t mess up your car. My top three car snacks are baby carrots, string cheese and apples – filling and relatively inexpensive. Take sandwiches in a small cooler for at least one meal during the day. If you pack a good lunch and a few hearty snacks, you can avoid expensive restaurants or fast food for at least two meals.

Visit your local grocery store and splurge before leaving on your trip. The most expensive snacks in your grocery store are far cheaper than anything in the gas station convenience store.

If you must eat out, make sure you carry plenty of coupons. If we have to eat out on the road, we decide where to go, by looking at our coupon folder.

Impulse buying will destroy your traveling food budget.

Have plenty of water with you so that you don’t have to spend money on something that is almost free in your own home.

Gasoline

Glblguy will not like this one, but we use a cash back credit card in order to purchase gasoline on all of our trips. It is the only way we really can save money in this area. The best scenario occurs when my employer reimbuses me for travel expenses. My card gets me 3% cash back on every purchase, when I turn in my receipts, I am reimbursed for the full amount spent. On a $100 gasoline purchase, I make an extra six bucks. Not a huge amount of money, but I’ll take what I can get.

Once again, this blog as a whole is not a “fan” of credit cards – our family has strictly defined budget categories for credit card use and we pay off our balance every month.

I have also found that I get much better gas mileage with higher grade gasoline. This is probably different with every vehicle, but if the price difference between the regular grade and the mid grade gasoline is less than 10% of the regular grade price, I purchase the mid grade. I have found that my vehicle gas mileage improves over 10% with mid grade gas, especially on the freeway.

Hotels

Once again, money spent on hotels is almost never well spent, however, I have a few strategies for keeping costs down in this area:

Purchase your hotel room online as far in advance as possible through an online cash back portal like Ebates or MyPoints. This could save you anywhere from $5 to $25 per night.

Become a member of every hotel chain loyalty club, purchase your room through Priceline or some other discount broker and then make sure that you are credited with a night’s stay through the loyalty program when you check out of the hotel. I keep all of my membership numbers written on a card in my wallet. The catch with loyalty programs is that you become committed to that particular chain, even when they do not offer the best price in town, but if you are a member of several programs, you can simply go for the lowest price. Eventually you will start to earn free stays.

If we are not certain how far we will be able to travel in a particular day, I get online and write down the phone numbers for several hotels along the route, near where we think we might stop. When we get an hour or so away, we start to call the various properties to see who has the best deal. Sometimes we can talk hotels down in price, sometimes we can play them against each other – especially later in the evening, and sometimes we end up driving an hour or two further in order to get a better deal. Once, when I was on the road by myself, I employed this strategy and discovered that all of the hotels in eastern Nebraska were completely booked. I spent the night, sleeping in the back of my pickup at a rest area in 80 degree temperatures, 100% (at least) humidity and mosquitoes . . . Fortunately, that has not yet happened while my family was along.

We always stay at a place that includes breakfast. For a family of five, a free breakfast can save us a lot of money.

Restroom breaks

All I can say here is, when nature calls, do your best to stop at the highway rest areas, they are typically cleaner and will not tempt your family to purchase overpriced, unhealthy items.

Not-so-frugal travel suggestions:

If you have small children, take special note of large malls with play areas along your route. If your kids really need a break, there is no substitute for a play area at a mall. If you can resist the temptations posed by the stores, food court and coffee shops, so much the better.

The older I get and the more I stay in hotels, the more I value hotel cleanliness. I will often pay an extra $20 to $30 for a hotel room in a chain that I am confident will be clean. Not the most frugal suggestion . . . but if I can avoid cockroaches, greasy bedspreads, and strange hairs in the restroom for twenty-five bucks, I will do it.

By all means, stay alert. You need to figure out your limites, but if you are falling asleep on the road, pull off, get a room or at least spend some money on an energy drink.

Our favorite on-the-road restaurant is Chik-fil-A. Costs a couple of bucks more than the Wendy’s or McDonald’s dollar menu, but it is a smidge healthier and typically much cleaner.

Photo by Toastie14

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I received an email from ING this week making me aware of a new site (or at least new to me) they have called ING Compare Me (www.ingcompareme.com).  The site is basically a tool that allows you to compare your savings and debt against others like you.  To be honest, I’ve never really gotten a great deal of value out of comparing myself to others, but thought I would check it out as it sounded interesting.

ING Compare Me

ING Compare Me basically walks you through a series of questions about your spending, investing, debt, and planning.  Before jumping in though, you have to complete a little profile information so that the tool can compare you to your peers.  Required fields within your profile are: age, gender, household income, and marital status.  Additional optional information such as education, location, number of children, ethnicity, etc can also be entered, but isn’t required.

The tool is done in the traditional high quality and ease of use I’ve come to expect from ING.  It’s very easy to figure out and is just plain “slick”.  I did find some of the questions a little more useful than others.  ING must have recognized this and added a feature in the bottom corner that allows you to rate how useful you found each question.   An example question that I found rather useless is:

After specifying your answer, the tool will show you how other people answered (based on %).  While I found this question to be of no value, I do recognize that there might be others who do.  I’m just not seeing it.  Incidentally, these questions (there are 5 of them) are the lowest ranked questions in the tool.

The end result of the tool is a really nicely formatted PDF report that summarizes your answers.  The report provides suggested next steps for each of the questions that is dependent on the answer you provided.  The report can be used as input into a personal finance plan or to take to a personal finance professional.  The later being the main purpose of the tool.  It seems as if ING is beginning to focus on financial planning services.

Overall it’s an interesting tool for getting a perspective on where you are compared to other people like you.   With that being said, each of us has unique goals and objectives in our lives, so you must remember that just because you are doing as well or better than everyone else doesn’t mean you are on track for your own personal financial goals.

ING Your Number

Another tool that ING has, which I found from the Compare Me report is ING Your Number.  This tool helps you determine the dollar number you’ll need to support your retirement needs.  I found this to also be an excellent tool.

The tool is very interactive, and even includes a rather large actor that comes in and talks you through the process.  I found this a bit annoying, so I selected “Quick Mode” which skips that.  Also, the actor comes in rather quick, and “he” startled me since I wasn’t expected…so you’ve been warned!

I hadn’t really thought through “My Number” in a while, and it turned out to be a little higher than I recalled.  I need to go to the retirement planning I did a few years back and see if I can find the difference.  If you aren’t sure how much you’ll need, ING Your Number is a really quick and what seems to be accurate way of determining your retirement needs.  I’d highly recommend you give it a try and adjust your retirement contributions accordingly.

Have you tried them?  What are your thoughts?  Are you aware of other similar tools like these?  Add a comment!

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Be Smart: Look for Free or Discounted Shipping Deals

There are a number of aggregating shipping deals across multiple retailers. My personal favorite is FreeShipping.org. I like it for a few reasons: it is free and clean. The site provides exhaustive information for you to decide if the offer suits your needs. You can navigate it using the list of categories (to the right), via the merchant brand names (with help of the drop-down menus) and using the search option (it will search by the retailer’s name).

If you are a frequent shopper, you can also subscribe to their mailing list and receive weekly deals to your email box.

Each page dedicated to a separate retailer contains comprehensive information on the deal: the coupon code, expiration date and the conditions to qualify. Note: the site lists free shipping offers without conditions (that is, your purchase will be shipped to you for free no matter what you buy) as well free shipping deals with minimum purchase (your purchase will be delivered for free if your order total is over the set minimum) and free shipping deals on the selected items. Besides the deal details, you will also be able to see the merchant’s official shipping and return policies. Here is the exampe of the retailer’s page – Macy’s coupons:

Be Picky: Let Shipping Providers Bid for Your Package and Choose the One That Fits

UShip is an online auction that “lets customers choose the Transportation Service Provider who will give them the best service at the best price”. You will be able to register there for free and choose the lowest possible price for your package to be delivered. The sign-up process is fast and smooth. Immediately after the sign-up you will be offered to specify the details of your package. You will be able to provide the exhaustive information of it to save time on further discussion with the service provider – you can even upload a photo and add comments.

The auction is eBay-style meaning you can view the service provider’s ratings and reviews and thus avoid any sort of scam.

You can also link your eBay account to your UShip account to get your purchased shipped with ease.

Be Prepared: Estimate Your Shipping Charges Beforehand

Two online calculators will allow you to estimate the shipping cost and also compare it throughout major service providers. One is ShippingSideKick. It compares shipping rates for USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL.

ShipGooder is another one. Transportation services listed include the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, DHL, Purolator, Canada Post and various local couriers. You can choose the table view: to compare either by days or couriers. You are also able to save the report in Excel, print it or email it to a friend:

The guest post by Ann Smarty – check out her SEO Consulting blog or follow her on Twitter.

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I read about a woman who saved her $5 bills for 3 years and saved $12,000! I thought it would be cool to conduct my own experiment & see what I could do for the month of December. Up until this decision, I didn’t use a lot of cash, mostly my debit card, but I had wanted to transition over to cash (for more accountability) anyway, so this was the perfect time. I took out my ‘play’ money at the beginning of December and went on with life.

This ‘play’ money is budgeted every month. I use it for special treats I may want for the office, eating out and other little things I may want or need during the month. More often than not, I would not ‘want’ it so much when it actually came down to buying it. My play money amount is $200 per month.

I can’t tell you how many times I would break a $20 and wait in anticipation to see what I received back. It became the funniest game to me. More often than not, I would get 2 and sometimes 3, $5’s back. I would just laugh and into the envelope they would go. One time, I was going to pick something up at the store & my mom asked me to pick something up for her and handed me 2 fives, LOL. Into the envelope they went! I admit there was a time when I came close to using a $5, but I held fast and did not use it. I decided I did not need the item that bad and stuck to my guns.

At the end of December I counted up my fives and found that I managed to save $65! So I thought I would just keep going. I did not count them at the end of January and I have continued on through today. As of today, I have… $230!!!

An added bonus to saving the $5 bills is I have found that I am totally stingy when it comes to my cash! I have even managed to have extra play money left over each month. I just turn it into the next month’s cash ‘kitty’ so I am always a little ahead in case something drastic comes up.

I am not sure how long I will continue to do this but, it certainly has not been as hard as I though it would be. A few things I could do with the money are:

1. My nephew has a birthday coming up and he has been saving for a Nintendo Wii so I could contribute some to that.
2. I have a friend that is having her first baby and could give some to the new baby for his first savings account.
3. I also know someone that has been out of work and could really use help with bills about now.

I know, I could put it in savings (I have a daily interest savings), but if I can help someone out and/or make them happy, then why not? What would you do?

Thank you so much to GLBL for letting me guest post on his blog. If you haven’t subscribed, you need to. Gather Little by Little is awesome. – Bobbi

From Glblguy: This was a guest post from Bobbi who’s been a reader of Gather Little by Little almost since the beginning.  She and I have exchanged emails off and on and I finally asked her if she would be interested in writing a guest article for me.  Bobbi, you are most welcome and thank you for being such a loyal reader!

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Don’t have a locking gas cap? You just might want to consider getting one. As gas prices are rising, so are the number of reported thefts of gas from people’s cars. Armed with siphon hoses, drills and even weapons, gas thieves are on the hunt for your gas.

MSNBC recently ran a story that told a story about a tanker driver named Bobby Lee Julien whose gas tanker was stolen at gun point. While the tanker was finally recovered, authorities believe the gas in the tanker was destined for the black market.

Drive offs

According to the MSNBC article, the most common way to steal gas is still drive offs at the local convenience store. According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, the average convenience store will lose more than $1000.00 dollars to drive offs this year. Given the profit margins for store owners on gasoline are so low, stores would need to sell 3,000 gallons of gas to offset a single $60.00 drive-off. Stores in high traffic areas often get several drive offs per day.

In order to avoid such losses, most convenience stores are implementing a pay before you pump policy, stores that don’t can expect to loose more than $2000.00 in drive offs this year.

Stealing gas right from your car

People have been stealing gas from cars and vehicles for years, but until recently it was a fairly rare occurrence. Armed with a gas can and a simple siphon hose, stealing gas isn’t difficult. This of course being true only for vehicles that don’t have locking gas caps or gas covers.  Most modern vehicles have a ball valve that serves provides this protection.

As gas prices have gone up, so are the number of occurrences of people getting in their cars to go somewhere only to find their gas tanks empty or even worse their gas tanks empty plus either their locking cover or cap pried off or a hole in their gas tank! Yes, you read that correctly, gas thieves are even arming themselves with drills and drilling holes in gas tanks to steal gas. While incredibly dangerous, this technique is on the rise due to the anti-siphoning devices and many people purchasing locking gas caps.

Thieves are also cutting right into the gas line itself when reachable. A number of police reports have reported thieves cutting the gas lines from the tank to the engine and taking the gas that way. This is another incredibly dangerous technique, but one that is growing in popularity.

Selling and stealing gas straight from the pump

In Baltimore Maryland, convenience store owners discovered their pumps had been rigged by thieves with special master keys. Store owners noticed long lines at particular pumps that didn’t seem to be pumping any gas. One store owner inspected one of his pumps thinking it had a leak, only to find it rigged with a master key.   The key enables the thieves to turn the pump on and off at will.  The key system disables the pump from the stores systems and allow the thief to sell gas from the pump, to the tune of $20 – $40 per tank.  Police say this is rare situation, and most likely a group of professional thieves but still demonstrates the lengths thieves will go to with gas prices soaring like they are.

What can you do?

Authorities suggest taking these precautions to avoid having your gas being stolen:

• Park in a locked garage.
• Park in well lite and traveled areas.
• Park your car in an attended lot.
• Avoid parking in public lots for long periods of time.
• Avoid parking where your fuel door would be obscured by heavy landscaping, isolated corners or high walls.
• Purchase a locking gas cap. $10 is a minimal investment to avoid the risk of have $50 or more of your gas stolen.

I keep my cars parked in our driveway (our garage is full of kid toys). We recently installed two motion sensing lights to discourage people getting near our vehicles.  Both of our vehicles are also equipped with locking gas doors, but I’ve been considering getting the locking gas caps too just to add an extra measure of protection.

What steps are you taking to avoid gas theft? Any unusual stories about gas theft from your neck of the woods? Add a comment!

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Over the weekend I headed to the NC Mountains to spend the weekend with my wife and kids who were already there. While driving up, I really focused on practicing some of the hypermiler techniques I wrote about last week. The main one being going the speed limit. While it did seem to make a big difference on my gas mileage, I literally felt like I was the slowest person on the road.

Numerous cars were exceeding the speed limit and many by a significant amount. This included the big gas guzzling SUVs and trucks. Watching these gas sucking vehicles driving by, I thought to myself: I sure hear a great deal of complaining about the rising cost of gas prices but see little evidence that people are willing to change their driving habits to save some money at the pumps.

According to a recent test performed by Edmunds.com, reducing your speed and driving the speed limit will provide a 12-14% savings. On a $50.00 tank of gas, that’s $6 – $7.

A recent poll conducted by The NDP Group surveyed 43,000 and found that 12% of respondents indicated they’ve canceled their vacation plans for the summer. Another 12% said they are choosing public transportation instead of driving.

While I didn’t conduct any formal survey, it was very obvious to me that when people do drive their cars, they aren’t changing their habits overall. People are still speeding and even tail gate and get irritated at those of us that do drive the speed limit.

Is it that people just aren’t aware of the significant savings or do they just not care? I sure hope they just aren’t aware. If you chose to speed, fine, but just go easy on those of us that are trying to save a little money. Okay?

What are you thoughts? Are you driving slower? Are you seeing people in general drive slower? Add a comment!

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Gas prices are on the rise, and people are getting extremely creative in coming up with ways to get the maximum amount of miles out of each gallon of gas. A rare group called hypermilers modify their driving habits significantly to improve mileage and reduce vehicle emissions. Hypermiling also generally involves driving a hybrid vehicles like the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius.  Two years ago I would have laughed at the whole hypermiling concept, but with gas prices the way they are now, I thought I’d better do a little research and learn more about hypermiling.  Here’s some information about how to be a hypermiler:

The MPG Meter

The first thing you must do to begin hypermiling is to track your gas mileage. The most cost effective way to do that is to manually calculate your gas mileage. The problem with the manual method is you can’t see the real-time impact of how you are driving on your gas mileage. That’s where the MPG meter comes in. Seems most true hypermilers have an MPG Meter.

How to be a hypermiler basics

As I mentioned already, hypermiling is about adjusting the way you drive. While some of the techniques used only apply to hybrid vehicles, most apply to any vehicle, including those gas guzzling SUVs. Here are just a few of the techniques employed by hypermiling experts:

Go the speed limit

While each vehicle has an optimum speed for maximum gas mileage, in general for every 5mph above 55mph you drive, you lose up to 10% of your cars fuel economy.  At 10%, slowing down can save you a great deal of money.  Driving the speed limit is much safer too!

Drive without brakes

Before you decide I’ve gone crazy, let me explain. Driving without brakes (or DWB in hypermiling lingo) is all about minimizing the use of your car’s brakes, but doing so with common sense. The basic principle is to avoid using the brake to take off speed that was achieved through he use of gas. The trick is to anticipate what’s coming down the road. Watch for upcoming lights, stop signs and curves. When you see them, begin to coast as early as possible to avoid using the brakes. In a hybrid, lots of coasting recharges the batteries too, which provides another added advantage.

If you can avoid stopping all together, that’s the best situation to be in as starting your car off from a dead stop consumes a great deal of energy.

Face out parking

When you park, make an effort to face out. I don’t mean backing into the parking place, but park a little further out and pull through the spaces so your car is facing out. This avoids the wasted gas of having to back out when you leave. Better yet, hypermilers will tell you park on a hill or incline so the car is facing down and you can coast out.

Be careful with this one though, as I’ve almost been hit head on a few times pulling through parking places when someone else was pulling in.

Turn off your car and coast

With a hybrid, the car automatically turns off the engine when it’s not needed. This of course isn’t the gas with a standard vehicle. You can however simulate a hybrid by placing your car in neutral, turning off the engine and coasting. Turns out the gas needed to restart the vehicle when you need to is minimal.

Now, this is one of the more risky hypermiling techniques as with the engine off and your car in neutral you have less control of your car and you can’t be as responsive without the engine.

Keep your car maintained

Two important tips here: Keep your oil changed and keep your tires properly inflated. As oil gets older it thickens putting more drain on the engine. Proper tire pressure is important too as it takes a great deal of energy to push around under inflated tires.

Some hypermilers recommend over inflating the tires. I don’t recommend this. You’ll wear your tires our faster and it could be dangerous as your tires won’t have the proper ground contact.

Pick the best route

When picking the route you’ll take, the shortest isn’t always the best. Hypermilers will tell you to pick routes with less stops and lots of downhill grades. You want to avoid stop and go traffic and routes that have large hills to climb.

Avoid idling

Some hypermilers will tell you that if you are sitting in one place for more than 10 seconds, turn your car off. This will save on mileage overtime. Again, restarting consumes very little energy.

These are just a few of the many tricks and techniques hypermilers use. You can find lots more and learn more about how to be a hypermiler by visiting a site called Green Hybrid.

What do you think about these techniques? Are you using any of them? Are you a hypermiler or maybe have an additional tip?  Share your thoughts on how to be a hypermiler!  Add a comment!

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