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Hill Country Blog

There are as many experiences as there are people living here. This is our story, about our special places, activities and taking life day by day. See more stories to the right in our Blog Listing.

Saving money in this economy

Here are the things our family has done to fight high oil prices and growing grocery bills. So tighten up your belt and read through my list. Hopefully you'll discover a tip that you hadn't thought of yet. If you have other tips that aren't on the list, send them to me and I'll ad them to the list.

• Put down those car keys and have the kids ride the bus - to school and back home.
• Make friends with neighbors who have kids and set up carpooling for after school activities when possible. Of course, this assumes you like your neighbors and their kids -- from past experience, I know this can be difficult.
• Buy 5-gal plastic buckets with lids at the hardware store, wash them with soapy water, rinse well and let them dry completely. Go to Sam's Place or Costco, buy the big bags of flour, sugar, rice, and brown sugar and fill your buckets. Store in a cool pantry.
• Make friends with your neighbor that raises chickens. Chickens generally lay an egg each every day. If your neighbor has more than four chickens, there's no way they can use all of those eggs. Help take the excess off their hands.
• If your neighbor doesn't graciously accept your offer to unload her excess eggs, consider having your own chicken coop. Sunset Magazine did an awesome article in a recent issue on everything you need to know to raise chickens.
• This one is so obvious, but I'm always surprised at how many people don't plan ahead. So here it is, PLAN AHEAD. Combine your errands.
• Make a menu each weekend and do all of your shopping for the week on one day. In our house, whatever we run out of or failed to put on the list doesn't get picked up except on our one shopping day a week. I liken it to the once a month trip into town in the "old days."
• Use cash. We just started following this one. My husband and I were going crazy with the credit cards to the point that we were spending hundreds of dollars a month on incidentals, like lattes, slushies at Sonic, burgers on the run, Gatorade's at the market because we failed to pack water, a magazine here, a plant there and a case of beer for good measure. I'm a bit of a budget hard-ass, so we're on a $150 budget each. This is money that we can spend on whatever we want and anything we need. Lunch out, a new pair of shoes, an overpriced coffee at Starbucks. It's amazing how frugal I've become now that I'm spending my own money...funny because it was my money before. CASH makes a difference and so does a set limit.
• Glide up to yellow and red lights. I'm amazed at how many people zoom up, full-speed to the light, then apply brakes, come to a full-stop and then accelerate hard when the light turns green. Be smart. Make it a game. See if you can time your arrival at a red light so you never have to apply your brakes but are able to continue on through. You will be astonished at how much fuel you will save. My Acura MDX (SUV) used to average 17-18 MPG, but since I've been consciously following this way of driving, my MPG has shot up to over 20 MPG. If I don't allow my husband to drive the car, I can hit and maintain 22 MPG on average. And in case I need to say it, "Stop tailgating me!" The constant breaking and acceleration to stay on my ass is ruining your fuel efficiency. Plus it makes me really pissy. You've got to check out this new wave of hyper-milers for more tips.