I have, like a lot of people, been taking a good hard look at my fuel consumption and cost for my car. I drive a 2001 Nissan Xterra on my daily 30 mile round-trip commute. This vehicle also serves as the tow vehicle for my boat. My current gas mileage in the Nissan is ranging between 15 and 18 MPG. Over the past couple of months, I've been exploring various options to help reduce costs. I've looked at swapping cars with my wife (Chevrolet Venture), getting a smaller commuter car, and a motorcycle. [more] My wife's commute is slightly shorter than mine, but she encounters much more traffic than I do. So trading would provide no net gain. A smaller car would lower fuel costs, but the fact that I need to maintain the Xterra for a tow vehicle, simply adds to overall costs due to insurance. Lastly is the …keep reading …
You are a Grown Up when?
How do you know when you are “grown up”? Is it when you turn 18? Is it when you buy your first house? I don’t think so. To me being grown up is that point when you make the best decisions for well-being of your family, not what appear to be best to others. It is that point when you ask and truly listen to the advice of your peers. It is that point when you realize your children’s lives are more important than your own. It is that point when you choose sacrifice over comfort. It is that point when others are able to learn from your mistakes, because you let them.
Be Prepared – Backup your Wallet
While spending the day with my family at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park a few years ago, my bag which contained my wallet was stolen. I learned a few lessons that day: first, spend the few dollars on the locker, and second, Disney is THE PLACE to have your wallet stolen (I'll explain the later in another post). [more] From the time the bag was taken, to when I noticed it, was not more than 45 minutes. So with the help of Disney security and the Orange County Sheriffs Office I was able to file a police report and call to cancel all of my cards in rather short order (or so I thought). The Disney personnel did everything they could to help me figure out phone numbers to all of the credit cards that I had in my wallet, that I remembered, but in the back of my wallet, …keep reading …
$25 Week Challenge – My Plan
The week of September 22-28, the eight executive directors of the Illinois Food Bank Association, participated in a $25 Challenge to illustrate the difficulty in living off of what the average person on Food Stamps receives from the system. You can read about their struggles at http://25challenge.blogspot.com/. After reading about it, I decided to see if I could design a meal plan to stay under the $25 cap. Since I couldn't convince Jennifer to try it for real, this will just be a exercise on paper. [more] So tonight, I did a quick walk through in the local Dollar Tree, just to illustrate how I would do this. Personal Experience During my "dark days" in the early 1990s, this $25 challenge was more than a challenge, it was a reality. It was a daily struggle to find a dinner that would cost less than a dollar or two. There were …keep reading …