Beat And Battered

Saving money on gas can be as simple as using gas rewards credit cards and as complicated as moving to a new town.  The price of gas was heavy on my mind yesterday as I filled up the tank after a weekend trip.  I started thinking about the wide range of money saving techniques people use to save on gas, here are some tips I’ve seen in action.

Gas Rebates
Saving on gas with gas rebates is something I’ve talked about before but I have to keep mentioning it. As the price of gas goes up, so do the gas rebates that they’re offering.  Our grocery store was running a special today, take your grocery receipt to the store owned gas station and save 25 cents off each gallon of gas.

These are unadvertised specials but they always seem to happen on Sundays. The gas clerk confirmed this pattern and said this was one of the best deals they’ve ever offered on gas.  So keep an eye on your local grocery chain if any of them have attached gas stations, especially on the weekends.

There was one guy at the gas station who had 6 gas cans in the back of his truck that he filled up before topping off his tank.  At 25 cents discount per gallon he saved a good chunk of change by “pre-buying” his gas.  I struck up a conversation with him in line that leads to the next way to save money on gas.

Gas Credit Cards
The guy with 6 gas cans was actually going to use two different credit cards to pay for the gas he had purchased.  The last time he had tried this approach he’d bought so much gas that he triggered the maximum gas purchase on his credit card.  He came prepared this time with both a Chase Freedom card and an American Express Blue Cash card.

Hey if you’re going to buy that much gas, why not earn some cash back on it? Those are both cards I mentioned in my review of the best gas credit cards to save you money at the pump.  The complexity level of this one is pretty low, simply pay with the gas rewards card and earn cash back.

Fuel Efficient Transportation
While the first two tips were about saving money on the gas you purchase, the next few cover reducing the amount of gas you use.  Several people at my office have started riding the bus to work and that’s cut way back on the gas they use each week.

Another of my co-workers bought a Toyota Prius Hybrid several years back when they first came out.  Most people couldn’t believe he waited 6 months and then paid a premium price for the hybrid car at the time but now they eye the gas mileage enviously.  In fact, his talk of savings talked another guy on his team into buying a Prius Hybrid. Plus the new Prius owner is saving even more money because he started carpooling in addition to having a fuel efficient car.

Working from Home
The next tip is more complex and could involve changing jobs. While it’s not a four day work week a former co-worker of mine took another job that lets him work from home on Wednesdays.  It wasn’t the sole deciding factor in his move but it certainly played a role.  In an even bigger step, one of his buddies is actually switching jobs so that he can tele-commute full time. 

The amount of money they’re saving by cutting out one or all of the commute days each week is substantial. Of course your company may not have these policies in place so you might have to work with your boss to save money on gas.

Moving Closer
The most involved tip I’ve seen in action so far is the strategy of moving closer to your regular driving destination.  My parent’s neighbors were both commuting between two different cities every day.  When gas prices were low it wasn’t a problem but their fuel bill was getting so high they decided to pack up and move. 

One of the people on my team at work drives over a hundred miles round trip to work and back each day.  He spends over $600 a month in gas, which is one of the reasons he’s considering moving out of the boonies and closer into town.

Gas Saving Summary
As I mentioned, each of these approaches requires different levels of changes in your life.  Using gas credit cards  and getting gas rebates is pretty easy while moving everything you own is a much bigger deal.  The nice thing is, it’s a free country so the choice of whether we want to follow some of the gas saving techniques or none of them is up to us.  I’d recommend at least starting small & easy and working your way up to bigger gas saving changes.

Alright, I have to admit I got caught by the 0% interest balance transfer game. We transfered part of loan a while back for about $4,000 on a credit card that had 0% interest for 6 months with no balance transfer fees. Sounded like a great plan since we would have the $4,000 paid off [...]

When forming a plan to eliminate your debt, transferring your credit card balance from a higher interest rate card to one with a lower rate can make your debt repayment move a lot faster. The lower your interest rate, the lower the finance charges and the faster you can pay it off.

There are a lot of 0% and low introductory rate credit card offers out there. If you are like me, you probably receive quite a few of them in the mail each month. However, finding a good card can take a bit of work.

When you are looking for to pay off your debt, time is often quite important. But you should take the time to find the best credit card balance transfer for your financial situation.

Most credit card issuers will offer you a 0% or a very low introductory interest rate on balance transfers. These intro rates often last for a period of time between 6 months and 12 months. After the intro period is over, the interest rate will increase. Some cards will offer an extension on the introductory rate as long as you make regular purchases on the card. Some are even beginning to offer a fixed interest rate on the balance transfer until it is paid off.

Take the time to shop around for the card that offers you the lowest interest rate, the longest introductory time period and the fewest extra conditions. You absolutely must read the fine print; it can contain provisions that affect your balance transfer, such as the fee of 3%-5% of the total amount transferred. The fee will be charged to your account as a purchase, which means you will pay interest on it.

Keep in mind that opening a new credit card account can temporarily lower your credit score, as will closing your old account. This can affect your ability to borrow other money or find affordable insurance premiums. You should thoroughly consider your financial goals before you open new accounts. For example, if you are looking to purchase your first home, you shouldn’t take out a new credit card or other type of loan.

Balance transfers often take between 4 to 6 weeks. You will need to pay your minimum payments on your credit cards until the transfer goes through.

You should take the time to cut up your old card and close it. Then you need to pay it off. If you continue to use your card, you are simply adding more debt. You are just acquiring new debt, not paying it off.

Be aware that if you make a late payment on your new credit card will absolutely guarantee that your introductory rate will turn into the default rate, which could be as high as 30%.

Credit card balance transfers are a great work to reduce your monthly minimum payments in order to pay off you debt faster. If you are unable to transfer your entire balance, take the time to go ahead and transfer as much as you can. You will be paying a lower rate on every bit you can, which is a goal of paying off your debts.

by Martin Lukac

Point of order: Sorry for delay in post, forgot I was still a scientist and had two journal articles to proof and correct for Health Education Journal and Global Public Health

Now since I was finally able to post Recess – is- on and PP (which were written in April), back on the grind, which you know in most cases means loot. I am kind of frustrated with America, I mean we aint got what it takes it seems anymore. I can understand how K street gets politicians in a bind but I can’t understand why regular folk don’t see why things are the way they are economically.

We are big on crying and asking folks to do for us, but we never have a good understanding of first what needs to be done or even what or how serious the problem is. Come this November, after the general election, well really before, I hope we can come to an understanding of the aforementioned.

This country has not been in this bad of shape economically since the 1920s and 1030s. I’m sure some will disagree with me, but this is just my opinion. Right now, at least based on numbers from two years go; our domestic financial debt was more than 14 trillion dollars. Fourteen trillion. Today I suspect it is maybe 4 or 5 trillion more, but there aren’t any real numbers available, just estimates so I made my own.

And although we talk about the housing market as being a major contributor to this problem as well as multiple wars, the truth is that the financial sector is mostly to blame, along with republican and democratic leadership at the legislative and executive level. For as I said before, with regulatory constraints basically removed, this created an environment for this particular sector of our economy to go buck wild. Bill Clinton repealed the Glass –Stegall Act and bam.

Long time ago, there were regulated fees for Credit Cards for example, now they can make up fees and even charge you for paying on time or even if you pay off your monthly balance. Don’t even throw in the outrageous and wide ranging interest rates credit card companies (the financial sector) can charge, that is a whole ‘nother story. But to sum it all up, this is where the problem lies. We didn’t have this type of concern when America made stuff and had a strong manufacturing base. Since the financial sector has replaced manufacturing as our largest industry, our national debt has sky rocketed. This sector alone accounts for more than 30% of all of our national debt. Namely as a result of what is called Securitization or what can be called collateralizing debt obligation

Like I said back in the 20s and 30s when we saw similar problems, the national debt was about 250% of our gross domestic product. Today it is about 350%. What does this mean, well in simple terms, maybe a 10% reduction in the values of our houses for those of us who own one, commodity inflation (as mentioned in a prior post) and a 500 trillion dollar debt, which will eventually come back to bite us in the ass one day. I think that is one of the reasons I don’t have an ATM card. Never had one ever. So they next time you go to an ATM machine, just remember that the $3.00 they charge you to use it, is just adding to our national debt. Three cheers for the financial sector. Hip Hip Hooray.

Addendum: Love the fact folks can come in shop with dogs and kids, lay up and drink wine for free – they always end up buying stuff.