According to the Federal Highway Administration, an American family with one car and one minivan or SUV consumes roughly 1,200 gallons of gas a year.
To find the cheapest gas near you, visit www.gaspricewatch.com or www.gasbuddy.com and enter your zip code — volunteer “price spotters” update these sites with local gas prices. Also, don't drive over 60mph unless you have to. This is the speed where your car starts wasting gas. Be sure to use your air condition at higher speeds to reduce drag on your vehicle and increase gas mileage.
Tip: Tuesday is often the cheapest day of the week to get gas.
2. Save on Groceries
According to the Food Marketing Institute, the average American household spends $90 a week on food. Here’s 6 ways to slash your bill:
- Don’t bring the kids and you’ll be able to stick to your list
- Use the store’s discount card — according to Real Simple magazine, you can save up to 18%
- Avoid prepackaged goods — Consumer Reports found that two pounds of precut carrots was $7.16, compared to $1.29 for the same amount of uncut carrots
- Buy frozen foods after peak times, like Thanksgiving & Christmas
- Stock up on coupons — visit www.couponcart.com or www.coolsavings.com, or clip them from your local newspaper
- Shop on double coupon days
3. Save on Electronics
Looking for a good deal on consumer electronics? Visit TechBargains.com, FatWallet.com, or Slickdeals.com to sign up for free email alerts, or RSS feed that let you know when a particular item (i.e.iPod nano) or something in a general category (MP3 players) goes on sale.
4. Save on Water
According to the American Water Works Association, you can save money on water if you: Turn faucets off completely — a slow drip can waste up to 34 gallons of water a dayTake shorter showers — a 4-minute shower uses 10 gallons of water, compared to 17 gallons for 8 minutes
Repair leaks immediately — they account for 14% of your household water use
5. Save on Directory Assistance
You can get specific address information and phone numbers sent to your cell phone, Treo, or BlackBerry by text messaging Google or Yellow Pages — perfect for those last minute “I forgot the number/address” moments on the way to a sales call (or figuring out who else you might see if an appointment cancels or runs shorter than expected). Here’s how:
- Set up Google in the contacts list of your device in the same way you add a friend.
- Add Google’s number as 46645 (Googl) - you can do this each time without adding them to your contact list, as well, or 97411 (YP411) for Yellow Pages. I like Google’s location settings you can setup which allow for really quick results.
- Type in the name of the business or person on which you want the information, their city, and their state and send it as a text message.
- Within 3 seconds (this is my experience), if the information is available, it will be sent back to your device. If you have a Treo, iPhone or BlackBerry, you can highlight the phone number and push dial. You’ll need to do the talking — one thing Google won’t do for you.
If you don’t have texting capabilities or are using a landline, try 1-800-GOOG-411. Yep, it’s free.
6. Save Electricity
Plug electronic devices into surge protectors, or power strips and turn them off when you leave the house.
7. Make sure your air filter and coils are clean.
Also, here’s some long term, more in-depth things you can do:
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