Posted by Luanne | Posted in Manic Monday | Posted on 02-06-2008
Krisha and I have decided that we are going to put our best foot forward and try to save our butts financially from this liquid gold crisis. We spent last week walking everywhere we possibly could instead of driving. We live downtown which I know is not too attractive to everyone, but we love it. We like being close to the Art District and we enjoy being close to the Victoria Theater where Krisha dances. We also have a market downtown that is totally awesome. Fresh veggies, fresh fruit, beautiful flowers for my table, and the homemade breads and deserts are to die for. The market is a little over 5000 steps (we used a pedometer) and the Theater is a little over 2000. It has been great exercise. We even walked to CVS downtown (this is for Jenny)! We stopped and had coffee at Boston Stoker (that is for Daniel,) it was awesome! We definitely love the walkin gig. I really think it is going to make a huge difference in our budget. We also noticed that we bought less at the market than we would have if we had gone to a superstore, mainly because we had to carry every thing we purchased over 2500 steps home. I am sure we are saving more than just gas money. I have a friend that says that if you go into Wal-Mart with just your hands, you’ll spend $50. If you go in with a cart, you’ll spend $100. I am usually lucky if I spend less than $200. We spent less than $20 at the market (that included our lunch!) I think this is going to work out.
Today we drove to the Lake so Krisha could participate in the race that our Sailing Club was having. I figured out that we spent almost $20 in gas to get there and back. We drive a huge Expedition and it only gets 15 miles per gallon. Ugh!!!!
Walking is doing us a lot of good. What are you doing to save on that liquid gold?
I’ve also started walking more – to get my daughter from school. She HATES it! I did remind her that when I was her age I had to walk 30 minutes to and 30 minutes from school, and my school wasn’t air conditioned. She then reminded me, “Mom, that was way back in the 80s!”
However, in addition to walking more, I find myself not running around town as much and staying home more – which is just fine with me since there is PLEANTY of stuff to keep me busy here.
If I do have to run errands, I try to do everything at once while I am out, and try to plan my route so I don’t have to doubleback.
I’ve also banned my husband from garage saleing. thhis past weekend he got some great deals, but wasted 1/4 a tank of gas (or $25 since it takes $100 to fill up the mommobile minivan).
I’m also interested to see if anyone else has ideas that we can ALL benefit from.
i have no good ideas, except for trying to hit as many stops as I can on one trip – this generally works only if am kidless though.
I appreciate the effort you 2 are making. And every bit helps. I love you both!
I need a motorcycle to get back and forth to work on huh?
I forgot one! We have started doing ALL of our shopping at Giant Eagle – our local grocery store. They offer $.20 off a gallon of gas for every $50 you spend (much better than Krogers deal)… and you can save them up to get FREE gas (up to 30 gallons at a time).
Giant Eagle also sells gift cards which count toward a purchase. So, I usually give gift cards for presents, or if there is something we are looking at getting (like a new camcorder or digital camera) we can get gift cards there for the purchase price and have it count toward our fuel savings!
Giant Eagle also doubles coupons for up to $.99, so I can save on groceries and gas at the same time.