Rental Car Savings

I reserved a rental car for us back in September or October for our Christmas trip to California. I would check every now and then to make sure I was getting the best price. Every time I checked I was grateful I reserved it so early because the price had gone up $200-$300 for the same car, same location, etc. Today is 2 days before our pick up time and I checked the website again only to tell Michael the type of car we had reserved. I was baffled when the price had now dropped more than $100! I quickly modified our reservation to reflect the new pricing. I am still in shock but it is certainly a good type of shock!

I found $10 on the ground today

Well, not really, but I did save $10 today and that's the same thing, right?

It goes like this:

1. Michael goes to the dentist to get some work done.

2. Dr. tells Michael that a 15 year girl did it without a shot.

3. Michael says, "let's do it."

4. Michael gets the damage at the front desk. "That will be $90."

5. Michael asks, "hey since I didn't use a shot can I get some taken off?"

6. Girl types, types, types..."that will be $80."

7. Michael saves $10.

The moral of the story is, Michael is just as tough as a 15 year old girl and b, ask if you can save some money at the dentist when you don't go numb.

Flashlights

We've been in need of some flashlights for emergency kits and I just ordered 3 of these LEDs for $1 a piece. The price has gone up a dollar but it is still only $2. The shipping is cheap too. It cost us $2 to ship it. They seem to be pretty good flashlights. They require 3 AAA batteries. We were thinking to put one in the glove box of each or our cars...I mean car. :-)

Flashlights

Freezer Fun

We have three freezers: one with the fridge, one out in the garage in our old fridge, and one stand-alone freezer downstairs. That makes for a frozen food tundra that can be difficult to explore.

As part of tightening the belt, my sweetie is plowing through all of our freezer stuff so we can use it up. We're having meals that we've already paid for so for a few days or weeks we are protected from the rising food costs. And, as some food prices start to come down, we can replenish our stores at the lower cost.

If you have food that you aren't sure what to do with, try AllRecipes.com and plug in the ingredients you have to find out what yummy goodness you can make tonight!

Free Internet Radio

Pandora, or "The Music Genome Project", is a free internet radio streaming service available to anyone with an internet connection and a modern web browser.

Granted, you can't put it on your iPod, but it's free and also a great way to learn about new music.

Go to the site and create a new account. Then you can log in and create "Stations". These stations are either a song or band name. Pandora then plays a song by that band that exemplifies the artist musically. You rate that song with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. If you like it, it continues playing that track. If you don't, it continues on to the next. Usually, the next track is a band/song that is sonically similar to the original you chose at the beginning.

I have found more new artists using Pandora than I would have normally. And while you can play with this in your browser, there are desktop, iphone/ipod touch, and mobile phone versions available.

Check it out!!!

Shopping for Insurance

We've had State Farm since the beginning of our marriage. The only reason we chose State Farm is that's what Mom and Dad used at one point. But I'm more interested in trimming monthly bills these days, so I decided to shop around for better rates.

I tried one of the online insurance sites where you could search multiple companies by filling out one form. Big mistake. The rates where higher than what I'm paying now and my name is now on half a dozen mailing lists.

I mentioned my quandary to Michael and he recommended AAA. I called our local branch and sent them my current policies for the two cars, the house, and a personal liability umbrella (not for rich people, Michael!). Turns out we can save over $300/year by switching. PLUS, we'll be AAA members, which will give me peace of mind in case we ever need a little gas, a flat repair, or a tow.

Moral of the story: it does pay to shop around, but it helps to get recommendation from friends and family.

The only thing that bugs me about this whole experience is that I didn't do it sooner. $300/year for the last 10 years = $3000. That's a lot of dough!

Don't neglect bulk foods

Yesterday I went to Winco and since I had recently used up all of my small white beans for a yummy ham and bean soup (cheap, cheap, cheap), I needed to buy some more. I bought from the bulk section and it was 74 cents per lb. I know that buying from the cannery is probably cheaper yet. Anyway, I measured out what I wanted, it weighed in at 1.44 lb @ 74 cents per lb. = $1.07 Just out of curiousity, I checked the dried bean section in the regular part of the store and their cheapest store brand was 94 cents for a 1 lb. package. What a better deal that was!
Spices are amazingly cheaper when purchased in bulk . . .even when you buy the 50 cent container to put it in when you get home.

Also, Winco will deduct 7 cents per bag for each bag you recycle from home . . .I didn't know this until I saw a gal do it and she got 37 cents back for bringing in bags from home. Wonder if any other grocers do this?
Mom