Archive for November, 2008

Posted on November 22, 2008 - by admin

Out of Gas Newsletter 19

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 19 November 22nd, 2008

++ News -

We hope you and your family have a wonderful ThanksGiving.

Gas news -

Gas prices now average less than $2.00 / gallon in many places. This is good news, especially for people that have to drive quite a bit.

Next week we’ll be taking some time off to spend with our friends and family. We hope you have more time to do that as well. So there won’t be any blog posts or newsletter next week.

The today show had an excellent segment on saving money on your Thanksgiving Dinner.

You can find it by clicking here. (note it’s a video)

Saving you Money - Some Final thoughts on Saving Money for Christmas

1. Make a budget and stick to it.
2. Remember that many times the cheapest present with the most thought behind it, is much better than an expensive gift.
3. Start saving now for next year. Figure out what you want to spend next year and start saving now. If you put $20 back each week in 50 weeks you would have $1,000.00.
4. If you do Black Friday - have a plan. You can find details of our plan here
5. Having fun with your friends and family is much better than spending tons of money. And you won’t have to worry about the bills you get in Jan.

In a couple of  weeks we’ll talk about some fun things you can do with your family around the holidays.

Posted on November 21, 2008 - by admin

Ideas for a Fun ThanksGiving - without spending a lot of money

Happy Friday. We have some snow here - actually more than we had all of last year. It looks like it will be a good time to break out the sleds.

Next week is Thanksgiving and we’ve been talking quite a bit about saving money - today we want to talk about having some fun.

You should have a good crowd for your Thanksgiving dinner if you’ve followed our previous tips - here are some ideas.

1. Football fun - this is a game that lasts the entire weekend. First decide on a prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Then each person that wants to participate picks the winners and losers of the weekends games. You can find schedules at the following links. For a tie breaker have one game that people need to pick the score - like the Sunday night game

2. During the game on Turkey day - everyone chooses a side. Before the game the teams gather together and write a list of goofy things they want the other team to do. Like perform a play. Sing the National Anthem. Tell who gave them their first kiss etc. Make sure you have around 20 different things in the hat. The goofier the task the better.

Decide when the losers will have to perform the task. Say you are watching Seatle and Dallas on Fox. I’m on the Dallas team - so everytime Dallas makes a first down then the losers would have to draw one of the goofy things out of a hat and do it. Everytime Seatle did something great (touchdown, first down, big play etc) then my team would have to draw from the hat.

The team with the most paper left in their hat win. Losers get to clean the kitchen.

The last time we did this I laughed so hard I couldn’t watch the game.

Here are schedules for the NFL

http://www.nfl.com/schedules?seasonType=REG#Week13

Here are the schedules for college football.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/schedules?week=14&season=2&year=2008&groupId=80

3. While you are getting ready for dinner - everyone writes down what they are thankful for. During the meal everyone takes their turn and gets to read / discuss their answer.

These are just some ideas - below are some links to a ton more.

http://fun.familyeducation.com/slideshow/thanksgiving/35209.html

http://www.playlibrary.com/2007/11/19/15-fun-things-to-do-with-the-kids-during-thanksgiving/

Here’s a big list of links.

http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/thanksgi.htm

We hope you have a wonderful day!!!

Posted on November 18, 2008 - by admin

Black Friday - Making a plan to save you the most money.

Realize first if you’re going to do Black Friday right then it will take some preparation, persistance, and patience. Also people will be cranky, and mean. The bright side is if you plan things you could save 30 to 50% off regular prices.

Here are some steps to make your day go smoother.

1. First you want to get the circulars and sales papers from all the major stores. Below are some links that you can use to find some stores that you may not have thought of.

http://bfads.net/adscans

http://www.blackfriday.info/

http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/

2. Get out your Christmas list that we made earlier.

3. Using the circulars look for things that are on the list. You can use a sheet of paper or a spread sheet. Write all the stores across the top. If the store has the item you’re look for then write the item / price under the store list and make sure to note the quantity they have and the time they are available. You may not find all your items, for this trip though we’re only going for items in the sale paper. Some of the stores have earlier opening times, some give out tickets for items before the store opens.

4. Check out your list - make a list of the times putting them from top to bottom with the earliest first. This will be your attack list. Now write a schedule - with times you have to be at certain stores. Make a special note of the highest priced items. These you’ll want to make sure that you get these items (even if you have to skip out on some of the lower priced items).

5. Now you should know exactly when you’ll need to be in each store - exactly what you’ll need to get from each of the stores. If you want a few days before Black Friday you can scout out the store.

6. The night before make sure you get a good nights sleep. And then start your adventure… go for it and most of all have FUN!!

Posted on November 15, 2008 - by admin

Creative Christmas Gifts that Save you Money - OOG 18

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 18 November 15th, 2008

++ News -

Black Friday ads are starting to come out. We’ll have our guide on what to do - the steps you can take to get the best deal on Tuesday. Some details on what Wal-Mart may be offering is here.

Gas news -

Oil is now down to around $57 / barrel with the average price for a gallon of gas - $2.12.
We got quite a few suggestions on the new types of content to include here. We’re reviewing them and will pick the one we think will work the best.

Thanks again for submitting your opinions.

Fun with the Family -

We’ve been working hard on some new pages that will help you have fun with your family. We should have these pages complete early next week.

Saving you Money - Thinking Creatively for Your Christmas List

Think for a moment about your favorite Christmas present.. did it cost a lot. If you’re like most people probably not. Do your kids even remember what you got them last Christmas?

Really great gifts don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. I’ll give you a few ideas with things I’ve done and give you a few links that will give you some more information.

The Big Red Bag.

This is something that I did for my wife. First you’ll need a big bag to hold the presents in. When you go shopping you want to buy many, different small gifts for whoever the red bag is for. I bought my wife about 15 or so gifts (things for the kitchen, crochet hooks, books, etc.). The most I spent on a gift was about $5.00 I think. That was about ten years ago and she still talks about it. I might have to do that again.

The Scavenger Hunt.

Again buy small gifts, but create a scavengar hunt so the recepient will have to find each present and when they find it they’ll get the clue for the next gift.

Here are some links.

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/holiday_gifts_ms/

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/alternatives/index.html

Here are some more ideas.

http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/r_frugalpresents.htm

And one more from me.

Last year I created a 12 days of Christmas list for Lisa.

Examples of what I included -

My wife hates to drive - so I included - Five trips I’ll drive for you.

Another was Eight back rubs - Seven nights off (I cook / clean / help kiddos with homework etc).

You get the idea - you don’t have to spend any money on that list if you don’t want to… just your time.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Posted on November 11, 2008 - by admin

Finding Cheap Presents and Gifts - Saving Money for Christmas

This idea will work if - you enjoy books - the people who will be getting the gifts enjoy books.

Join a book club. You can find clubs online or if you’ve ever been in a club before then you’ll have plenty of flyers. Some I’ve gotten over the past week have had 7 or 8 books, some had free shipping. The one thing to realize is that you’ll need to buy some more books. Although some offers you’ll only need to buy one or two in a year.

Do a search on Google for Book clubs and you’ll find plenty resources.

The first article on Saving money for Christmas can be found here.

Posted on November 8, 2008 - by admin

ThanksGiving Leftovers - Out of Gas 17

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 17 November 8th, 2008

This issue brought to you by

Prom 2009 - Everything you need to know about Prom and much more.

++ News -

We’ve started on new series on our blog post titled Saving Money for Christmas. New topics can be found on Tuesday and Saturday for the next few weeks.

++ The Oil Industry

Since the price of Gas has fallen below $2 / gallon in many places - we want to change the focus of the section of our newsletter a bit.
The goal of our site is to save you money. You can help us decide what you want us to put in this section. Just send us a note or leave us a comment after this post.

One overall saving tip is if you’re thinking of making a purchase, wait till closer to Christmas because I think everything will drop in price.

Saving you Money - ThanksGiving Leftovers

We have scoured the web for some great recipes for your leftover turkey. We’ve also included my favorite recipe below.

http://www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com/leftover-turkey-recipes.html
http://www.eatturkey.com/consumer/thanksleft.html
http://southernfood.about.com/cs/turkeyinformation/a/leftover_turkey.htm

Here is my favorite recipe - click this.

Posted on November 7, 2008 - by admin

Site Review - 101 things to do

For this fun Friday we thought you would enjoy a site that we found yesterday.

Grandparents.com has a section on their site that lists 101 things you can do with your grandkids (or your kids). There are 40+ cities to choose from and many of the things to do are available at little or no cost.

You can check the list out here.

Enjoy your day (and weekend).

Posted on November 4, 2008 - by admin

Christmas Budget Ideas - Saving Money this Holiday Season

We thought since Christmas was less than 2 months away and holiday decorations are already up in many stores, we would begin a series on some different ways that you can save this holiday season.

Creating a Christmas Budget

Think of everyone that you will need to buy a present for this year.

Categorize them into -

Immediate Family (Son, daughter, wife, hubby)-

Relatives (In-laws, out-laws, sisters, brothers… you get the idea)-

Others - People you draw names with at work, school. People that you’ve given gifts to forever.

The goal here is to downsize the list first. Everyone on your list you don’t have to buy a gift for.. I know some may thing Grinch - but we’ll come to why we aren’t one later. Those that you’ve culled from the list write down on a new list. These are people that you’re going to give either food to or give some of your time to. Not this Saturday but next Saturday we’ll give you some ideas for these presents.

Before you approach the others list, see if you can’t draw names with some of them or agree to have a big party without bringing gifts. At first I was kind of shy about doing this, but usually when I brought up the subject, I would hear a huge sigh and I knew that they really didn’t have the extra cash to spend on me either.

Now think of the maximum amount that you’re going to spend on Christmas this year. Now reduce that number by 10 or 20%.

Now comes dividing the amount into individual presents. This is where that no two people are the same, and I have no way of knowing how many people are on your list. What I do is put 50% of the budget toward the immediate family, 30% toward the outlaws (we draw names as well), 15% for the Others and 5% for gift wrap and things like that.

This wouldn’t work very well though if you have 1 kid, 20 close relatives and 50 others… give it some thought. If your kid got a whole room full of presents now would be a great time to explain to the entire family that you’re scaling back on presents this year. Now would also be a great time to get a list together of things that your kids are wanting.

Saving Money for Christmas

It is a little late to begin saving money for Christmas this year but it is definitely not too late to think about it for next year. Here’s the way I save, but there are many different ways that you can do it.

Take the budget that you created. Divide the final budget number by how many times you will be paid during the year.

Example -

My budget was $850.00
I get paid weekly.

So my weekly savings goal would be about $17.00 (round up). 850 divided by 52. So I started saving $20 out of my payday each week. After 52 weeks I had $1040.00.

Sticking to the Budget

This is probably the hardest thing to do. When you do your shopping stick strictly to the budget. You’ve made your list (and checked it twice). You’ve broken things down and you know what you can spend. Now follow your list. Sometime it will be hard because at the last minute Susie Q asks for a new Barbie doll house or you son wants a new game that you had no idea that the game even existed. That is one reason why, when you created your budget you talked to the kiddos about what they were wanting for Christmas. If it’s the little one, just explain to them that you’ve already sent the list to Santa and that the elves are really behind schedule this year. If it’s an older kid, just explain to them that you’ve already bought a game for him and he can save his allowance to get the new one.

I am the world’s worst at sticking to a budget. I think mainly because I’m a big kid at heart. But if I can do it, so can you… and the real present for you comes in March, April, May when you aren’t paying off the presents and interest.

Next Tuesday we’ll talk about a way to get five or six (nice) presents for less than 20 bucks.
Saturday the 8th of Nov - Turkey Leftovers
Nov. 11th - Creativity and the gift of your time and talents.
Nov. 15th - Black Friday and You

Posted on November 3, 2008 - by admin

Answers to the Quiz

Here are the answers to the quiz from Friday. Don’t forget to vote tomorrow. Like my Dad says if you don’t vote then you can’t complain.

1. Next week the $$ remains strong and gains ground in many currencies. The price of oil would…

Decrease. Oil is priced in $$ and with a strong one then we get more bang for our bucks.
2. The stock market continues it’s slump and bad news comes every day. Oil prices would most likely …

Decrease. The stock market reflects the economy - with a down economy people will use less oil.

3. Opec decides to cut production… normally this would make oil prices ….

Increase. Less supply would normally mean an increase of prices… although lately this hasn’t worked out very well for OPEC.

4. Long range forecasts are out. The winter will be a bad one. This news would usually make oil prices…

Increase. More demand for fuels for fuel would equal less oil that could be made into gas.

5. Who do we import most of our oil from….

If you guessed Saudia Arabia you would be wrong. We import the most oil from Canada.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Posted on November 1, 2008 - by admin

Saving Money on Thanksgiving - OOG 16

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 16 November 1st, 2008

This issue brought to you by

Free Crochet Patterns - nothing is better than free. 300+ free crochet patterns. You’re sure to find something new to make.

If you find our tips useful please don’t hesitate to forward it to a friend… we’ll thank
you and they’ll thank you as well.

++ News -

We hope you are enjoying your weekend. Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour when you go to bed (Fall back).

Oil was up a little bit on Friday to around $67.00 a barrel. In October it fell about 1/3 (which is a good thing).

++ The Oil Industry - A quiz

Below is a quiz to see how well you’ve been listening over the past few weeks. We’ll post the answers with explanations on Monday.

All these questions are hypothetical since our crystal ball is broken.

1. Next week the $$ remains strong and gains ground in many currencies. The price of oil would…
2. The stock market continues it’s slump and bad news comes every day. Oil prices would most likely …
3. Opec decides to cut production… normally this would make oil prices ….
4. Long range forecasts are out. The winter will be a bad one. This news would usually make oil prices…
5. Who do we import most of our oil from….

Saving you Money

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Below are four ways to save you money (and you’ll still get to have fun).

1. Family get together.

Get 3 or 4 of your neighbors / families together and have a big Thanksgiving meal. The main thought behind this is that everyone pays for a portion of the turkey (see some more about that in buying a turkey below). Each person also decides to bring 1 side dish. Remember that Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be a huge meal… after all you can only eat so much without feeling bad.

So each person brings a dish - decide together what the menu is going to be. Plan now to find out how many people will be attending.

2. Get the right size turkey.

You’ve figured out how many people are going to be at the party. Now it’s time to figure out what size of turkey to get.

There is a great tool for figuring out what size turkey to get by entering the adults and kids in the turkey calculator here.
http://www.butterball.com/tips-how-tos/tips/calculators-and-conversions

While you are there make sure to find out how long it will take to thaw your turkey. Then make sure to buy the turkey before you will need to begin to thaw it.

Usually the bigger the turkey - the cheaper that your per pound price will be. If you really want to save money do the following.

When making plans for Thanksgiving, plan for Christmas dinner as well. Decide to have that meal at someone elses house. Then buy twice as much turkey. Ask your butcher (even the super stores have them… they just hide) and ask them to cut your turkey in half. Remember though when cooking the turkey you’ll need to watch it a little closer.

3. Clip those coupons.

Grocery stores want your business. Be on the look out for coupons and deals. We’ve talked about coupons before so just make sure to review what we’ve talked about.

4. Eat the left overs.

I may be weird, but I love left overs. I’ll include some of my favorite recipes and tips next Saturday.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful weekend.