Archive for February, 2009

Posted on February 28, 2009 - by admin

Saving Money on your Cooling Bill - Food Spoilage OOG 30

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 30 Feb. 28, 2009

Saving Money on your Cooling Bill

++ News -

We would like to take a moment to thank those that have been with us for 30 issues - my how time flys…

Disaster preparation - Recap -

We talked some this past week on safety and planning.

Resources Preparing for disaster.

Creating a Disaster Plan - Preparing an Emergency kit.

Should you Buy a Generator?

During the storms this past week we lost over $200 of food because we would be afraid that it would spoil? So exactly how long does it take food to spoil?

An excellent article covering that can be found here. You can also find more good information on food safety at the usda site.

So should you buy a generator?

Here is an excellent resource for generators - click here.

Price checks on small generators - find them here.

So should you buy one? I would buy one if any of the following are true.
1. You loose power more than 2 times / year.
2. You have a large freezer filled with food.
3. You have small children (or elderly) that can’t withstand cold weather or being without electricity for more than a few hours.

++ Savings Tip of the Week

Saving Money on your Cooling Bill

The information that we gave you about Saving Money on your Heating bill will help to save money on cooling too.

Here are some Cooling specific tips.

1. Do a home energy audit - go to this site - http://hes.lbl.gov/

Enter your zip code in the area provided. Fill out the questions and it will give you specific answers on things you can do.

2. Make sure to close the drapes and curtains when you aren’t at home.
3. Just like we did in the winter you want to turn the temp for the AC up when you go to work or won’t be home for 3 or 4 hours.
4. Use Ceiling fans.
5. Get your air codition serviced - make sure it has freon and is working properly. As we’ve talked about many times before make sure to get several estimates and for work around your home get references, check them and check with the BBB… what may seem like a deal that is too good to be true, probably is!
6. Use your ceiling fans, if you don’t have one then think about installing one. If you like to DIY you can find some details on how to install a ceiling fan here. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,453858,00.html

Next up:

We’ll start on Household Expenses and Supplies (not including Food)

Posted on February 27, 2009 - by admin

Nascar Racing - Fun with your family

The Nascar season is here and that means a great time to gather the family around the television for some fun.

Here are some ideas on how to make it more fun.

One way is to do some fantasy racing - a great way to get started can be found here.

http://racing.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

If you don’t want to do that an easier way is…

1. Figure out the number of drivers for the race.
2. Divide the number playing into that.
3. Each family member starts choosing drivers one per round, until there are no drivers left.
4. Get a sheet of paper and write down 10, 20, 30 etc… till the number of laps (so if the race had 250 laps you would have 10 - 250). The person who’s driver is in 1st place gets 10 points, 2nd place 5 points, 3rd place 3 points. 4-10 1 point. The person who wins the race gets 25 points extra. Add the totals together and the winner gets a prize.

You can do that for any race, we hope you have a great time.

Posted on February 26, 2009 - by admin

Disaster Planning Continued

Couple of things we want to talk about today that are disaster related.

1. You need to create a plan.

You need to have a plan - ready.gov has an awesome family emergency plan.

http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/familyemergencyplan.pdf

It includes contact information for everyone. Contact info for Doctors.  It includes cutouts for everyone to carry in their wallet / purse.

You can also use this tool to create your own plan.

http://ready.adcouncil.org/beprepared/fep/index.jsp

2. You need to have an emergency kit.

The FEMA site has an excellent list of things that you need to have to prepare for an emergency.

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/assemble_disaster_supplies_kit.shtm

One piece of advice on the water. Figure out how many cases of water you need and put that in your supply spot. As you buy new water each week - put the new in your supplies - put the supply water into the pantry so you can use it. That way your water will always stay fresh and you won’t have to worry about an expiration date or a use by date.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Posted on February 24, 2009 - by admin

Saving Money on your Heating and Cooling Bill

Heating and Cooling your home can take from 50 to 80% of your electric / gas bill. We’ll talk about Heating today and the newsletter and Saturday will talk about Cooling. Some of these will of course work for both.

1. When you go to bed at night - turn your heat down 4 or 5 degrees. When you get up set the temperature back up.

2. Try adjusting the thermostat down a degree. Even one degree can make a big difference on your bill.

3. Monthly make sure to do the following.

- Clean your filter
- Clean your vents
- Make sure that your furniture is away from your vents.

Although it is a little late to winterize your home - here are some ideas to do this spring.

Here’s an excellent slide show with some great tips and advice.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/winterize-home-tips-energy-461008

Have a wonderful day!

Posted on February 23, 2009 - by admin

Resources for preparing for a Disaster

I mentioned this week we’re going to give you some tips and help for preparing for Disaster. The severe weather season is just around the corner so hopefully these tips will help.

Some good stuff from the American Red Cross

http://www.prepare.org/basic/businessprep.htm

Enter your zip code and you’ll get specific info for your area.

http://www.disastersafety.org/

They have a nice blog as well.

http://disastersafety.typepad.com/disaster_safety_blog/

Stay safe and enjoy your day.

Posted on February 21, 2009 - by admin

Saving Money on Electricity - OOG 29

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 29 February 22, 2009

Saving Money on Electricity

This issue brought to you by

Make your own electricity - click here for details.

++ News -

Gas Prices - Gas prices are trending a bit higher.

A good overview of the stimulus package can be found here.

Next week we’ll start our series on preparing for the unexpected.

++ Savings Tip of the Week

Many stores are going out of business these days. When they have an item priced 20, 30 or even 50% off, is that really a deal.

We were in Lexington shopping this past summer and I told my niece that a major department store was going out of business. They were having a huge sale, so we went in to check things out. After a few minutes she wanted to leave. She then informed me that last week (before the sale) the prices were actually lower.

This site will help you compare prices on the spot, by using your cell phone.

•    If your cellphone has Internet access, go to the mobile version of Google Product Search: m.google.com/products. Then enter the product name or model number.
•    If you are without Internet access but can text message, you can text the product’s ISBN or UPC (the number under the bar code) to save@mobsaver.com. The MobSaver service will send you a list of prices for the same item on Amazon and eBay. Find out more at www.mobsaver.com.

Saving Money The Nitty Gritty -

Saving Money on your Electricity

Electricity is something that we can’t do without. There are however many ways you can save on electricity.

Here are some links that will help you to learn more.

http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/

This is an excellent site - make sure you check out all the links. The appliance section is nice.

Here are a few more.

http://www.geedyup.com/2009/02/15/top-ten-ways-to-save-money-on-electricity/

http://electrical.about.com/od/appliances/tp/sevenwaystosave.htm

and my favorite.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_to/4288639.html

Next up:

Saving Money on your Heating / Cooling

We’ll start on Household Expenses and Supplies (not including Food)

Posted on February 20, 2009 - by admin

Having Fun With Flashlights

Last week we had a power outage… Imagine have 3 teenagers (or close to teenagers) with no access to myspace, the internet, and afraid to use their cell phones becasue they didn’t know when they would be able to charge them again.

So we made shadows with flashlights.. and while I’m sure it wasn’t as fun as chatting with friends on myspace the kids did have a good time.

First we just made shapes like bunnies, a dog, giraffe etc.  Here are some ideas for the shadows. http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/do/shadowanimals.html

Then we made our own movie and had everyone “play a character” and we ad libed the script as we went along.

Something to think about when you’re in the dark.

Posted on February 17, 2009 - by admin

Save Money on Your Music Downloads

Hope your Tuesday is going well. Below are a couple of tidbits that will help you save some money.

Save Money on Downloads

First point your browser to http://www.downloadshopper.com/

You can search for savings by artist / song / or album.

Pick the one you want to search for and click Compare.

Then choose your best deal.

You can also click on the deals link to find any hot deals.

We’ll start our discussion on preparing for a disaster tomorrow. Till then we hope you have a wonderful day.

Posted on February 14, 2009 - by admin

Saving Money on your Telephone bill - OOG 28

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 28 February 15, 2009

Saving Money on your Telephone Bill

++ News -

We had a wild week as small tornadoes / high winds blew through our community on Weds. We were without power for several days and were really cold. Over the next few weeks we’ll talk some about being prepared when bad things happen and then we’ll continue on the saving money track. Because one thing I learned was we definitely weren’t prepared.

++

Saving Money The Nitty Gritty -

Saving Money on your telephone bill

The first thing you’ll want to do is drag out a copy of your last telephone bill. Sometimes I think the people that design these bills want to make it very difficult to figure out exactly what we’re paying for.

Here are a few ideas to save you some money.

1. Do you really need more than one telephone line?
2. If you find yourself talking more on your cell phone than on the land line… maybe you could get rid of the land line. Just make sure that you notify everyone (Even aunt Susie) about the change.
3. Check for charges like wire maintenance… if you’ve had trouble with your phone in the last year or if your house is old you may want to keep this, otherwise get rid of it.
4. Call your phone company and ask for the best deal they can give you, explain to them that you’re looking on cutting expenses and you want to get their best deal possible.
5. Would it save you money to try out an internet phone service?

Here are some tips on saving money on your long distance service.

http://www.trac.org/consumer/top-ways-to-save-on-your-long-distance-bill.html

We’ll continue our series with the following topics.
Saving Money on your Electricity
Saving Money on your Heating / Cooling

We’ll start on Household Expenses and Supplies (not including Food)

Posted on February 10, 2009 - by admin

3 Ideas for making your Valentine happy.

Valentine’s day is just around the corner. Below are 3 ideas to make your Valentine happy, without breaking the bank.

The main thing to remember is that your significant other, doesn’t really care how much you spend on them… they will remember how much time you took to create the gift and they will definitely remember the time that they spent with you.

1. The weather here is not going to be nice this weekend, if the weather is going to be nice where you are then you can go on a picnic. First explain to your sweetie that they will need to be available for a few hours on Saturday. The earlier you tell them this the more suspense you’ll add. Before you go write them a love letter. Yep, you heard me right… a love letter like you would have given someone in high school. Gather up the stuff for the picnic (blankets, warm drinks, food).

Take them to a park or to a place that is special to you both. Eat and during or after you eat read your love letter to them. Go on a long walk.

One note - if the weather is bad, nothing says that you can’t have a picnic in your living room.

2. Have a scavenger hunt. Create five or six clues that lead your lover thru the house (or even outside) - include coupons at each of the completed steps, with your ‘big’ present at the end.

3. Rent the first movie that you watched together. Pop some pop corn and spend some time cuddling on your couch.

I hope you have a wonderful day, and don’t forget everyday can be valentine’s day!