I am sure that it is no surprise to anyone that your bank account seems to be holding less money today than it did in the spring. For my family the money seems to be going more and more for fuel in the vehicles. We thought that when the prices began going down last year about this time (Alaska suspended its gas tax though I think it is back 🙄 ) that it would not be going to high again – yeah we were wrong.
If you look to the top right corner under my header you will see a widget for Gas Buddy which tells you what the high and low gas prices are in Anchorage, Alaska (not where I live but I do fuel up there regularly) which is anywhere from $.10 – $.40 lower than what we pay where I live. By going to their web site before driving the 50+ miles to Anchorage I check to see where the lowest price gasoline is so that I’ll know where to go to fill my tank and gas cans.
Now we have a few businesses that have put in gas pumps in their parking lots and offered fuel at slightly lower prices than the fuel stations offer. The ones that have done this are Costco, Carrs (part of the Safeway chain) and Fred Meyer (part of the Kroger chain). Over all Costco has the lowest prices but you do have to have membership to use them and they are not open 24/7, their fueling hours are 6:30am to 9:30pm which can make it difficult to get fuel when you actually need it. Both Carrs and Fred Meyer have their own rewards cards that you can use to get lower prices when you fill up. Since I do not shop at Carrs very often, for several reason which I will not go into today, I do not use their pumps. I do however shop at Fred Meyer regularly and so I earn quite a few fuel rewards points.
Fred Meyer recently changed their fuel rewards program so that you are able to better benefit at the pump by shopping in their stores. Where they used to allow card holders to buy gas as $.03 off per gallon and then for every 100 fuel points earned the month before you could do one fuel up at $.10 off per gallon. They have changed the program to the point that the last 2 times I have filled up my vehicle I was able to buy gas at $.30 off per gallon!! I saved $.26 per gallon each time by getting gas at Fred Meyer instead of at Costco.
The way I look at it Fred Meyer is doing a good job of helping the economy, and themselves as well, by providing me with an incentive to buy more from them. I am willing to do this because I have found their prices to be lower of a vast majority of what I buy, the customer service I receive is very good, the store is clean (even if the closest one to me is going through a huge remodel at this time) and the quality is excellent.
Saving money, in any form, works for me.
To read about what works for others just check out We Are That Family.
enough money saved so that we do not have to borrow as much – this could also cause us to receive a lower interest rate if we do have to borrow.
Valley Life 