Changing the way you drive will save at the pump. We coast the last two miles to our house. It's become sort of a game, too see how much we can eek out of one tank of gas. And to our delight, instead of the paltry 15-16 miles per gallon we generally get in our V6 car (that weighs 4,000 pounds I might add), we got 20mpg this last fill up! So not being a hot foot helps. We also coast to red traffic lights, and any time we are going down hills. We also appear to be the only car on I-81 on our way up to the cabin going 55 mph! But hey, it saves a bundle. Those suckers in their huge trucks going 80 are sucking down gas like nobody's business. But the downside is it's no fun.
The other thing we do, rather than taking out debt consolidation loans is snag any 0% balance transfer checks that we are offered that have at least a year before payup and then pay it off monthly for a year. And anything we buy that has that ability to delay payment at 0% interest we take. Let's keep the money in our account making interest, I say. But there is a very important caveat here. If you miss a payment or don't have the balance paid in full when it is due you will be whacked with huge interest rates and a penalty. Write down the date when the final payment is due and don't lose it. Because, surprise, surprise; they make it very hard for you to find out when the final payemnt is due! In general we either do this or pay off any credit card purcahse in full each bill. We rarely pay interest.
And don't forget the Hess card. This is what we use. You get 30% of all gas purchases for the first 90 days followed by 5% always after that. It just can't be beat. Kwik fill is the next best gas card.
And any of you looking at future student loans, your credit now has to be nothing short of fantastic to get a loan, so get your free reports and look them over. Close accounts that are idle as too many of these can actually work against you.
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