Crunching Numbers, Pinching Pennies

It seems like the ever-rising cost of gas is never going to end. Along with that is the rising cost of groceries and other essentials. The effect it's had on our little family is that we don't have much left in the disposable income category. Things are getting so freaking expensive that I'm really starting to worry, as are most of the other stay-at-home moms I talk to.

Zach and I have been trying to figure out ways where we can save money and we've been coming up with surprising amounts. For instance, the upcoming rise in postage rates led us to examine how much we spend just mailing out the monthly bills. We figured that it takes $42 a year just to mail the bills back. Even though Zach actually enjoys the process of mailing the bills every month (and I've actually heard other people say this too) we decided it's time we start paying them online. Maybe $42 over the course of a year doesn't sound like much, but I'm at the point where it makes my day if I find a forgotten one dollar bill in my back pocket, so I figure that's a "Yeah, I found an extra dollar!" moment almost every week out of the year.

Also, I might be the last person to know about the Forever stamps. Oh nevermind, I just realized I got bad information. I thought someone told me that postage rates were going to go up to $.50 in a couple weeks. It turns out it's only a one cent increase. I guess I'd have to buy 100 Forever stamps to even save a dollar in the long run, and that would mean $41 up front, so I guess I won't be doing that.

Here's another thing: We used to pay $69 and change bimonthly for garbage disposal. Then they did that sneaky thing where they start charging you half that monthly, but raised it a little so you don't notice. So we were up to $36.45 and we're hardly even filling the can halfway. We got the size they recommended based on the number of people in our family, which according to the website is considered a 'large family' at three people. We were getting the biggest size they offer, 95 gallons! Zach called this morning and ordered up the 35 gallon size, the smalled they offer. Now we're only going to pay $25 and change a month. That'll be almost $11 in savings a month, $130 a year! We were basically throwing away (pun intended) that much money each year. I recycle so much of our garbage and it's composting season, we'll easy make it with the small can. I guess it literally does pay to recycle.

Other than those efforts, I'm constantly doing daily things to reduce gas and grocery bills. I collect coupons like mad. I always combine errands, avoid making special trips for things, last year I started driving the Civic because it gets much better mileage than the van. Zach drives half a mile down the road to work and I drive Jacob all over town. When we went to Camp this weekend we packed light, made other traveling arrangements for the dogs, and squeezed into the Civic. It cost $42 round trip for gas, and we figure it would have been at least twice as much in the van. Totally worth it.