How I save on gas

Gas prices are on the way up again and it makes me hate going to the gas station to fill up.  The last time I filled up my car I spent about $55 dollars whichinspires me to do a few things to get the most out of my gas.  These are the top 4 things I do to save gas:

1.  Drive slower.  The more expensive gas is the slower I drive.  I’ve found that driving between 55 to 60 mph helps get me some extra miles.  It’s a huge test of patience, so every time I want to drive faster I turn on some slow oldies and think of the money I’m potentially saving by driving like an old lady.

2.  Easy on the acceleration.  This goes along with number 1.  When I see a stop sign, red light, or traffic ahead of me, I just cruise in there.  I try not to gas it and then brake hard once I’m there.  

3.  Carpool.  OK, I don’t really do this, but I swear I’m going to start if gas gets up to $5 a gallon.  Finding a good carpool buddy is hard... I spend an hour in the car commuting, that is 5 hours a week and 20 hours in a month.  If I had to carpool, I’d have to find someone I’d be willing to hang out with 20 hours a month.  This could potentially save the most money though since it essentially cuts my driving in half.

4.  Keep my trunk clean.  I try to keep keep my trunk empty, or at least empty of things that are heavy.  The more that’s in there the more gas I have to use to move the car so I try to keep my cinder blocks at home.

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drive slower

Cut hair save money

Since I was a kid I have gotten my haircuts at home. When I was a kid I would sit in the bathtub and my dad would cut my hair into a nice bowl shape with a pair of scissors and an electric shavers. In high school, the bowl cut was no longer in (or maybe it was never cool and I just realized that I should try to not be such a big nerd) and having very short, freshly cut hair was popular. I couldn’t afford to go to Supercuts every two weeks to maintain the freshly cut spikey hair cut, so I started cutting my own hair. I must have given myself many bad haircuts, but over the years I’ve learned the subtle art of cutting my hair and in turn have saved a little money. These are the keys to how I do it:

Prepare:

The first step is to line the floor with newspaper to make cleanup easier. Then make sure you have the right equipment- a pair of scissors, a pair an electric shaver with different guards, and two mirrors. I have had a few different electric shavers and have found that the $30 to $50 dollar pairs work just fine. Once you have these things you are ready to go.

Technique:

Different people like different styles of haircut, so part of getting the right technique is knowing what kind of haircut you want. For me, I like to cut the back and sides of my hair short and leave the top a little longer. This is a pretty basic haircut since it’s pretty much a shaved head minus the top.

So what I do is use the electric shaver with a short guard on the side and back. I shave until my head starts to curve in and then gently fade the cut as my head curves. I use scissors to cut the top and to touch up the sides. I use two mirrors to see what is going on in the back and gently rotate my head and the mirror to see all the angles.

Three keys:

1. Take your time! Once a piece of hair is cut it is gone until you grow it back. It will take a while to learn the hand eye coordination it takes to cut in places you normally don’t see and touch, so it is very important to be patient with yourself.

2. Practice! All skills take time to learn and practice. Hair cutting is no different.

3. Have thick skin. I probably spent the first few years of my self hair cutting life with awful hair. But I don’t care because I can do it myself now, save money, and look good.

Savings:

I loosely estimate that I save about $15 every time I cut my own hair and need it done about once a month. So it comes out to about $180 a month. Over ten years that could be $1800.

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