Ah yes. Gasoline. It keeps going up, up, up in price. As does home heating oil. We use both. I don’t know what gas prices are in your neck of the woods, but it’s about $3.72/gallon here. $3.65 if you pay with cash. Right off the top of my head, here are my ideas about saving money on gasoline.

Tip #1 – Pay at the pump with cash if you can. We are guilty of using our card when we buy gas. Today, I had to put some gas in the car and I had some cash in my wallet. I definitely saved a bit of money.

Tip #2 – Get your oil changed regularly. We have an older car – a 2001 Honda CR-V. Hondas are great cars and ours is pretty solid. One thing we make sure we do is get the oil changed every 3000 miles. Someone once told me that if the only thing you do is get your oil changed regularly, you’re way ahead of the game with your car. Dirty oil has an affect on gas mileage.

Tip #3 – Make sure your tires are inflated correctly. Tires that are overinflated or underinflated can mess with your gas mileage. And with your tires.

Tip #4 – Do all your errands at one time. This is a big one for me. We have one car. Don uses it to go back and forth to work and that uses up a lot of gas. When he was training for his job, he would encourage me to drop him off, take the car home, and then go back at the end of the day to pick him up. I did it occasionally when I needed the car. But mostly, I actively discouraged doing it because that made for two round-trips instead of one. A waste of gasoline.

Here’s another example: Yesterday, I went to Trader Joe’s. I was sick with a cold, knew I had to get some food in the house and decided to do it sooner rather than later, as I tend to feel worse the second or third day of a cold. So I sat down and figured out what else I needed: to go to Michael’s, Lowe’s, the bank and Target. All quick stops and all on the way to the highway that takes me to Trader Joe’s. It made for a long day, but I ultimately saved on gas because I did everything at once.

If we need to deposit a check in our local bank, I have Don do it at the branch that is on his way to work, rather than make an extra trip in the other direction to our home branch.

Tip #5: No fast starts and stops. Steady is the key. I learned that a long time ago, as I used to have a lead foot. Those starts and stops waste a lot of gas.

Tip #6: If you can shop online, do that rather than use gas for endless trips to the mall. It’s far less stressful, to boot. You can sit, sipping tea, at your home computer. No traffic jams, no crazy drivers. Less money spent on gas.

Tip #7: Think twice before you hop in the car. Don and I often decide whether or not we should do something (drive into the city, go to Trader Joe’s) by how much gas the trip might use. The only way I can validate a trip to TJ’s is if I run other necessary errands along the way. We no longer take spontaneous drives (unless it’s in the neighborhood.)

Tip #8: If you can, get rid of your gas-guzzler. Some cars are just plain gas eaters. And no one except the wealthy can afford that nowadays.

As for home heating oil, which I’m including in this post because it’s all oil, many, many homes out here in the East use home heating oil. I grew up in Michigan where we had a gas furnace. Not here. So we have regular deliveries of heating oil to pay for. And if gasoline prices are going up, you can rest assured that home heating oil prices are also going up. Thankfully, this mild winter has saved us some money.

Tip #9: Keep your heat turned down and wear layers. Definitely turn your heat down at night. You’ll save a lot of money. Also, do the usual energy checks: are there drafts, is cold air leaking in anywhere? We use those draft snakes at the base of both our outside doors. They really make a difference. Turning the thermostat down a degree or two will make a big difference in your heating oil costs.

Please feel free to share any tips you might have on this subject. We can all learn from each other. And please visit Brenda, Jen, Elaine and Diane (the rest of the Frugal Five) for their ideas on this subject.

Last week, the five of us shared a little bit about ourselves with you. This week, we’re sharing a bit more of our individual stories.

So much of what we share on our blogs is funny, happy and/or pretty. But there’s a reality behind all that. Here goes.

Most of you are familiar with our story to some extent. Our work is in the arts and both of us freelance. Freelancing is challenging at any time, but for the past two years it has been especially challenging. My husband has been a professional actor for over 40 years. He has worked in the theater, television and film. He’s a very, very good actor. Theater doesn’t pay very much and theaters have had a tough time in this economy. Television – where Don has worked a lot during his career – has been taken over by so-called reality television, which has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with cheap entertainment. It has put actors, directors, costume designers, set designers and a host of other people out of work. The next time you sit down and watch some obviously staged reality television show, think about that.

Don has had to take a job with a car rental company in the meantime. After 40 years as an actor, he has had to learn new skills. The pay? Not good. But the job gives us health insurance and after being hospitalized twice last year, I am only too aware of the perils of not being insured. Thank goodness we were insured at the time. Don needs to work as an actor. It’s the talent he has been blessed with and it also has the potential for the most income. But we need health insurance. And so the cycle continues.

My work comes and goes and sometimes requires me to be out of town for several weeks at a time. When that happens, we are paying for food for two households – doubling our expenses. I’ve looked for work here at home. I’ve worked at other jobs in the past and am perfectly willing to do so now, but I can’t find anything. As far as teaching, which is what I did for 20 years, no university will even consider someone with my experience and resumé. They’d have to pay me too much, so they pass on an interview and hire someone ‘up-and-coming.’ And local companies don’t necessarily want to put money into training someone my age. I also need to be near my ill and aging dog, Riley, who needs help getting around the house.

We don’t have children, but we have two dogs that require prescription dog food and medications. We eat simply. We hardly ever buy new clothes and when we do, they are on sale. We are down to one car because the very old second car we were using requires expensive repairs that we can’t afford. Since we’re down to one car, I am limited as to where I can work. We live in the country – I can’t just walk or take a bus to work. The one car we do have is 11 years old.

I have a job coming up in April and May. After that? Nothing on the horizon.

Thrifty? I’ve always had to be thrifty out of necessity. I’ve never had the luxury of impulse spending. In my world, impulse spending is buying a bouquet at Trader Joe’s for $3.99. I’d kill for a new pair of jeans right now. At the moment, that would be an extravagance.

We don’t take vacations. We very rarely eat out. We almost never go to the movies – too noisy, way too expensive. We’ll catch the film later on DVD or cable.

I’m exploring other avenues for income: advertising on this blog, an etsy shop. In an ideal world, I’d be able to make a fairly good income from work online. That is my hope for the future.

Our mortgage payments are high. Our house is worth much less than it was when we bought it. If we were to consider selling, we would lose lots of money. So far, we’ve never missed a payment in 6 years of living in the cottage. Miracles do happen.

Like so many of you out there, we are approaching the years where we had hoped we would feel a measure of security after a lifetime of work. But the reality facing us is entirely different.

Even with all the worries and stress, we find joy in our daily life. We laugh, we get silly and we are thankful for the blessings we have. Times are tough, yes, but we’re already used to tightening our belt. We’re simply pulling the belt a bit tighter.

We are thrifty. As we move forward in this series, I will share my tips with you. I look forward to reading the tips from Brenda, Diane, Elaine and Jen. We have much to offer each other!