Yup, BillShrink & J. Money are hooking two lucky bastards up with $50 in Gas!

And unlike last summer, $50 should last you a lot longer on the road ;) For anyone who doesn't remember the last giveaway we did, Billshrink is all about helping people like you and me save money. They hook you up with the best cell phone plans, the best credit card plans, and certainly the best gas stations - all based on your specific situation. Here's what their widget popped out as the cheapest gas around my place:



To Enter the Gas Card Giveaway:
It's nice and simple: Hit up Billshrink.com, click on "Gas Prices" (orange button in the middle), and find the cheapest gas around you! Then, drop a comment on Billshrink's facebook page with 2 things:

1. The price of the lowest gas you found
2. And the keyword "Budgets Are Sexy"

And you're done! So your comment should look something like this, "Cheapest gas in my hood is $2.89. And also, Budgets Are Sexy!". The keyword's the most important here so that they count you in our special promotion we're doing outside of their other gas card giveaway. This means WAY BETTER ODDS for you as you're only in the drawing with other fans of this site, not the whole pool ;)

The giveaway ends this Wednesday, July 15th and will be announced on both Facebook & Billshrink's blog. So hurry up and enter! That's a lot of free gas.

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*UPDATE: The 2 Winners: Jennifer Teti & Kelly Whalen. Thx for participating everybody!

Labels: gas, giveaways

That's right! T-Mobile, BillShrink, and J. Money are teaming up to bring you savings AND a Free phone!

And with the way this economy's been lately, the timing couldn't be better :) You owe it to yourselves to make sure you've got the best cell phone plans and credit cards in your pockets - plain and simple.

For anyone in the dark, BillShrink.com has come out blazing and is all about helping people like you and me save money. They hook you up with the best cell phone plans, credit card plans, and best gas stations centered around YOUR personal preferences. The whole site's pretty clever if you ask me, and I'm kinda pissed I didn't come up with it first ;) But whatever, I've got a PF blog instead, right? So yeah, check it out. All you have to do is visit their site, enter some info and preferences about your current bills, and voila! It recommends some better alternatives to help you save some money. It's easy, it's FREE, and it's awesome.

They also have a freakin' great blog as well (and I'm not just saying that). Their tagline is "Shrinkage Is Good" for crying out! haha...bad to the a$$. Anyways, to give you an idea of what their recommendations are like, here's what they gave ME when I hit them back up again:


Credit Card Recommendation: American Express TrueEarnings

This was based on paying off the card in full every month, spending roughly $1,000/mo, and wanting cash back over mileage and other prizes. And it doesn't surprise me at all - If Warren Buffett's been picking up even more of their stock, they have to be doing something right! Plus, I've always considered them a top dawg in these races. For me though, there's no beating my USAA World Cash Rewards MasterCard ;) If you're not as addicted or faithful to your own card, however, then this tool is def. worth checking out. You can sort from cash back, mileage, whatever your preferences are.


Cell Phone Provider Recommendation: T-Mobile

In all honesty, I didn't think T-Mobile was gonna come out as the clear winner here. I knew Verizon (who I have) is always more costly than the rest of the carriers out there, but I thought AT&T would for some reason win - but I was wrong! Based on my usage and specific needs, T-Mo grabbed the top spot! I know they've been trying to developing strong relationships with their customers, and are always pretty confident they have the best rates going on, so I suppose it all makes sense. I guess that's why they're so keen on pimping out BillShrink, eh? ;)


Best Gas Station in My Area: Liberty

This is true! Where I live Liberty, in fact, IS the cheapest station around...unfortunately I prefer convenience over saving a few bucks when it comes to filling up my Caddy. This station is only a few blocks away (I know, I'm an idiot) but when I'm going to or from work, I'm already in a rush and I'll gladly pay that convenience fee. If you're smarter than me, you'll listen to what Billshrink recommends.

So there you have it - T-Mobile & BillShrink are lighting up the skies! Now, onto the part you probably care about a teenie weenie bit more - THE FREE PHONE ;) Yes, I speaketh the truth. I will be giving one lucky winner a Free Tony Hawk Ed. Sidekick or a Motorola ROKR E8 - whichever you prefer.

All you have to do is visit BillShrink's site, and then drop me a comment with your thoughts about it - that's it! You can tell us how much money they will save you, how much you loved their blog, or even how you'd rather swallow a huge rat turd than switch credit cards, it doesn't matter. Just leave your thoughts on the subject and you will be entered to win the free phone.

So whatcha waiting for? Get out there and see if you can save some big bucks! I'll be picking the winner this Saturday @ 12noon EST via Random.org. God Bless you my frugal ones..

*WINNER: Gloomberg News! Click here for more info...
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*These phones ARE, indeed, FREE! You don't have to activate it with T-Mo or sign up to a plan or anything - you can do as you please with it :) Although, unless you already have T-Mo you may need to get w/ 'em to have it work (not free), but the point is it's totally you're call. (And no, I did NOT get any money or any other sort of compensation for this post. Only one of YOU lucky bastards will get this free phone, not me ;))

Labels: credit cards, gas, giveaways, phone service, saving

I've noticed it hasn't gone UP at all, but i feel like i just transported back into 2001! It's amazing. The last time i blogged about gas it was around $4-something and i filled my Toyota Highlander for $60.56!

Know how much i spent yesterday? $27.89!!! for the same almost-16 gallon tank full, only this time @ $1.96 - and that's for Premium! Dannnnng son, gotta love that. Now, my cadillac will def. use up more than the SUV, but it sure makes my decision to switch cars much better :)

I know there's a whole butt-load behind the reasoning for all this - supply and demand, oil reserves, blah blah blah - but i have my own theory here, and it's probably not original in the least:

I simply think gas gets more expensive when it's warmer out, and much lower when it's colder out. plain and simple.

The hotter it gets - the higher it goes! And the colder it gets, the lower it goes. whatcha think about that? i'm only basing it on this past year, of course, but it makes sense to me :) I don't need no stinkin' variables and high-tech gadgets to figure out this one! haha...

From this day forward, GAS is back on the friend list. And this makes me happy - i hate having enemies! And know what else makes me happy? It's FRIIIIIIIIDAYYYYYYYYYYYYY bitches! Now get out there and make poppa proud!

Labels: car stuff, gas

I came across these twice in the past few days - once on a pf site which i can't remember for the life of me, and the other in this month's Money Magazine - so I'm taking it as a sign to share :) Some of these i've fell for, and others are brand spankin' new (and interesting) to me.

While i usually don't know what to believe out there, I'm sure these "experts" know what they're talking about. That's actually a pretty cool job if you think about it - going around proving myths aren't true! I wonder how much you get paid for that? They probably just go around asking experts in certain fields for their opinion....that makes more sense, but it's not as fun to think about ;)

Anyways, it's always good to separate a little fact from fiction, so here are the truths behind some of those gas-saving myths:

1. Gas up in the morning
I'll have to admit i've never heard this one before, but it has something to do with fluids being more dense in colder temperatures. So if you fill 'er up early on, you'll get more "gas molecules" for your money. Apparently the temperature of the gasoline straight out of the nozzel doesn't fluctuate much though, so it really doesn't matter. Oh well, it was a good try!

2. Change your air filter
Now THIS one i hear alllll the time! In fact, i heard it 2 weeks ago when changing out my oil at one of those Lube Centers (which i LOVE btw, you're in and out in 15 mins if you can beat the lines, and they check everything!) While changing your filter is good to do every now and then, the myth-busters say it doesn't help on gas. "Modern engines have sensors that adjust the fuel-air mixture as an increasingly clogged filter chokes off the oxygen supply". Huh. Interesting...unless you have an older car eh?

3. Use premium fuel
Same goes with this bad boy, your engine sensors can detect the lower-octane fuel and adjust accordingly. This only applies if the manual says premium gas is "recommended". If it says it's required - then you should DEFINITELY stick to that.

4. Put in an additive
A definite nope on this one unfortunately...and I'll be the first to admit i've tried a number of them out there! The idea of it is just so quick and easy, ya know? Oh well, guess we'll have to kiss those secret sauces away for now...at least it'll save a few bucks not putting it in anymore ;)

5. Avoid the AC
If you're driving in town, then it works! (hooray). BUT, if you're speeding along the highway, you might as well forget it. Keeping the windows down affects your mileage just as much because it causes aerodynamic drag...so you might as well choose your fav. option at that point - either way it just sucks. It also sucks that one of my boys told me this a few years ago and i just laughed it off....oops.

And there you have it, 5 myths all cleared up for ya! While it's no fair there aren't any secrets out there, at least you can concentrate on other ways to save on gas now - driving smoother, no heavy stop and go action, carpooling, riding public transportation, etc.

And who knows, I bet someone's devising a little somethin' somethin' as we speak to help alleviate our gas crisis!

Labels: car stuff, gas, myths

I know there's been a 345,456,77.15 articles out there on this whole gas fiasco, but it wasn't until last night's fill up that it actually hit me...

These gas prices are ridiculous! I could have bought a used computer instead! (okay, so that's a little exaggeration...but great googly moogly just the same.)

Care to take a guess how much it cost me to fill up my SUV? And keep in mind, I have a Toyota Highlander which is quite respectable in it's class for consumption: $60.56 - for less than 16 gallons!

I know it's not the end of the world, some people are spending over $4.50/gallon. But it's just that i kinda blocked the whole gas thing out, and was doing SO good at not letting it get to me :( Needless to say, selling the car will be back on the consideration list again.

Wanna know the saddest part about this? The other day when i was going through my old planner (from back in the college days) i found a "receipts" pouch and took a stroll back memory lane. I nearly fell over at what i saw: Gas per gallon back then - $1.02.

W-O-W.

Labels: car stuff, gas

This happened a few months ago, but it popped in my head this morning and I thought you might find it pretty interesting. With gas prices these days, it's no wonder people go rabid with this stuff!

From "Error sparks mad dash over 33-cent gas" on MSNBC.com:

"Dozens of drivers made a mad rush for cheap gas after a station employee accidentally changed the price to 33 cents a gallon. An employee closing Trig's Minocqua Shell for the night meant to drop the price of gas by 1 cent."

Forty-two people bought 586 gallons of gas in an hour and 45 minutes. Talk about some good news traveling fast! As sexy as it sounds, however, would you consider it dishonest? I could see how the first person could have filled up w/out much attention, but when your tank tops out at $5 bucks, you HAVE to know something's up. But do you say something?

The article goes on and talks about how the station owner was pretty upset (rightfully so), and that the customers were dishonest. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."

I'm no goody-goody, but i have to side w/ him. It's an obvious mistake that not only hurts the station, but could possibly have the employee fired. Some might even consider it a form of theft. In all honesty, I'd tell the station manager. That's not to say that i wouldn't fill up FIRST and THEN tell him, cuz i probably would, but without a doubt i'd bring it up.

I know this because that's exactly what i did a few months ago while down in Richmond. The gas was SUPPOSED to be $2.96, but as i was filling up i noticed that it was actually set at only $2.69! Not as extreme as 33 cents/gallon, but that's still a good $6 saved in the end.

So I filled up the rest of my tank (i knew i would!), and then i walked over and alerted the station manager. Who knows how long it was going on before i got there, but i can tell you one thing - that guy was THANKFUL!

$hit, even the look on his face was worth the honesty :) And you know what? It felt great afterwards. Sure i didn't tell him before i filled up, not that i had known yet, but that's one good deed that prevented a lot of heart ache in the end.

Labels: cockamamy indeed, gas, morality