For the first time in years, gas here went under three dollars a gallon. It was cause for a minor celebration. There’s just something nice about seeing that $2.98 on the marquee. It’s only psychological, but it was comforting. Of course, after my minor celebration I realized that there was no point in getting overly [...]
At various times in my life I’ve lived in apartments with few appliances, dormitories with no amenities at all, and homes with HOA’s that restricted what I could do on my own property. I’ve also worked in offices that had no free parking. Living and working in these places greatly increased my expenses because I [...]
You may have seen commercials on TV advertising a “vanishing deductible” (also commonly called a disappearing deductible) and thought it was a great idea. The concept is pretty straight forward and seems easy to understand: If you are accident and moving violation free for a year, your car insurance deductible is reduced by a certain [...]
I saw a small sign on the corner outside my neighborhood advertising “We buy junk cars” the other day. I started wondering why anyone would want to do this and I soon discovered that it can be a way to make some extra money. If you have access to a truck and trailer that can [...]
While most people are surprised to find out that I don’t have a cell phone, they are even more surprised when they also find out that I also don’t have a car. As with the cell phone, the reason I don’t have a car has nothing to do with lack of money. I can afford [...]
I have been car free for several years now, but there are times when I do need to rent a car. I have found that there is one way to consistently get rock bottom prices on a rental car that exceeds coupon specials and all the other advertised deals out there almost every time. Most [...]
I have recently read a number of articles about the businesses which are being hit the hardest by the current downturn in US and well as the global economy. This got me thinking about the businesses that should be affected, even though apparently some of them aren’t. Giant Gas Guzzling SUVs: Not only are they [...]
Unless you live in Germany with access to the Autobahn or own a private race track, chances are good that you will never have a legitimate reason to travel at speeds faster than the law allows. You may want to travel faster than the speed limit and you may do so regularly, but you probably [...]
On my last trip to a used car lot, I was able to get exactly what I wanted out of the transaction. The salesman, of course, tried to talk me into getting more car than I needed, and more importantly, more car than I could afford. I wanted to trade my car outright and not [...]
Ah the frustrations of automobile ownership. My wife and I have two vehicles. She drives a 2003 GMC Envoy. From a cosmetic perspective, it is still in good condition and has only 60,000 miles on it. I drive a 2002 Mitsubishi Montero Sport. It is not in the best physical condition, but it is not [...]
