"Another way to solve the traffic problems of this country is to pass a law that only paid-for cars be allowed to use the highways. " - Will Rogers

SavingAdvice.com Blog

Bridging the gap between saving money and investing

Travis Pizel

How Much Gasoline Tax Do You Pay?

By Leave a Comment

gasoline tax

An old saying states two things in life are certain, death and taxes. You pay taxes on gasoline every time you fill up at the pump, but do you know how much gasoline tax you actually pay? It’s easy to not notice when gas prices alone are nearing $3 a gallon.

Both the federal and state governments tax gasoline heavily because it’s a product many people absolutely have to buy.

The federal government collects 18.4 cents per gallon, but the states’ tax rates vary considerably.

State and Federal Gas Taxes

The average state gasoline tax is 33.72 cents per gallon. When you add in the 18.4 cents the federal government takes, the average gasoline tax is 52.12 cents per gallon.

The table below lists the gasoline tax assessed by each state, as well as the total tax per gallon once you include the federal government’s share. These values in the first two columns are expressed in cents per gallon (CPG). The table also includes the annual and monthly gasoline tax paid by a driver burning the average consumption of gasoline per year: 656 gallons. The states are in order of the lowest gas taxes to the highest.

State State Tax Total State + Federal Taxes (@18.4 CPG) Average Annual Gasoline Taxes Average Monthly Gasoline Taxes
Alaska 14.36 32.76 $214.91 $17.91
Oklahoma 17.00 35.40 $232.22 $19.35
Missouri 17.35 35.75 $234.52 $19.54
Mississippi 18.79 37.19 $243.97 $20.33
New Mexico 18.88 37.28 $244.56 $20.38
Arizona 19.00 37.40 $245.34 $20.45
Texas 20.00 38.40 $251.90 $20.99
Louisiana 20.01 38.41 $251.97 $21.00
South Carolina 20.75 39.15 $256.82 $21.40
Alabama 20.91 39.31 $257.87 $21.49
Arkansas 21.80 40.20 $263.71 $21.98
Colorado 22.00 40.40 $265.02 $22.09
Virginia 22.40 40.80 $267.65 $22.30
Delaware 23.00 41.40 $271.58 $22.63
North Dakota 23.00 41.40 $271.58 $22.63
District of Columbia 23.50 41.90 $274.86 $22.91
New Hampshire 23.83 42.23 $277.03 $23.09
Wyoming 24.00 42.40 $278.14 $23.18
Kansas 24.03 42.43 $278.34 $23.20
Tennessee 25.40 43.80 $287.33 $23.94
Kentucky 26.00 44.40 $291.26 $24.27
Massachusetts 26.54 44.94 $294.81 $24.57
Ohio 28.01 46.41 $304.45 $25.37
Minnesota 28.60 47.00 $308.32 $25.69
Nebraska 29.30 47.70 $312.91 $26.08
Utah 29.41 47.81 $313.63 $26.14
South Dakota 30.00 48.40 $317.50 $26.46
Maine 30.01 48.41 $317.57 $26.46
Iowa 30.50 48.90 $320.78 $26.73
Vermont 30.80 49.20 $322.75 $26.90
Georgia 31.59 49.99 $327.93 $27.33
Montana 32.25 50.65 $332.26 $27.69
Wisconsin 32.90 51.30 $336.53 $28.04
Idaho 33.00 51.40 $337.18 $28.10
Nevada 33.78 52.18 $342.30 $28.53
Maryland 33.80 52.20 $342.43 $28.54
Rhode Island 34.00 52.40 $343.74 $28.65
North Carolina 35.35 53.75 $352.60 $29.38
West Virginia 35.70 54.10 $354.90 $29.57
Illinois 35.75 54.15 $355.22 $29.60
Oregon 36.77 55.17 $361.92 $30.16
New Jersey 37.10 55.50 $364.08 $30.34
Connecticut 39.30 57.70 $378.51 $31.54
Florida 41.36 59.76 $392.03 $32.67
Indiana 41.90 60.30 $395.57 $32.96
Michigan 42.42 60.82 $398.98 $33.25
New York 44.69 63.09 $413.87 $34.49
Hawaii 46.92 65.32 $428.50 $35.71
Washington 49.40 67.80 $444.77 $37.06
California 54.73 73.13 $479.73 $39.98
Pennsylvania 58.70 77.10 $505.78 $42.15

Readers, how much of what you’ve read here surprises you — how much do you pay attention to taxes when you buy gas? And how does the gas tax in your state compare to the national average?

Read More

If you liked this article, you just might love these other gems on the topic of gas:

If you enjoy reading our blog posts and would like to try your hand at blogging, we have good news for you; you can do exactly that on Saving Advice. Just click here to get started.

gasoline taxes, paying gas taxes, paying gasoline taxes

What to Do When Insurance Won’t Cover All of Your Meds

By Leave a Comment

Insurance Won't Cover All of Your Meds

You’ve probably already experienced challenges getting your insurance to cover all of your meds. You might face higher out-of-pocket costs on a medication you really need because:

  • The doctor prescribed a brand that is not covered by your insurance
  • You’re at a pharmacy that’s outside of your network
  • Your doctor prescribed something your plan doesn’t cover
  • Your overall insurance coverage has lapsed

Here’s what you can do to try to bring down your out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions.

Ask Doc for Samples

Many drug companies give doctors product samples they can give to patients at no cost, and all you have to do to get them is ask. Samples temporarily fill your need while you seek a permanent solution.

Request the Generic

Usually the pharmacy will let you know if a generic version is available but you can also request it from your doctor. Generics can cost up to 80 percent less than the brand name version.

Switch Insurance

If your current insurance policy falls short of covering you sufficiently, switch to something that does. Shop around for a plan with more coverage of prescriptions, lower deductibles or less of a difference between in-network and out-of-network coverage. First look for different choices offered by your current plan provider; and if the numbers don’t pencil out to your liking, check out your state’s health insurance marketplace.

Another option worth investigating is Medicaid. It’s jointly by the federal and state governments to assist low income and needy people. Contact your local agency to find out whether you qualify and whether it covers your desired medication.

Look at Other Pharmacies

Even with insurance picking up most of the tab, you might find different out-of-pocket prices for the same medication at a different pharmacy. So it makes sense to shop around.

Prescription Assistance Programs

You can get additional help from non-profit organizations that subsidize out-of-pocket expenses for prescriptions and other health care. Two of the most popular are:

  • FreeDrugCard.us — This is a free coupon card that provides savings of up to 90 percent at major pharmacies across the country, including Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid, Kroger, Kmart, and Safeway.
  • NeedyMeds.org — This website proves a list of assistance programs with phone numbers and links to required paperwork for each drug entered.

Even if your out-of-pocket costs gets prohibitive, the solution isn’t to skip taking the medication altogether — endangering your health means incurring even greater medical expenses. Instead, try to find a solution from among those presented here.

Readers, what have been your biggest out-of-pocket medical expenses — and what did you do to get them taken care of?

Read More

Read more healthcare related articles:

Summer Car Maintenance Tips to Beat the Heat

By Leave a Comment

`Summer Car Maintenance Tips

Summer temperatures put additional strain on just about every part of your car. Keep your vehicle rolling smoothly with these easy seasonal maintenance tips that save you money down the road.

Replace the Engine Air Filter

The engine air filter prevents dirt, debris and bugs from getting into the engine. Most mechanics recommend changing the engine air filter every 15,000 to 30,000 miles. However, if you live in an area with increased pollution or dust during the summer, check your engine air filter more frequently.

The cost of a new engine air filter averages between $36 and $86.  However, ignoring your engine filter can result in major engine damage that will require it be replaced: The cost of a new engine is $3,000 to $8,000, plus thousands more for labor.

Flush the Radiator

A car’s radiator works harder during warm summer months. Over time, blockages form inside the radiator, making the system less efficient, and your car more likely to overheat — potentially cracking your head gasket. Replacing a head gasket is a very expensive repair, costing between $731 and $1771 depending upon vehicle type.

A better course of action is to have your radiator flushed to remove the blockages. The average cost for this service is between $50 and $155 and most mechanics recommend having it done every 36,000 miles. Refer to your owner’s manual for what’s recommended for your vehicle.

Check the Tires

You can save an average of $637 that you would otherwise have to pay to prematurely replace all four of your tires — just by manually checking whether they’re properly inflated.

You’ll want to do this because there’s no automated sensor for over inflated tires like there is for deflated tires.

Yet hot weather increases tire pressure, which can cause unnecessary wear and tear.

So, inflate your tires to recommended pressure found on the inside of the driver’s door.

Charge the Air Conditioner

A hot and steamy day isn’t the time to find out your car’s air conditioner needs to be recharged.

Turn it on early in the spring and pay an estimated $123 to $156 to refill your car’s refrigerant if needed.

Replace the Cabin Air Filter

The cabin air filter prevents pollutants from getting into the cabin of the vehicle.

Car manufacturers recommend changing the cabin air filter every 12,000 to 15,000 miles, but people who live in or drive through areas with lots of pollution may need to change it more frequently.

Not changing the cabin air filter will not effect the performance of the engine, but will affect the climate control system, making for an uncomfortable ride due to higher summer time levels of unsavory smells and pollutants coming directly into the cabin.

The cost to replace your cabin air filter is between $40 and $100, depending on the type of care you have.

Summer Car Maintenance Is Well Worth It

These summer car maintenance tips are easy, affordable, and well worth their price to keep your car in tip top shape in the summer heat.

Readers, is your car ready for summer? When’s the last time you gave it a tune-up?

Read More

Read more articles related to car ownership and maintenance:

What Determines Your Car Insurance Premiums Might Surprise You

By Leave a Comment

Car Insurance Premiums

Insurance companies keep the exact formula for calculating car insurance rates a highly guarded secret. However, there are known things that affect car insurance premiums. Some of them will surprise you.

Your Gender

Car insurance costs less for women because numerous statistics show they are much safer drivers.  The following statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety were found on the website for the Department of Motor Vehicles:

  • Men accounted for 71 percent of driving fatalities during 2012;
  • Men are more likely to drive while under the influence (38 percent of males killed in a car accidents during 2012 had blood alcohol levels higher than 0.08  — compared to 20 percent of women; and
  • Men are more likely to drive over the speed limit (23 percent of male drivers involved in fatal accidents were speeding at the time, in contrast to 14 percent of female drivers in those circumstances).

Your Age

Young people between the ages of 16 and 24 have higher premiums because they have a higher accident rate.

Drivers aged 16-17 are 3.5 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash, according to a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Your Career

Some insurance companies factor occupation into their car insurance rate calculation, and it can make a $500 difference in your premiums.

Occupations that lead insurers to charge the most  tend to have the following attributes:

  • High stress levels
  • The person spends a lot of time in the vehicle
  • Heavy cell phone usage

By contrast, ocupations on the low end of the rate spectrum have the following characteristics:

  • Low stress levels
  • They’re responsible for the well-being of others
  • They use public transportation
  • They need to pay attention to details, which insurers believe carries over to their driving

These factors together account for scientists enjoying the lowest premiums — at an average annual cost of $870; at the other end of the spectrum, business executives have the highest rates, with an average annual cost of $1,375.

Your Education

Apparently better educated drivers represent less risk to insurers — and vice versa.

People who have not finished high school are 4.3 times more likely to be killed in a car accident than college graduates, according to data published in The Washington Post.

The more education you have attained, the lower your monthly premiums, and vice versa.

Your Marital Status

Marriage tends to make people drive more responsibly than single drivers.

Unmarried drivers were twice as likely to be injured in an accident as married drivers, according to a study published in a journal called Injury Prevention.

Because of the reduced risk of injury, being married can reduce your insurance rates.

Your Credit Score

Insurance companies use your credit score as an indication of whether you will pay your premium on time — and the impact on annual rates  can be significant.

Single drivers with good credit ratings each paid $68 to $526 more per year on average than those with the highest credit rating, according to Consumer Reports

Your Car’s Characteristics

Several things about your car impacts how much it costs to insure:

  • Age – generally new cars are more expensive to repair and therefore have higher premiums.
  • Safety features – Enhanced safety features can discount your insurance 5 to 30 percent.
  • Theft history – The recovery rate stolen cars can be as low as 19 percent in some states, so the cars that get stolen most frequently have higher premiums.

Your Claim History

Many people believe submitting an accident claim will increase your insurance rates, but that’s not always true.

Circumstances surrounding the accident in the claim dictate whether rates will be increased, and by how much:

  • Fault – If you are not at fault, your rate may not increase since your insurance company did not have to pay.
  • Severity – A claim for a minor scratch may not affect your rates, but a major at fault claim exceeding $2,000 could result in a premium increase of 41 percent.
  • Accident Forgiveness – Some policies include accident forgiveness, which can lock in your rate even if you get into an accident.

Your Traffic Tickets

Non-moving violations, such as a parking ticket, is unlikely to affect your insurance rates. However, moving violations such as speeding may depending upon your insurance company.  For example, a single speeding ticket in California results in an average annual insurance premium increase of $688. The more tickets issued, the more your rate may be affected.

Your Coverage and Deductible

The more coverage opt for, the higher your premiums are; similarly, having a high deductible can lower your premiums.

Increasing your coverage isn’t a matter of dollar amounts but types of policies. Most states require liability insurance as a bare minimum. If you choose to adding optional collision and comprehensive coverage that can increase. your premiums.

On the other hand, increasing your deductible lowers your premiums because you assume more risk, but how this calculates can be surprising. For example, increasing your liability insurance deductible from $50 to $1,000 could reduce your premiums by 56 percent.

Your State’s Laws

From here, insurance rate formulas can vary based on different state laws. Some states prohibit insurance companies from basing premiums on certain factors. For example, California, insurance companies cannot use occupation and education levels.

Your Insurer

Individual insurers can also have their own variations in the way they calculate premiums — reach out to your insurance company to find out exactly how it computes premiums.

You can also get more information on this topic from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Readers, which of the factors affecting car insurance premiums surprise you surprise you the most?

Read More

Read more insurance related articles:

If you enjoy reading our blog posts and would like to try your hand at blogging, we have good news for you; you can do exactly that on Saving Advice. Just click here to get started.

 

How to Make Your Very Own 100-Foot Water Slide!

By Leave a Comment

100-foot water slide

Both kids and adults deserve to stay cool and have fun during the summer months. There’s no better way to accomplish this than with a 100-foot water slide in your own backyard.

The instructions below include everything needed to build a mega water slide 25 feet longer and $50 cheaper than the biggest slide found on Amazon (which doesn’t even include sprinklers).

This will turn your backyard into a veritable frenzy of water fun. And don’t worry If your yard can’t accommodate a 100-foot slide — later in the article, there’s a chart that can help you scale down the size if you need to.

Materials

Total Price: $102.35

100-Foot Water Slide Directions

1. Unroll the plastic and position in your yard to allow for a running start before jumping onto the slide. Note that you don’t need to put this on a hill in order to result in a slide — the water will take care of that.

2. Secure the beginning of the slide with one tent stake on each side.

3. Wrap a piece of Gorilla tape around the edge of the plastic to keep the plastic from tearing.

4. Drive the stake through the tape and plastic, tucking the edge under the tab of the stake.

5. Do not hammer the stake all the way into the ground to allow for easy removal for initial adjustments.

DIY Water Slide

Connect Hoses and Sprinklers

A smoothly running water slide requires water coverage all the way down the slide — the rest of the directions explain how to do it.

6. Run a hose from your home’s outdoor water faucet to the beginning of the slide.

7. Position the first sprinkler so it’s spray covers the beginning of the slide.

8. Run the second hose parallel to the slide and position the second sprinkler so it’s spraying overlaps the first sprinkler slightly, then continues further down the slide.

9. Repeat the process with the third hose and sprinkler.

DIY Water Slide

Test Run and Adjustments

8. Have someone go down the slide to determine if the contour of the ground pushes riders off the side.

9. Adjust the slide until the test rider stays on the slide all the way down.

Secure the Slide

10. Using the same technique as with the first set of tent stakes, add stakes every 25 feet on each side until the end of the slide.

11. Pound all stakes flush with the ground.

Additional Water Slide Fun

A water slide of this magnitude allows you to increase the fun by using your imagination — here some examples.

  • Add dishwashing soap to the slide to increase speed; actually, you can substitute anything slippery for this, including foam or even scuba-divers’ lubricant
  • Spin around in circles all the way down the slide (this is something you can only can’t do on a slip-n-slide because there’s not enough room).
  • Hold hands with others and go down all once (see parentheses above).

Size Scaling

Speaking of variations, here’s some guidance on how to scale the slide for smaller yards.

Slide Length In Feet # Of Tent Stakes # of Hoses # Of Sprinklers
100 12 3 3
75 10 3 3
50 8 2 2
25 6 1 1

Whether you try any of these variations or just stick to the traditional water slide directions, you’ve still got a pretty intense creation.

It’s bigger and better quality than anything you can buy and gives your family — and friends — wet, refreshing fun for the entire summer.

Readers, would you build a water slide in your backyard?  Would you go down it?

Read More

Check out other awesome summertime articles:

DIY water slide, summer fun activities, DIY 100-ft water slide

Filed Under: Uncategorized

10 Fun Things That Are Cheaper Than a Swimming Pool

By Leave a Comment

Cheaper Than A Swimming Pool

The typical vision of a backyard oasis includes a swimming pool, but with an average price exceeding $23,000, many find it hard to make that vision a reality. But you can have fun for a lot less money: check out this list of 10 things that can be done in just about any backyard for less money.

Mega Water Slide

Kids and adults can cool off on hot summer days with a 75-foot water slide found on Amazon for $149.95.

Backyard Adventure Water Park

Nobody will complain about not having a swimming pool if they have their own water park. It comes with a giant beach ball, slide arches, obstacle beams and sprinkling palm tree.

The pieces have four-way connectors allowing any formation you can imagine. The Backyard Adventure Water Park is available from Amazon for $466.07.

Hammock

Swing to the gentle summer breeze in a hammock. Amazon sells a two-person hammock with a stand and sunshade for $219.99.

Giant Trampoline

Jumping on a giant trampoline is not only fun but great exercise. Walmart sells a 15-foot trampoline with a safety enclosure for $279.99 each.

Fire Pit

Enjoy summer nights around a fire pit in your backyard. Home Depot sells quality fire pit kits starting at $349. They include stones and a steel insert — so that your fire pit will last for years.

Bird Feeders

Watching colorful birds outside your window can relax and entertain you at the same time. Purchase a bird feeder station for $24.99 — and a set of two bird feeders for $17.99 from Amazon and you’ve created a new hobby for $42.98.

Garden

Spend the whole summer nurturing your own backyard vegetable and herb garden. Buy a seed kit from Amazon for $22.95 and harvest the benefits in the fall.

Volleyball Net

Set up your own volleyball court and invite your friends and neighbors over for a little friendly competition. Everything you need is included in a volleyball package from Walmart priced at $76.99.

Outdoor Movies

With an inflatable movie screen ($249.99) and wireless projector ($299.99) from Best Buy, you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood by hosting outdoor movies.

Backyard Camping

Treat your kids to a camping experience without leaving the yard: Put up a six-person tent from Target ($80.99), throw in as many pillows and blankets as you can find and sleep under the stars.

How About All of the Above?

Unbelievably, you could do all of the things listed for $2,238.89, which is still a fraction of the cost of a swimming pool.

Just imagine how much fun your backyard would be with all of these things in it — or at least more than one of them.

Readers, would you rather have a swimming pool or all of these things at a fraction of the cost?

Read More

If you enjoy reading our blog posts and would like to try your hand at blogging, we have good news for you; you can do exactly that on Saving Advice. Just click here to get started.

budget activities, frugal activities, cheap fun things to do