Okay normally I LOVE the emails and magazine from Real Simple but today I guess they hit a nerve and believe me they were already all exposed and out there just askin to be banged into! In their Save Money All Year Long Column they suggested 1. Don't buy gas on the weekends, buy gas on Tuesday which historically has the lost price of the week. Let me ask all you mom's out there... (all three of you that occassionally read my blog)...Can you really fill up your car on Tuesday and not fill it up on the weekend? How many of you can make it on one tank of gas for a week? Guess I'll start having to bring a bunch of little red gas cans with me when I go to the station on Tuesdays! Peedaddle! (my favorite new swear word from the Mitford books) Their next suggestion was based on the presumption that the average weekly grocery bill is $80.00/week...I live in Texas which is supposed to have one of the lowest costs of living in the US next to Missouri and all I have to say to the $80.00/week is what third world country did they survey? I almost never get out of Walmart under $100.00 and if I go to Sams or Costco forget it $100.00 isn't even close! Now I guess the average family has 1.2 kids and we are 2.8 kids over the average so maybe that is where we blow the curve but BLAST (my other new Mitfordian swear word) this article was more discouraging than helpful!
OH and on a totally ADD tanget...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 1.0 of my 3.0 curve blowers!
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How hilarious!! Not only is it completely impossible to only fill up on Tuesdays, I can't even fill all the way up because the stupid thing automatically stops at $50.00. Gas aint cheap up here!! I actually can get out of WalMart for under $100.00, but it just means I am in Kroger two days later to fill in the large gaps I left on my grocery list!! And yes, we blow the curve on number of kids too. Real Simple should have asked my advice on this issue. The politically correct way to fix our money issues due to our abnormally large family would be to institute a "fast" day for each family member (kids only of course). "Sorry, J, I know you are hungry but it is Wednesday, your fast day. Just think how much money we are saving and you will feel better!" My only issue is that I am just not sure they would buy into the importance of "saving money all year long."
Oh, and now that I am off my own tangent, Happy Birthday to that kid of yours!!!
We haven't spent $80 a week since before Anna started eating jarred food! I actually read a post the other day that talked about how much the government calcultes that a family should spend on food. I'll have to post that link sometime. I think my family size is calculated to spend over $1000 a month - equally crazy!!
Since we are now carpooling half the week for school I can usually get 6 days out of my tank, less if we do a lot of running around on the weekend. Of course, having a car in the shop 8 days out of the last 14 has helped too.
My guess is that Real Simple was gauging their calculation on a 2-person, coupon-cutting, advertised-special purchasing, with-lots-of-extra-time-on-its-hands family to justify the$80 remark. Otherwise, how on earth else would it be possible? But hey, I usually buy gas on Tuesday (grocery day at Wallyworld!), but - oh darn - I'm always back on the weekends buying it, too.
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