8 Things you should do Immediately to Save Money on your Car!

I read a great article by the Simple Dollar this week about 8 simple things we should immediately do to save money on your car. I thought this was a great article to go with becoming more Frugal and stretching your hard-earned dollar. You can go HERE to read the full article, but just to give a few points on this article they included:

• Read the Owners Manual in its Entirety
• Follow the Manual's recommendations for gas purchases. (most cars recommend you get the "low grade" gasoline on your cars not the "premium."
• Establish a Maintenance Schedule.
  
• Photograph the car thoroughly. ( I wish I would have done this before I crashed my car a couple of years ago.)
  
• Keep necessarily/Useful supplies in your car. The Simple Dollar gives a detailed list of things to have in your car so you don't have to pay anyone to come and help you. To add onto his list I would suggest putting some good Walking Shoes and a small notepad and pencil in your car. If your car breaks down, most likely you will be walking somewhere so you would want good shoes. You would also want to be able to leave a note on your car telling where you have gone in case someone stops by your car.
• Air up your tires.
• Shop around for Car insurance. It is amazing how much you can save on your car insurance simple by calling a few different companies. I had a personal finance class in college and my entire class was given the same VIN number for a car and we were each suppose to call 5 different car insurance companies with that VIN number and ask for the same policy as everyone else in the class. The price on a yearly premium for the same car with the same plan varied within a $500 span. So, call around!!
• Establish a carpool
  

5 Painless Ways of Saving

I'm going to participate in the "5 Painless ways we have saved money" over on www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com.

1) I shop at Garage Sales and thrift stores, probably more than 90% of my kids clothes came from Garage sale or hand-me-downs and I have probably not spent over $1.50 for any piece of their clothing, except shoes, since they were born.

2) Instead of buying toys for my kids, I have started weekly going to the public PERC program (Parent Education Resource Center) at our local library and get my kids new toys, games, puzzles, videos, flannelboard stories, etc there instead of wasting my money on toys that they will play with for a week.

3) I have started making our own bread, tortillas, and granola for yogurt and Cereal weekly. We eat ALOT of bread and tortillas so this has cut back quite a bit.

4) I stay home more. This is less gas, less money spent at stores, and less impulse buying.

5) We cook extras for our dinner every night and freeze the leftovers in single portions for my husband to take to school and work everyday instead of buying things away from home. This has saved ALOT and he is eating so much better than he would be if he bought things at school and work.

There are my five. What would your "five painless ways of saving" be? Leave a comment!
To see lists from other women you can go here.