Are rising gas prices causing your blood pressure to rise?

(Additional content at the bottom of this post -- May 19, 2013)

The price of gas jumped 30 cents per gallon in one week! That's huge! And it went up again yesterday from morning to afternoon. (edited: gas jumped another 10 cents Tuesday from morning to afternoon. We're close to a 50-cent increase in just 10 days.) Yikes! Whether this is just a tightening supply issue or something more, what can we do to save on fuel purchases?

Here's the thing. Most of us are already batching our errands. We're driving sensibly -- easing into the acceleration, and beginning to slow before needing to actually break for a stop light. We're doing the things we've been told to keep our fuel use down.

This past month, I've been studying up on how we can save even more on our gas, without too much extra work, time, or know-how when it comes to cars. So, I thought I'd share with you, what's been working for our family.

Maybe you already know these 5 tips. But sometimes, a little reminder gets us back to actually following them. Read on.

1)  When driving around town, unroll the windows instead of turning on the A/C. This is a good time of year for using windows for ventilation, as we haven't reached the super hot days of summer, yet. A rule of thumb number is about 40 MPH. Speeds above, use your A/C. Speeds below, use windows. There are a lot of variables with this basic formula -- make, model and year of car, but basically about 40 MPH is the number.

I checked a couple of different sites on this. Mythbusters recommended 45 MPH, but their testing didn't seem as scientific as that from this site, auto.howstuffworks.com, which recommended the 40 MPH.

I am a lover of A/C. But for in-town driving, I am using my windows this spring. What about the whacky hair that window's down can cause, you wonder? To keep myself from looking like Einstein's sister, when I arrive at my destination, I've been using a scarf to contain my curly locks.

2)  Keep your tire pressure to the manufacturer's recommendation, for your vehicle. You can find this information in your owner's manual, online for your vehicle, or on the inside of the jamb of the driver's door.

So you've heard this before. But did you know that you can improve your fuel efficiency by up to 3%, simply by maintaining proper tire pressure? If you're spending $150 per month on gas for your cars, multiplied by 12 months, that 3% is over $50, by the end of the year, my friend!

Many gas stations have air refilling pumps, some charge 25 cents or so, but many are free. This is a super cheap way to gain back some of that $$ that gas price increases have stripped away from us.

One of our cars has a tire with a very slow leak. It needs a top off of air every one to two months. Until we can get this tire patched, checking air pressure and adding a bit here and there is one of the cheapest things we can do to boost our fuel efficiency. The gas station we use offers free air, so no cost, just a tiny amount of time.

What about over-inflating your tires. This myth has been around for a while, that if under-inflating your tires reduces fuel economy, then over-inflating should improve fuel economy, right? Wrong. According to Popular Mechanics, not only do you not boost fuel economy by over-inflating your tires, you create undue risk to yourself, as handling is compromised on over-inflated tires.

3)  This tip is more likely to save you time, which you could put to better use, which in turn could potentially save you money. Know your car's cost per mile. Cost of gas per gallon (or litre) divided by your vehicle's MPG (or miles per litre). Use this to figure if driving out of your way to get cheaper gas is cost-efficient. So, yesterday's gas price was $3.58 per gallon. Our car gets 24 MPG. Our car's cost per mile is about 15 cents, when the cost per gallon is about $3.60.

If I drive 5 miles out of my way to buy cheaper gas, then I need to save about 75 cents on that fill-up to "break even". We typically put about 11 to 12 gallons into our car per week. If gas is only 3 cents cheaper per gallon, but I have to drive 5 miles out of my way, then I've only saved about 35 cents on that fill-up, and don't reach the "break even" point. But if gas is 10 cents less per gallon, and 5 miles out of my way, my savings on the price of gas is about $1.20/fill-up, or about a 45 cent profit. Depending on the value of my time, this may or may not be enough of a savings to drive out of my way.

Even driving just 1 mile out of my way will cost me 15 cents in gas, and most of the time, isn't worth it to me if I will only be saving 3 cents per gallon, for 11-12 gallons, or 33 to 36 cents savings, netting me just 18 to 21 cents total.

If your car only gets about 20 MPG, then at yesterday's prices in our area, your cost per mile is about 18 cents. Driving 5 miles out of your way will cost you 90 cents. If your tank holds about 13 gallons (which is about average for sedans), and you fill it to FULL every time, you would need a price difference of about 7 cents per gallon just to break even.

The poorer your car's fuel economy, and the smaller the price difference in different gas stations, combined with the less gas you add to the tank at a time, then the less valuable it is to drive out of your way for a few cents worth of savings per gallon. You can probably find something more lucrative to do with your time, than driving all around town to save a couple of pennies.

The most cost-effective way for us to buy our gas, is to make a stop at the lowest-priced gas station, that also happens to be along my regular route, or is very close to someplace I need to go anyway.

My son drives 20-25 miles to work each way, each day. When his tank is low, he checks seattlegasprices.com to find the lowest-priced gas at both ends of his commute. He discovered that it's less expensive to fill up down near his office. Getting gas near your destination, instead of near your home, on a regular basis, could save you a couple of dollars per month.

4)  Buy gas on Wednesday mornings, before 10 AM. When you buy your gas matters, especially with a holiday coming up. Memorial Day is just around the corner for the US. Canada has Victoria Day  next Monday, May 20. If you know you will likely need fuel just before or during that weekend, refuel a few days early, like on the Wednesday morning before the holiday. Wednesday mornings, before 10 AM is often the least expensive time and day of the week to buy gas, and by refueling a few days ahead of the long weekend-pack, you'll snag a cheaper price per gallon.

If you've been in the habit of buying your gas any other time of the week, an article from business.time.com explained why Wednesday mornings are THE best time/day of the week to buy your gas. Switching our gas buying routine from Sundays (our old day to buy gas) to Wednesdays is saving us a few dollars per month, or over $30 per year.

5)  Make sure you are driving the most economical car (that you already own) for your purpose. In the US, many families have 2 cars. Usually one car is designated as Mom's car and the other is designated as Dad's car. You may want to switch this up during the week. If your car gets better fuel economy than your husband's, but you need to travel less during the week, it may make sense for the two of you to switch cars, so that the person traveling more miles per week is driving the car that gets better MPG. We get into habits. And this is one habit you may want to alter.

What are gas prices doing in your area? Did you notice a huge jump in price this last week? What are your plans for dealing with rising gas prices?

One thing I'll be doing this summer, is riding my bike more for errands around town.

(added content 5/19/13) The price of gas in our area has now gone up over 60 cents per gallon in two weeks time. For one of our cars, that's over $7 per week. What am I going to do about it?

Well, I'm carefully laying out my driving plans for the week. I managed to shave 25 miles off my driving this past week, by making 3 trips to our church for drop offs and pick-ups for activities rather than 5 trips, by finding work that I either needed to take care of, or could volunteer for, and be nearby my daughters, minimizing my driving to/from.

I've changed my driving style, allowing more time to get to my destination, accelerating slowly, taking my foot off the gas pedal and coasting for a bit before braking, all the stuff they tell you to do to lessen gas consumption.

And I will likely have to allocate more money towards gas in our budget, and reduce another category, especially when it comes to our family vacation later in the summer.

If you came to my site via Google or other search engine, then I'm assuming that prices have risen for gas in your area, too. Some cities have been impacted more than others. If you are uncertain whether to buy gas today, or hold off for a day or two, gaspredictor.com could give you the info that you need. They base their forecasts on Futures trading.

What are you paying per gallon this week? 

My thoughts on beauty and my own skin care regimen (it's not grand, I'll tell you!)

(Happy Saturday, everyone. This is going up a few hours early.)

In the comments the other day, I was asked to share my skin care regimen. Which is really weird, because my regimen is quite minimal. But I thought I'd share my personal thoughts on beauty, aging and skin.

We live in a warped society, where a 20 year-old woman is thought to be beautiful if she looks like a 12 year-old girl. Women have horrible things done to themselves in the name of beauty. They have their faces injected, cut, lifted, chemically abraded -- all in the name of beauty. Real beauty comes from the spirit of a woman, not the skin that she's wrapped in.

The kind of beauty I pursue, is the beauty of a young mother who snuggles her newborn baby right after his first breath. This same beauty is that of a daughter, tear rolling down her cheek, as she holds her dying father's hand when he takes his last breath. This is love. This is joy. This is sorrow. This is life. This is beauty.

I want to have laugh lines, worry lines and tear-stained cheeks. I want my face to say that I've lived a rich and love-filled life. I want children to know that I'm a pleasant old lady, who enjoys the company of their young selves.


My memories of a very beautiful older lady (and she was indeed a lady)

Her name was Mrs. Reaume. And she was my piano teacher. She had lived through joy and sorrow. She was kind. She was patient. She was gentle. And she was 75 years old.

Her lovely white hair was loosely pinned into a bun on the back of her head. She wore elegant dresses with billowy sleeves, often in the same shade of ice blue as her sparkling eyes.

She was a widow. But somewhere along the line she picked up a suitor, Mr. Earl. She called him her gentleman friend. But my sister and I giggled in secret about Mr. Earl being Mrs. Reaume's boyfriend. Mr. Earl would drive Mrs. Reaume's enormous Cadillac convertible each week, ferrying Mrs. Reaume to her lessons with half-pint pupils. Mr. Earl knew that Mrs. Reaume was a beauty.

Mrs. Reaume's face gently held it's share of wrinkles. But there was beauty in these wrinkles, evidence of a life well-lived. That's the kind of beauty that I pursue.

So, I too will have a face filled with wrinkles, Lord willing that I should live a long life. I really don't fight them. My beauty regime is much simpler than that of many American women, but maybe similar to yours.

What I don't do

• I don't exfoliate
• I don't use a toner
• I don't use soap on my face
• I don't do injections of any kind (ouchy, ouch, ouch!)
• And I don't have a cabinet of products that I use every day

In fact, I have 1 product for daily use. It's a moisturizing lotion that I use as my cleanser, moisturizer and eye"cream".

I have extremely sensitive skin, prone to eczema. My face can not tolerate many products. Exfoliation would be painful, A toner would chap my skin. Soap burns. I have tried many products which claim to be good for eczema. But so far, I've just found one moisturizer (and I use it as an all-purpose product) which actually helps the feel and condition of my skin. It's called CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion. You buy it in the drugstore.

About 5 years ago, I read a book on dealing with eczema. The doctor recommended a different lotion, which I could not find locally. But the key ingredients were ceramides. If you'd like to read up a bit on ceramides here's a link to more info. It appears that ceramides are indeed helpful for eczematic skin (I found that out personally about 5 years ago). If you suffer from eczema, I'd recommend asking your doctor about products with ceramides. Many dermatologists are recommending CeraVe, as it's affordable and over the counter. And that's my big skin care secret! LOL!

I also use cortisone cream during allergy season. I keep a tube of it with me in my purse.


I told you that I use this one single product for cleansing and moisturizing. I tried the cleanser in this line, but found I got better results just using this one product, the moisturizer. So here's my grand skin care regimen.

• I apply CeraVe to my face, then splash off with warm water. 
• I pat my face dry, then immediately put more CeraVe on my face. If I've been out in the wind, I wait for the first coat of CeraVe to soak in, then apply just a bit more. 
• I dab more CeraVe under my eyes, as an eye "cream". Because of it's water content, I have to wait a minute or two before putting on concealer over my dark circles. 
• I do the cleansing/moisturizing thing at least once per day, twice if I've been active, worn make-up, or allergies are causing itchies.

I also had a conversation with a dermatologist (who had great skin, by the way, for a woman in her 60s, obviously followed her own advice) several years ago. She told me great skin is mostly genetic, but there were a few things I could do to influence my own outcome.

Avoid:

• alcohol
• tobacco
• caffeine
• soda pop
• stress
• sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM

She said "do":

• use sunscreen 
• wear sunglasses
• wear a hat when outdoors
• eat fish, nuts, avocados and olive oil

Basic stuff that we've all heard, but I do think this common sense approach can benefit both our insides and our outsides.

How have I done over the years with this? Well, I'm great on the tobacco and alcohol. And I gave up soda about 18 years ago.

I'm not always great about avoiding the sun, but I do wear a hat. I live in Seattle -- so I can never find my sunglasses, and that's a problem.

I'm terrible on the stress and eating fish. I really dislike fish, but I am trying very hard to include it. And I can't seem to give up coffee. I'm down to half-caff coffee. I'm trying to get down to 1/4 caffeinated coffee. (Any tips on cutting out coffee would be greatly appreciated. I do okay for a while, then I slip back into drinking a lot of it again.)

And the stress, well, what can I say. Stress is one of the worst things you can do for the outside and inside of your body. Stress causes our bodies to produce cortisol. Cortisol reduces the skin's collagen. Collagen is what gives your skin it's elasticity. Elasticity is what makes our skin look tight and plump. If you pinch the back of your hand, the pinch mark should go away almost immediately in young, pre-menopausal skin. But if your body has been making a lot of cortisol for a while, that elasticity will be diminished. That's a sign that you're aging both on the inside and the outside. I am working on the stress issue, finding better ways to de-stress and taking supplements which help with stress.

I expect my skin will "age" considerably in the next 5 years or so. I haven't gone through menopause yet, but someday will. It's a part of life.

I'm much more concerned, though, with how my insides will age. If someday, I'm old and wrinkly, well at least I'm old, is my attitude. I hope to become a sweet, little old lady, sporting plenty of laugh and worry lines.

How about you? What's your beauty secret?