Saturday morning is reserved time to go out and cut your lawn.  At any given time during a Saturday morning, you are very likely to go outside in your neighborhood and hear the not-so-soothing grumbling of gas or electric lawn mower.  When it is your turn to cut the grass, what is the cost?

Besides the cost of getting sleeping neighbors a little ticked off, the cost of mowing your lawn can add up over the summer.  The mower itself isn’t going to be cheap.  Anything with an engine rarely is.  But then there’s the cost of the gas or electricity.  If you have an electric mower, the cost will be less, but your sacrifice is the cord of the mower allowing you to only reach as much of your lawn as the cord can go.  Gas mowers are where you will be paying a lot more.  The cost of gas isn’t cheap.  We all know that.  So where is the solution?

Remember hearing all those stories of your grandparents back in the day and how they had to cut the lawn with a heavy, clunky, unsafe machine that ran on man-power?  Well the answer to becoming more eco-friendly and wallet-friendly is in a very similar story.  Luckily for your day and age, those mechanical mowers have come a LONG way and are much safer, lighter, and easier to maneuver.  Not to mention cheap!  Guess how much it costs to mow your lawn each time… $0.00.  That’s a good deal!  Plus, your neighbors will be way less grumpy since they can sleep in!

Now the prices for gas are starting to go up again.  They’re not going up as fast as they were last year, but it’s still pretty early in the year.  Who knows what will happen?  All we know is that they are going up right now and they could continue to do so.

Therefore, it’s time to play some defense.  I think that if everyone knew that they could save some money, and it was very simple to do, they would do it regardless of how much they make or are worth financially.  I think most of us just don’t know or realize that it is so easy to save money – especially on gas!  Maybe there are a few things on this list that you’ve never thought about doing in order to save money on gas…

First things first, a car uses most of its gas when it is accelerating.  Using this gas is worth it as long as the car stays in motion.  Physically speaking, the only way you’re wasting the gas you’ve used to accelerate is from the friction in the axles and on the road.  That is, until you have to brake.  As soon as you brake, you’re losing a lot of what you’ve built up by accelerating.  You’re not getting everything you paid for.  Obviously we need our brakes, and need to use them often – and I understand that and am very grateful for them.  But what I’m trying to get across here is that you should do what you can to use the gas you’ve accelerated with.

This means to drive as smoothly as you can.  Drive slow.  Pay attention to everything around you.  If you’re on a road where a car is slowing down in front of you to turn right, look to see if you can go around them without having to put on your brakes and slow down behind them.  This is just an example, but there are so many things you can do.  What are some of them that you can think of?

• If at all possible, walk, bike, take a bus, or carpool to your destination.  This is self-explanitory, but so important to saving money on gas.
• Move closer to where you go most often.  When my wife and I got married, we moved to the other side of our small town.  It cut her drive to work from 22 minutes to 7 minutes.  That’s 15 minutes extra of driving she didn’t have to do every day.  Think of what that adds up to over a long period of time.
• If you can do multiple things on one trip, do it.  Make lists of things you need to do ahead of time.  Call ahead to places to make sure you still need to go there and don’t have to waste gas, time, and money getting to somewhere you don’t need to go.
• In parking lots, pull into the first open spot you find.  Don’t drive all around looking for the closest spot just so you don’t have to walk.

There are so many ways to save money on gas, but if you start small, you’ll be getting somewhere.  Then you can work your way on to doing more and more for yourself.

I’ve noticed gas prices have risen a bit once again, but I would love it if they would go back down.  Perhaps there is something he can do there as well.

Obama wants to take away payday loans from our country.  He feels they are doing the economy damage.  The fact is, however, payday loans are there to help people in need, and there are certain people that abuse the system – which hurts the economy.  If you’re going to use a payday loan, use it responsibly.  Make sure you know you will be able to pay the loan back.  Follow through with your commitment.  Pay off your debts.

That goes for all areas in your life.  If you have debt anywhere, do what you can to pay it off.  You will be so happy you did, and you will come back to this blog and say, “Lance – thank you for inspiring me to get out of debt.  My life has been so great since I did so.”

Take it from your future testimonial… Get out of debt.  Other than that, let’s see how Obama does!