That’s just plain wrong

When I go to an automotive service center that specializes in oil changes (I won’t name the chain, but it IS a national chain) that gives out $5.00 coupons online good towards an oil change, the local service center needs to honor that coupon. Last week I took my truck to the local oil change service station and had them perform their oil change. When they rung me up I presented them with the $5.00 coupon. The cashier told me that they had already totaled up my work and it was too late to give them the coupon. Too bad, so sad!

I don’t know about you, but I think that is totally bogus. I don’t know why I just accepted that instead of insisting that they re-ring the sale. Sometimes I’m just too nice. When I went home and told my wife about it, she was very upset that they didn’t give me the credit, and couldn’t believe that I just accepted it. I guess if it happens again I’ll be a little bit more assertive and ask for the supervisor. I’d rather get them upset than get my wife upset with me.

Pinch those pennies

Let’s face it; very few people want to spend any more money than they absolutely have to right now. The economy is still struggling, job security is a joke, and many of us are either unemployed, or underemployed. Dollars and pennies are precious and we need to stretch and pinch them as hard as we can. That is why we all need to take a good hard look at our houses to see if we are being as energy efficient as possible. We need to check for ways that heat is escaping out of the house in the winter, and getting in during the summer. After all, we don’t want to pay for the climate control of the great outdoors, do we?

If you are lucky enough to be serviced by an utility company that offers free energy audits, by all means make the appointment and have one of their technicians come out to your place and give it a good going over. Have him check your windows to see if they are double glazing and if they close tightly. Have him check the weather stripping around the sills. If they offer to install a water heater blanket, by all means let them do it. Some companies will do that for free; others will charge a minimal amount. The energy savings will be worth it in the long run.

Those CFL bulbs don’t last very long

One of the things that I have been concerned about lately is how quickly those CFL bulbs burn out. They are supposed to be more energy efficient, and environmentally friendly, but they are more expensive than the traditional incandescent light bulbs and don’t last as long. How is that supposed to help save money? I’m thinking that I might start looking into buying the LED lights instead in the future. I wonder how long they will last.

Everybody needs medical insurance

Several years ago there was a television show that I liked to watch called “30 days.” One of the episodes was about the producer and his wife trying to live on minimum wage for thirty days. As part of the deal they had to rent an apartment, furnish it, find jobs, get to and from those jobs and make ends meet for an entire month. One of the things that had to do was act as if they had no medical insurance during that period of time.

There were a couple of times during that time period that they did go to the hospital’s emergency room, and because they had no medical insurance they ended with a huge bill that they were going to have to try to make payment arrangements on. I was quite impressed with the television show and how that episode in particular highlighted the need for everyone to have medical insurance because medical care is very expensive, and beyond the reach of many of the people in the working class.

A new bargain website

Have you been reading all of the rave nomorerack reviews on the Internet lately? This is a bargain shopping website that has got to be seen to be believed. My wife was telling me that she found and purchased several nomorerack bargains a couple of days ago and she was as pleased as a pig in a mud bath.

To be honest I had not heard of the website until my wife told me about it, and she found out about it from our son, who bought a few things from it to use for Christmas gifts. Isn’t it amazing how parents learn a lot of things from their own kids? I don’t know how our son heard about it, I guess from one of his friends or co-workers. Regardless, in the spirit of making every penny count, this is a great website to check out when you are thinking about having to buy presents for people; they have great merchandise at cut-rate prices.