How our money experts save money, #4 in a series

My home is heated by oil, and I lock in my price per gallon for the year
each spring. Feeling sticker shock when I was faced with my price per gallon
jumping from $2.96 last year to $4.13 for the coming year, I've become much
more vigilant about all of my home energy costs. Our house has central air
conditioning, but this summer on all but the steamiest days, we're keeping
the AC off and turning on the attic exhaust fan to keep air circulating
through screen doors and windows. It does a surprisingly good job of
keeping the place cool while making my electric bill more manageable.
I'm also having a handyman friend help me make sure all of the windows and
doors are as weather-tight as they can be before cold weather sets in.

The other big increase I've noticed is our tab at the grocery store, so
for the first time I'm regularly paying attention to and using coupons.
Even more important, I've starting using cash for groceries. It's
amazing how much more you weigh the value of whatever you're tossing in the
cart when you're paying with bills out of your wallet rather than with a
check or a debit or credit card. Those junk food things the kids used to
sneak in don't make it to the cash register anymore, and that's a good thing
health-wise in any case.

And finally, I'm following the advice I've always heard about checking my
tire pressure regularly to get the best gas mileage for my car, and
combining household errands into one trip rather than running out on the
spur of the moment to the bank, P.O., or drugstore.—Andrea Rock,
senior editor

How our money experts save money, #3 in a series

I now buy my gas exclusively from Costco. It may not necessarily be absolute rock bottom, but it's dependably lower than most other name-brand stations in my east San Francisco Bay area. On Sunday, only four competitors had a 1- to 15-cents per gallon lower price, while 30 others charged 2 to 32 cents a gallon more than the $4.39 I paid, according to the AAA Gas Price Finder. Gas in California is already more expensive than in much of the country. The peak I've paid was $4.50.

We're taking the advice from my Cut Your Spending by $500 per Month report and repurposing leftovers better. Also stocking up on sale items. Major coup recently: I bought four 30-ounce jars of Best Foods mayonnaise at two for $5. Regular price is about $4.99 each, and it's not always on sale when we run out.

We also buy cat food in 48-can cases and have re-assigned our two cats to "outdoor" instead of "indoor" status, saving us a fortune in cat litter. —Jeff Blyskal, senior editor

How our money experts save money, #3 in a series

I now buy my gas exclusively from Costco. It may not necessarily be absolute rock bottom, but it's dependably lower than most other name-brand stations in my east San Francisco Bay area. On Sunday, only four competitors had a 1- to 15-cents per gallon lower price, while 30 others charged 2 to 32 cents a gallon more than the $4.39 I paid, according to the AAA Gas Price Finder. Gas in California is already more expensive than in much of the country. The peak I've paid was $4.50.

We're taking the advice from my Cut Your Spending by $500 per Month report and repurposing leftovers better. Also stocking up on sale items. Major coup recently: I bought four 30-ounce jars of Best Foods mayonnaise at two for $5. Regular price is about $4.99 each, and it's not always on sale when we run out.

We also buy cat food in 48-can cases and have re-assigned our two cats to "outdoor" instead of "indoor" status, saving us a fortune in cat litter. —Jeff Blyskal, senior editor

Do you have an unusual money-saving tip to share? Please post a comment, below.

2008 Summer Olympics: Other ways to catch the Games?

With its exclusive U.S. broadcasting rights, NBC will televise a whopping 1,400 hours of the 2008 Summer Olympics Games from Beijing to American homes. HDTV owners will see some stunning moments—from tonight's opening ceremonies to the closing ceremonies 17 days later—in crystal clarity on their TVs. (To ensure that you enjoy world class viewing, see our recent post, "HDTV: Adjust the picture for best quality.")

But there are only so many hours in the day, so who can watch it all? And even NBC's thousands of hours of broadcasts won't capture every minute of the 28 Olympic events spread over 31 separate venues in China.

My recourse? Turn to technology. Specifically:

The Net. NBC's Olympic Web site (http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html) already has a lot of streaming video—Olympic event trials, interviews with U.S. athletes, and so on. But NBC promises the site will also stream 2,200 hours of live video of the Olympic events, such as Taekwondo, which hasn't yet appeared on broadcast TV schedules. The Web site even has its own electronic program guide, listing when events will be shown, and will send you reminders via e-mail.

Since my home computer has a high-speed broadband Net hook-up and is connected to my LCD TV (via its built-in VGA connection), this essentially puts an "Olympics on-demand" channel on my HDTV.

Over-the-air DTV. I recently hooked up my TV set to a rooftop antenna to get free digital TV. Over the past week, I've discovered that one of the sub-channels of my local NBC station (WNBC) will be carrying Olympic programming. ("Sub-channels," by the way, are one of the benefits of digital TV broadcasts, which are available right now. See "How to survive the digital TV transition" and our "Guide to DTV transition," for more information.)

Digital recording. Some of that Olympic coverage occurs during the day, when I’m at work, and at other times when I’m not sitting in front of my set. By connecting my DTV converter box (a DTVPal unit) to my analog DVD recorder, which also has a built-in 80-gigabyte hard drive, I can digitally record up to 80 hours of Olympics coverage from this alternate digital TV channel—for free.

If I run out of room on my DVR's hard drive, I can always attach my DTVPal to my PC which has a video capture card—and terabytes of external hard drive space for thousands of hours of digital video. I can then zip through the recorded video and watch only the portions that I want. What’s more, I never have to worry that I’ll miss an event because there wasn’t enough room on a blank six-hour videotape or 11-hour DVD.

Granted none of these solutions will have the sharp, eye-catching details of live high-def broadcasts, and it certainly doesn't solve the problem of limited coverage of events. But it will help me enjoy more of the Olympics than I otherwise would have.

What do you think? Do you have a "strategy" for watching the Games of the XXIX Olympiad? Where will you turn for events not covered by NBC? Share your tips here.

—Paul Eng

How our money experts save money, #2 in a series

Our daughter’s college years are just around the corner, and costs like gasoline, heating fuel, and local property taxes continue to spiral upward. To gain some control—and a bit more sanity—I’ve been tracking our spending more carefully using budgeting software (more on that in future blogs). My husband and I are talking more frequently about money-saving measures and letting our teenager know we’re putting the brakes on some spending. And we’ve taken the following steps over the last six months:

1. Started using the Honda Civic sedan much more than the Subaru station wagon. Savings on gas: Yet to be determined.

2. Raised our auto insurance deductibles (comprehensive and collision) to $1,000 from $500. Savings: $350 a year. I also looked into dropping comprehensive coverage altogether, a strategy CR recommendsfor older cars. Based on the market value of the 2002 Honda, however, I determined my car was still valuable enough to insure.

3. I started doing my own pedicures. Savings: about $20 per visit.

4. Let the cleaning service go. My husband, bless him, is now showing his skills with the vacuum and toilet brush. Savings: about $1,700 a year.

5. Canceled Netflix. We hardly ever used it. Savings: $120 a year.

6. Changed to a less-expensive hair conditioner and face cream. Savings: Maybe $50 a year.

7. Tried hanging our laundry out to dry in the sun. It required a little more work, but the drying time was about the same as with as my dryer, and the sheets smelled great. I don't know how many pennies in energy I saved, but it was a "green" gesture that felt good to do, and the neighbors didn’t complain. (Tip: Putting the wet towels in the dryer for just 10 minutes with a fabric softener sheet appears to make them a little less stiff; I’m still experimenting with the timing on that one.) Savings: Yet to be determined.

8. Told my daughter she’ll get no rides to our nearby high school this fall, unless the weather is really severe or she has a very large project to transport. Savings in time: 20 minutes per day. Savings in gasoline: Who cares? She’s getting some exercise!

9. For next fall, decided to look into a cash-on-delivery heating oil company, rather than the full-service but far more expensive dealer I use now. Projected savings: 30 cents a gallon, or $270 a year.

10. Checked out the local consignment shop. Biggest recent score: Matching Eileen Fisher silk pants and jacket (perfect condition) for $17. Estimated savings over new: $400.
The one thing I will not yet scrimp on is my hair cutter. He is great and worth the premium I probably pay over others at less expensive salons. But I’m spacing my cuts further apart than before. —Tobie Stanger, senior editor

Do you have an unusual money-saving tip to share? Please post a comment, below.

How our money experts save money

Editor’s Note: With rising gas and food prices, falling home values, and a stock market that seems to change direction by the day, many Americans are watching their spending.

We decided to ask our resident money experts what, if anything, they’re doing on the frugality front, and each day for the next several weeks, we’ll be posting their responses.

Here’s #1 in the series:

1. On two trips this summer, I declined free upgrades offered by the car-rental company (one was to a sports car, the other to an SUV). I expected to do a lot of driving and wanted the better gas mileage of the pared-down Volkswagen Golf I'd reserved. (Also wanted to see how it drove, in case it's my next car.) In the past, I've taken free upgrades to "fun" cars (one was a convertible, another was a big, upscale sedan).
2. My husband and I check with each other before picking stuff up on the way home from work; we used to both stop for milk or whatever and wind up wasting it. And we only buy fresh produce if we intend to use it immediately. No lofty "I should eat more salads and fresh fruit," then winding up throwing most of it away.—Jean Pietrobono, managing editor

Government study reviews biofuel impact on food prices

Responding to a request by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), the Agriculture and Energy departments released a study this week on the effects of biofuels on food prices. (PDF available here.) Biofuels, and specifically the mandate in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act to increase biofuels production, has been criticized for driving up food prices. And there have been calls to repeal the biofuels mandate. In the United States, biofuels are largely made from corn.

The report addressed the issue of how U.S. ethanol and biodiesel consumption has affected domestic agriculture and food prices by stating:

In 2007, the expansion in ethanol and biodiesel consumption is estimated to have increased the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all food by 0.10-0.15 percentage point. In other words, ethanol and biodiesel consumption accounted for approximately 3-4 percent of the overall rise in retail food prices. During the first four months of 2008, the all food CPI increased by 4.8 percent, with increased ethanol and biodiesel consumption accounting for only about 4-5 percent of the total increase while other factors accounted for 95-96 percent of the increase.

The report estimates that international food prices rose 45 percent from April 2007 to April 2008, but they would have risen only 40.6 to 42 percent if biofuels production in the United States had remained flat. The report cites higher oil prices, improving diets, and drought as primary reasons for increases in the price of food globally.

At the same time, the report concludes that ethanol, mostly blended into U.S. gasoline as an oxygenate to improve air quality, has slowed the increase in gas prices. The study goes on to state that without ethanol, the U.S. would have to use an additional 7.2 billion gallons of gasoline to travel the same overall mileage. That would have pushed gas prices 20 cents to 35 cents higher per gallon than they are now, according to the report. Biodiesel production, however, has not had any significant effect on diesel prices.

—Eric Evarts

Learn about alternative fuels in our guide to driving green.