Do you ever just want to kick yourself?

This is a little story about me and how I am always looking for ways to save us money. Anyway, I figure if we save money on the things we HAVE to buy or bills we HAVE to pay then we can spend more money on the things we WANT to have.

So this month I have been doing a pretty good job of evaluating our bills and a lot of it has also been timing.

My husband's life insurance premium was cut almost in half because he quit smoking last year and now qualifies for the non-tobacco rate. (Oh, did I mention how much money it saved us when he quit smoking?)

Our energy bill went down about 20 percent because we haven't really been running our air conditioning this summer. We ran it for about ten days. It has helped tremendously that we have had a pretty nice summer without any real heat issues.

I got rid of the premium channels on our cable because we don't really watch them and most of the movies are ones we have already seen or own. I would have gotten rid of our cable completely except that we get a pretty good discount on our internet for having the cable. Remember this is so we can have the things we want to have, like the internet. Okay, only I want the internet but still.

Here comes the part where I want to kick myself. Jody at IowaGeek has a flex fuel vehicle. I really didn't pay much attention to any of this before oil skyrocketed but I started wondering what we would need to do to convert our van to a flex fuel vehicle. So here it comes....

For us to make our van a flex fuel vehicle we need to drive it to a gas station and fill it up with E85 ethanol. Yes, we have owned a flex fuel vehicle for FOUR years. FOUR YEARS!!! For some reason the other day when I was getting gas I decided to actually read the sticker on the inside of the gas lid. You know, where it said that our van will use Ethanol (E85) or unleaded gas. Yeah, that sticker.

Apparently my husband has always known this and tells me that he told me. He just didn't really know what gas stations sold it and I am assuming he also didn't realize how much cheaper it was. I am sure I really didn't understand what it was when he told me back then but I can tell you what I understand now. $$$$$ Yes, I understand that I can save around $1.00 a gallon on E85. Today I put some in and I paid $2.64 a gallon. YEAH!!!!

So, I will try not to be TOO upset with myself over the $4500.00 I have thrown down the drain for the last four years and try to look at the positive side. I drive a flex fuel vehicle. I knew whoever picked out that van was smart. Oh yeah, that was me. :)