As allergy season blossoms you may find more and more empty tissue boxes around your home.  This is one of those products where I prefer the name brand over the store brand, even though the name brand cost about twice as much.  A raw nose just isn’t worth the savings.  The good news is that in a penny-pinching world, you don’t have to choose between savings and soft facial tissues.  Tissues go on sale regularly.  I buy them when they are on sale for 99¢ a box (100 count or 48 count with lotion), which puts them at the same price as the store brand!  This is definitely a stock up item.  After all, the shelf life of tissues is pretty much forever.  When your inventory begins to dwindle, keep an eye on the weekly circulars for a 99¢ sale and make sure that you always have plenty of boxes on hand without having to break the bank.

Ever since gasoline prices began resembling roller coasters, so many of us have been trying to figure out a way to get ahead of the curve.  After years of trying to discern the patterns of rise and fall, I had to give up simply to preserve my sanity.  Case in point:  Just last week I was in the car with someone who had a cell phone app that notifies him before local gas prices increase.  By the time we passed the first gas station less than 10 minutes later, the price had increased 20¢ per gallon.  So rather than trying to predict the unpredictable, I have opted to do what I can to reduce the amount of gas I put in the car.  I will be sharing these new habits with you through a new series called Pump Up The Savings.

The first tip is to make sure that your gas cap is on tight.  Gasoline is very volatile, so the vapors escaping will deplete the volume of gas in the tank even when the vehicle is not running.  This becomes all the more important as the outside temperature rises.  A loose gas cap can result in a 10% reduction in mpg.