Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

First I am not a diver, have never been a diver and am not even sure that scuba is spelled correctly. Second if you think this is some kind of kinky thing, think again, it is a 3mm wet suit, scuba type, nothing kinky. If I am not a diver, why you may wonder would I buy a wet suit? Well age plays a part. I am a tad bit older than when I first put in my pool and I am retired. The older part means that my tolerance for ice water has slipped a bit. The retired part means no income. No income means that when my pool heater died, I decided that $3,000.00 for a new heater and $1,500.00/season for propane was an expense I could avoid. Initially this meant that I wasn’t swimming early or late in the season. Then one of my buddies jokingly suggested that he needed a wet suit for my pool because it was so cold. He has also suggested he has to break through the ice to get in and I vehemently deny that. I questioned him on wet suits and discovered that they can keep you warm. Who knew? ...

I talked to my home heating oil company this week. I am on the 9 month budget plan and my budget will increase $160.00 per month over last year. Yeah, that is $160.00 more per month, outrageous. My cap on the budget plan is $4.99 per gallon for heating oil. That is what m y budget is based on. If home heating oil goes higher than that I am capped at the $4.99. Assuming I use no more oil than I did last year I know exactly what I will pay. If oil goes down in price, I will pay the lower price but I won’t benefit until the end of the budget and then I will get a refund. The oil company gets my money and any interest they can generate if the price goes down. I get the safety of a cap if the crazy market gets crazier and I don’t get penalized if the price goes down. The other alternative that some of my friends are doing is the prepayment option. The lowest I have heard is $4.59 per gallon prepaid based on last years use. Based on my usage that would be about $3000.00 prepaid to lock that ...