For what my opinion is worth (since I stirred up this argument, maybe something?), I did not find your comments objectionable or negative. Based on your comments in this thread, you’re fine. You seem to be one of the kind of people who pipe up with something helpful to the rest of us… the back-and-forth in the comments section really adds value, much of the time.

I objected to #1 Tracy, who railed against “all the other crap that consists of assuming your readers are stupid” – which I do find objectionable in itself (it’s rude to Trent, and it’s rude to us apparently “stupid” readers who actually found this article helpful), but also because it was not supported in any way by an actual argument. Comments that boil down to “you’re stupid” — either of Trent or his readers — are not really helpful, are needlessly insulting, and are plain mean.

Riki, your comments, in contrast, held up another model of how things work where you are (unlike where Trent lives) for contrast, and made a valid point about boiling everything down to an hourly rate — which has been echoed, and argued, many times on these boards, so you’re far from alone in that statement.

So in summary: disagreeing is not a problem, and often adds value. Throwing out an objection without actually explaining what you’re objecting to is not helpful. Being pointlessly mean isn’t cool, and I’m going to step up and discourage it where I see it.

You might want to look for the cause in the middle that links those two…

I said I disagree with him on its usefulness. And I do. And other people do too. I’ve said this before: the internet is not an echo chamber where everybody needs to say comforting platitudes to protect Trent’s delicate ego.

I read this blog and some others because I like them generally. I do not expect the writers to be 100% precise and perfect. There were some blogs I used to read and when I decided I did not really like them, I jut stopped reading them. Trent is very patient.

1. Are you an economizer to save money? If you are, you are going to like this article, as I do. If not, then fill up premium, pay cash/credit, go only to name-brand-stations and continue driving.

2. If you are an economizer, then you drive a used car of some sort, and saving $1 or more per tank is useful, as it for me. We have 4 cars in our family, although my wife is the one that drives 27 miles one way to work. She is the one that got us onto watching the pennies PER gallon.

3. With prices over $3 for a while, we tell each other in the family where the best prices, are esp. when prices jump up 20c to 40c at a time (it’s Iran this time!). When we fill gas, it is NEVER a full tank. Even then it is saving us a lot.

4. We are always using a 3% gas discount card at a minimum, upto 5% discount when the quarterly promo permits us. So, this has brought us $100 to $200 every 3 months on various cards for many of our purchase.

5. Applying for new credit cards that provides 10c-20c off or 10% off is something we do from time to time.

6. EVERYTHING in life is $ per hour. Someone hates you for doing that (in one of the replies above). I guess they do not want to compute it, so they might drive 10miles for 2c off, or may not drive 1/2 mile to get 20c off. They just have no way to measure when to spend time to save, and when not to do so.

7. Finally, keep the simple dollar savings ideas coming, since we have a finite time on earth, have lots of things to accomplish in life, and for all those who have kids, watch out for those college bills, which also includes buying cars for kids, which leads right to buying gas for those 3rd and 4th cars in the family for teenagers. And, maybe some parents won’t have buy those cars, and keep over-using their 2 family cars. Regardless, gas usage is part of our lives today, until we get cars that plug in every night (the Indiana plant making those cars now has 2 employees, with a Russian owner!). Electric cars are still too far away from full scale production with a reasonable price (Volt is too expensive, and eats 7 years of savings before you even buy it!!!!!!) < No Thank You.

Thanks for great articles, and keep them coming.

Kenny

Not trying to start an argument here, just offering my thoughts. I know different people face different challenges, but I also know Trent starts out every year saying that this year is going to be the year he gets into shape, etc. It’s also a fairly well-known phenomenon that people who exercise have far more energy than those who don’t. It might help with fatigue to exercise more than “conserving” the energy by not exercising. I could be wrong. I probably am.

And if he’s going to ignore his fitness goals in the face of poor health, I can only see that choice leading to further problems down the road. Again, it’s really a matter or priorities. He (and you) has (have) challenges that “normal” people don’t have, and that makes it more difficult to find the motivation, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t push through…

Just my opinion.

Steven, Trent is not in robust good health. As I battle my own autoimmune disease, I am finding that the fatigue is an amazingly devastating opponent.

I would suggest that you do some driving from time to time for your own safety, and that of your passengers. Obviously, I relearned, but I should have taken turns driving when my husband and I went out on vacations during those years.

Sandy, the U.S. is a whole lot bigger than the country you live in. In many places, driving is NOT optional. We don’t have the population density to make public transit economically viable. Even if we had to pay $2 a liter for gas, we would still have to do it.

Generally, Sam’s has the cheapest gas around, and my wife fills up about every two weeks when she shops there.

I don’t do this too often, but: Because I have a Chase checking account, the Chase Freedom card gives me 10 cents in rebates every time I use the card. Sometimes, when time is not at a premium, I’ll buy $1 worth of gas three times, effectively lowering my cost for about a gallon by about 30 cents.

If you disagree, can you not do it in an intelligent way, that points at what you disagree with instead of belittling the person?

Here, let me show you how.

Trent, My vehicle is over 10 years old. I use non- ethanol to keep build up out of the valves.

Now, there you go. I told him I disagreed, and why. I disagreed without taking it so personally, and getting ugly.

Try this in other aspects of your life as well.