Drive Free For Life - Down Under

Often good ideas don't go anywhere. Sometimes they get feet and walk around a bit. The Dave Ramsey "Drive Free for Life" plan is a idea with feet. It walked all the way down under Barefoot via Scott Pape "The Barefoot Investor".

Bang for the Buck: Space Heating Path to Insulation

Insulation - Icicle Protection

Insulation is often overlooked when considering cutting your operating costs in a house. With the record cold weather in North America this week insulation should get a second look. When I grew up in New York insulation was expected in a house. Living in Georgia I realized good insulation was a matter of opinion.

The question of insulating a house in the south is a question of costs vs comfort. Is it worth the extra cost to insulate your house well when you can just put on warmer clothes for the limited cold spells experienced down south.

Using the 80/20 rule one may say the issue of heating in the cold can be more cost effective by spending minimal money on keeping your body warmer. The costs of warmer clothing is cheaper than re-insulating your house. Layering clothing is even cheaper because you use the clothes you have. Using more blankets at night keep you more comfortable and save you having to increase your heating bill. All this is nice but, added insulation is a more long term solution.

Transportation: Fuel Costs

1941 Adler Diplomat - Gasifier

Driving a car is expensive. What if you didn't own a car? (This question is of course directed at you who in fact do own one.) If you didn't own a car you would have to live relatively close to your work. Alternatives might be walking, biking, public transportation, van pools, or finding a job that involves teleworking.

If you are in fact one of those who does own a car and can not do the above suggestions you can do other things to make driving your car less expensive. Fuel costs are a major factor in my daily commute; I drive 66 miles round trip for work. I know other people who go as far as 88 miles daily for work.

Free Ride Project Progress Report - End of Year 2013

This is the first progress report of the "Free Ride Project".  When we begun this experiment we had the following cars:

• Car A: Ramsey Rover - 2000 Ford Windstar Mini-Van with around 208,000 miles
• Car B: Green Machine - 1998 Jeep Cherokee with 230,000 miles
• Savings assigned to car: $4000

The following changes happened:

• Phase I car purchased: The Sportscar - 1994 Honda Accord with  168,570 miles (but with a new engine with only 10,000 miles) - Purchased for $3400
• The Ramsey Rover was deemed beyond economic repair - Sold for $700
• Insurance was changed to have better coverage and $100 less per month
•  $1400 was put into the car to improve the ride

The following results are:

• Cost of the car was $4142 (Initial Cost + Repairs/Upgrades - Sale of RamseyRover)
• Gas savings for first seven months $840 ($120 a month by using Accord and not Windstar)
• Gas savings for first seven months $700 ($100 a month by carpooling 2x a week with wife)
• Savings on insurance rate for first seven months $700 ($100 a month difference)

In seven months the complete savings by the changes is $2240 which means the car actually cost me $1902 out of pocket to buy. At this rate the car will be "paid" for from the initial investment within six months.

The mileage on the Sportscar went from 168,570 miles (10,000 mile engine) to 178,660 miles (20,420 miles on the engine) The Green Machine now has 241,000 miles on it.

So let me know with a comment of what you think.