Strategic Gas Buying!

Currently (10/29/2012) the gas at most of the gas stations around here (in Omaha, NE) are at $3.17 today. The price of gas per gallon is dropping...conveniently around election season...as always. As a bonus I can save .05 cents more per gallon by shopping at the various stores with their gas stations!

First off, I grew up in CA and also lived the past six years in St. Louis, MO. I have seen the gas stations at the Costco and Sams Club Stores where one could get a discount on the gas prices...BUT ONLY FOR MEMBERS! Now I am living in Omaha, NE and there are grocery stores open to Public and non-membership, non-bulk style, WITH discounted gas stations! I love this!

Here is where it gets tricky... First you buy the groceries, to then get a receipt and then buy the gas to fill up. Tonight, I was driving on E, for Empty, on the way home from the gym. I almost slipped up and bought gas and then planned on going food shopping. I'm quick to play the game... and I drove a little further to get to the grocery store, bought my groceries and then the gas. Doing this saved me .05 cents per gallon. This made my price $3.12 vs. the $3.17 = $49.80 vs. $50.60. Every penny counts these days. Thank you to Hy-Vee Grocery! Another local store that does the discount gas is Baker's Grocery...and maybe some other stores, which I am not aware of. But these two stores are great to shop at AND have the discount gas price system.

Hy-Vee has an outdated way of doing their gas discount with having to show your receipt to the gas attendant inside the station; to then adjust the discount off the total gas price. Currently though, Hy-Vee stores are changing over to the plastic cards that go on a key ring and in wallets, to then scan for the discount. This will be up to date starting in November. The last day to use the receipts for the discount is October 31st on Halloween. I guess there may be a small gap in this transition, for people to get the little key card and add the scanners at the pumps...? So filling up tonight on my car, for the discounted gas was perfect timing. Score! I love getting deals and saving money.

The Baker's Grocery is already up to date, and have the plastic key cards to scan at their gas stations. When shopping at a Baker's, one would scan the key card at check out, while buying the groceries and then information is saved and automated on the little, plastic, key card! Then going to the gas station at Baker's, one would then scan the key card and the price of the gas at the pump automatically drops to the discount price, before actually fueling! This allows the customer to pay outside at the pump!

I realize this blog post may be a little on the "Blah blah blah" side, but I am so stoked about finding the gas stations at the local grocery stores; instead of only being available at the Membership grocery stores! This is helping me out big time! I don't have to pay a store (Sam's club) to shop there, I don't have to buy giant portions of food, to get discounted gas! This is not only .05 cents off each time, quite often there are coupons in the mail flyers for 12 cents off even and other ways of saving with these local grocery stores!
I'm a money saving momma, and proud of moments such as these.

The Dream I had

My dream was like watching a movie. I am not in this dream that I dreamt last night, but more like I am watching a movie as I sleep sort of dream...I was just seeing this play out.

It starts out with a Hooker, she looks like the kind of hooker in the movie, Pretty Woman. She had been with too many men in one night at this whore house that she works at. It was a swanky, 1920's style ladies house, like on the TV show, Boardwalk Empire

After a long night and it's now 4 am, the hooker is at a 24 hour Diner. The kind of Diner with a bar counter with round stools to sit at by the kitchen and coffee makers... and the booths are back to back in the middle of the Diner. The Hooker planned ahead, almost routine like. The last guy she was with, she takes the mans shirt, with the payment. He sees it as sexy, and she liked his shirt, let's her keep it and leaves. She knows she was going to this Diner for breakfast after...she needed to be a little more covered up... so she took the mans shirt.

She was wearing a blue mini skirt and a purple bra type tank top, that was shinny, like bathing suit material. At the diner, she threw on the white button down men's shirt, tied at the waist in a knot, buttoning the rest of it. She is still wearing the purple top underneath and the blue mini skirt. As she sits down at the booth, she hides a gun between her legs for quick access, like in the movie Pulp Fiction or something. This diner is in the shady part of town and this seemed routine for her to do this. She is sitting in the booth facing the booth in front of her. 

This other lady comes in, and sits in the booth across from the Hooker. She is more of a factory worker type woman, with her strawberry blond, stringy, long, hair and bangs. I think she may have worked the grave yard shift? She was coming to this diner at 4 am after a long night in the factory. She was wearing a long faded blue skirt, and a women's thermal knit shirt (the kind with the 3 buttons at the neckline left unbuttoned). The kind of skirt was with those little buttons all the way down to the hem line, long and flowy. Her face is dried up with wrinkles, from too much smoking in her lifetime. She sits down in her booth also pulling out a gun to hide between her legs. She looked like she could be smoking a cigarette right now, only this was a non-smoking Diner... she was on edge. 

The Factory woman notices the Hooker at the booth in front of her, and nods her head at her. It was a nod, like they were in the same boat. It was the end of a rough night, surviving out there, in the shitty part of town. All they both want to do now, is sit in that Diner and eat pancakes with a tall cup of stale coffee... and let it all go, and just relax finally. Sitting alone in their own booths. 

The Hooker noticed the woman also had a gun between her legs. She leans forward and says to the woman, “Hey, you think your night was rough? I was with one too many men in one night... more men then you have murdered all together in the past decade.” Now, I don't know where this gal got the idea that the Factory woman was a Bounty Hunter? Maybe she knew more than meets the eye?

 I am dreaming all of this, like watching a movie, and it is getting intense. The two women are on edge and waiting on their pancakes with guns in their laps, sipping on the crappy Diner coffee. The hooker is getting inpatient for her blueberry pancakes...The Factory woman is about to respond to what the Hooker just said to her...it looks like she is going to spill her life story out to her, and BAM! I wake up, dream ends, the damn dog wakes me up to be let outside! I slept soundly through the night, with this crazy, off the wall dream, and didn't get to see how it turned out! It's now 7:30 am. I wanted to write this all out before I forgot the details. My daughter is sleeping in, husband is at work... I guess I can go back to bed and sleep in a bit, maybe finish that dream?