Saving on car insurance

  Our car insurance renewal comes up every six months.  We use GMAC though we have used different companies in the past and compared rates, we have been happy with this one for the past three or four years.  The thing that attracted me to this company initially was that they offered a discount of $100 off your premium if you paid it in full before the due date.  The discount amount appears to be less than that now but, still significant.

  Insurance rates are often based on several factors.  Two important ones are your driving record and your credit history.  Both of ours are good and we drive older vehicles so we have lower rates.  We have two '95 Honda minivans, one 90 chevy truck and one 97 civic sedan.  All of them have an average of 200,000 miles on them.  The truck is used as a farm truck and only gets used periodically.  The two minivans are driven to work and the civic has been sitting for over six months because it is our backup car when another one goes down.  My point in providing all this information is that I was wondering how we could save more on our insurance.  Then the thought occurred to me that we aren't using the civic and won't need it for at least six months.  It also has the highest rate of all our vehicles since it is the newest so I decided to drop it from our policy for six months until we need it and then we will add it back on at the next renewal.  That will save us $87 for six months while it just sits in the yard unused.

Update:  I knew I was going to get a refund since I cancelled my coverage before the policy ended but, I wasn't sure how much.  The check came today for $19 so net saved for changing my coverage: $106.

Finding a purpose for blogging

  I've been tossing the idea around of a blog for a while.  Creating a name is not easy since so many creative ones are already taken.  I don't have time to post very often but, I will share my ideas and inspirations from time to time.  I'm hoping that other readers can teach me a thing or two as well.  I believe that being frugal is a gift from God though many times I feel like I can be  narrow minded when I don't understand why others live frivolously.

For now, I'm continuing my journey to live frugally and looking towards retirement.  I'm still in my early 40s so it may be a while but, since my husband and I are already debt free, we can't think of anything better to save for.  I hunger for new ways to save.  I love to hear something new that I haven't already heard of before so those are the things I want to share with others.  My hope is that I can find a new way to save on living expenses every day and share it with my readers.  While I realize every new thing I learn might not be new to others, for some it will inspire them to save in a new way as well.