I was thinking about increased costs this morning and was planning to write about it, but was beaten to the punch by Sean Allen & Pilar Lorenzo and their cost cutting ideas blog.  Here are some of mine.

Gas costs are a big part of the expense structure in any home or office and I see many families, including mine, wanting top quality meals at home.

In an effort to save on both, here are a couple of additional ideas you can put into use.

1. Use Fireplaces - Everyone has at least one friend with an old tree in the yard.  If you are in the property management business you may even come across them yourself.  This past summer I cut down a dozen trees in my yards and in those I managed.  There is a whole winter of wood stacked in the yard now.  We crank up the furnace in the morning when we get up for about an hour, but a fire in the fireplace all evening keeps the house warm through the night.
2. Fuel Perks - There are different programs, but in Columbus Ohio the best places I have found are Giant Eagle with Costco in second place.  Giant Eagle is giving 20 cents off of gas at their gas stations for every $50 you spend in the store.  This is up from 10 cents from a couple of months ago.   Costco is about 5 cents a gallon cheaper than all of the other stations in town.  TRICK - Giant Eagle will let you buy up to 30 gallons per fill up on the discount, but you can only fill 1 car.  They will let you fill as many gas cans as you want though.
3. Shopping Days - Again at Giant Eagle, meat goes on Managers Special on Wednesday and Thursday.  Many times it will be 50-60% off.  I have a veal recipe from my personal cookbook that is wonderful and will post it later.
4. Home Garden - I know that this might not be very helpful now, but a little garden in the yard will produce more tomatoes and green peppers than you can handle.  I think we spent about $6 on plants this year and grew enough to have fresh tomatoes in a salad or other dish every day.
5. Moonshine - I'm just kidding.