GAS GAS PING PING
The gas we put in our cars is actually more important than most of us realize. Being frugalites, we tend to go for the lowest priced gas. But this may be costing you much more in the long run.

Many manufacturers have additives and even fillers in their fuel to make it less pure and less costly. These ingredients gunk up your engine and can cause expensive damage. It is for this reason that I researched and choose to buy a certain brand of gasoline even though it costs a bit more than the bargain gas.

For the past few weeks  I have been running low on gasoline in the downtown area. There is only one gas station near where I have been located, so I have been filling up there. It is, however, one of the gasoline manufacturers known for its additives. After two weeks of their gasoline running my car, the engine began to ping. I learned my lesson!

DIAPERS: The Endless and Divisive Debate

One of the hottest debates in the frugal mommie world is the cloth versus diaper debate. I dedicated an entire chapter in Miserly Moms to this topic, and explained in excessive detail how I calculated my comparisons. Nevertheless, I still get ugly mail about my conclusion: We found disposables (generic brand) to be cheaper. Many critics have decided I must be an unreliable source of any information since I came to "that" conclusion.
     As I explained in the chapter, the cost of electricity and water play a great role in the final results, and the cost of the disposable diaper also can sway things. The SF Bay Area was expensive so electricity and water were costly. We had found a generic brand of diapers that was 30% less expensive than the leading namebrand diapers, and they didn't leak!
     Another frugal friend developed a calculator to find out for yourself what will be cheaper. All you need to know is the cost per kwh and water rate in your area (it's on your utility bill), the cost per diaper of what you use, the cost per load of your detergent, if you have an old washing machine or new energy efficient model, and when you plan to potty train.
     I entered all of my information that I had used in Miserly Moms chapter on diapers and guess what.........he agreed that disposables (for my area) were cheaper!

Give it a try yourself:
http://www.groceryalerts.ca/cloth-vs-disposable-diaper-calculator/