Asha Anujeeva

According to an article dated May 29, 2008 in the LA Times, there is a company that is planning to use algae to start producing a crude oil that can be used to make gasoline and diesel fuel.  The production of the fuel uses carbon dioxide, which would help to clean up our greenhouse gases problem.  It can be refined in existing refineries and be used by the existing cars and trucks on the road.  It plans to reach full commercial scale in five years.  The company that is planning to do this is called Sapphire Energy.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful, getting oil from algae instead of fossil fuels!

Contribution by Saul Martin

I try really hard to be an example for my children, and to show them the importance of saving money. We have a “coupon clipping hour” every Sunday afternoon, where we all gather around the table and cut out our coupons for the week. We make our grocery list based on what’s on sale, and we’ve turned it in to a little game. The person who can make the most creative meal plan with the fewest amount of ingredients wins. Bonus points if all of those items are on sale, and extra bonus points if the meal ends up being delicious. I think it does a lot to really instill the value of money in them, and we actually all have a lot of fun every Sunday sitting around the table together. I was talking to a friend recently though who convinced me that saving money is not only about clipping coupons. It’s about making wiser choices with your money across the board. She even called shop electric companies in texas to see if she could get a more affordable energy provider, and she ended up saving a ton of money. I wonder if I could convince one of my kids to make the call for me…they really love to save money!

I was surprised to discover when I stepped on the bathroom scale this morning to discover that I had lost ten pounds over the past month. No wonder my clothes don’t fit me anymore! I am going to have to go shopping and buy a whole bunch of new clothes for the fall and winter coming up. If I don’t, I will look pretty stupid with all of my clothes hanging off of my, being held up with a belt!

So, as much as I don’t like to think about buying new clothes, I will be having to be hitting the Internet sales and see what I can come up with for good looking clothes that won’t cost an arm and a leg!

In this economy, most of the people that I know are trying to save money everywhere they can.  For quite a long time now, I’ve been hearing about being able to buy eyeglasses for as low as $6.95 a pair at the Zenni Optical website. 

My biggest concern about buying glasses over the Internet is getting them to fit on my face once they arrive.  I have a very short temple, for one thing.  I don’t know how that issue (if it even IS an issue!) would be taken care of in the case of buying glasses over the Internet.

I’ve been hearing that they have been discussed on popular radio shows, and that they were mentioned in an article that was discussing ways to save money on eye care in the New York Times newspaper as a good place to get cheap back-up glasses. I checked out their website and found that they had over 200 pairs of glasses for $6.95! And I actually did see a couple of good looking pairs of $6.95 glasses that I would consider buying. I like the shape and the color; they are very much like what I already wear. Pretty soon it will be time for me to get a new pair of glasses, so I will be checking them out for sure!

As the economy appears to be at a standstill, I’m considering getting some online free auto policy quotes. I’ve been loyal to my discount auto insurance company for many years, but I keep seeing so many commercials and advertisements that encourage me to switch to a different company, I think I’ll spend some time trying to find a more affordable car insurance plan.

I know that one way to save money on auto insurance is to raise the deductible, but that is not a step that I want to take. With my luck, I’d probably raise the deductible and then within the week I’d have some crazy thing happen and end up paying something extra out of pocket!

One way that I know I can save money on the insurance is to drop the collision coverage on the car that gets stored in the winter. Just drop it during the storage time, and keep the comprehensive. As long as the car is in the storage barn it’s not going to be colliding with anything!