Categories
401k and Personal Finance Life Tips

Gas saving tips

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Last Updated on March 28, 2008 by stlplace

Finally St. Louis gas price is exceeding $3 a gallon. Today marks the first day my gas bill exceeded $40 ($3.179 * 13.105 gallons = $41.66).

I am not complaining, as I know people around the world are paying a much higher price for gas, or paying a higher percentage of their disposal income for gas. But I still want to do something to contain the gas cost, before sending my pay check directly to the Exxon-Mobile and the likes.

1) In the past, I tried to fill up gas at the proper time: there are two gas stations near my home, whenever I saw one gas station raised the price (the other has not), I will rush to the other one (usually it’s the Shell).

2) Also, I used the gas rebate credit cards, they are Citi Dividend (5% rebate in the past, this has been changed lately); Chase Freedom (3% rebate); and AAA MBNA card (5% rebate subject to the up limit of 2% of the monthly balance).

3) Last week, I tried another approach. I paid pretty dollars for car maitenance: engine tune up (replace spark plug and wires); fuel injection cleaning; replace engine gasket. Hopefully my investment will pay off over time (from saving in gas).

Categories
China

Hangzhou Bay bridge to open

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Last Updated on March 28, 2008 by stlplace

It’s official, the Hangzhou Bay bridge, which connects Ningbo (my hometown) and Shanghai (to be more precise, connects Ci Xi to Jiang Xing 南起浙江宁波慈溪市,北至浙江嘉兴海盐县), will open on this May, according to Ningbo goverment offical. Chinese news from Xinhuanet here.

Hangzhou bay bridge Ningbo Shanghai
(source: sohu)

At this time this is the longest sea crossing bridge in the world (36 km, or 22.5 miles). A new Hangzhou Bay railway bridge is also under planning (Chinese).

Dream come true