Over the past several years I have had the privilege of team teaching a couple family and business budget classes with two great instructors.  Debbie Hardinger and Trudy Shurvavloff. Both are energetic and very capable petite blond ladies so we bill the class as teaching by; ”Bambi and the Village Idiot”.

As I sit and listen the the words of wisdom they impart I have heard them share a variety of great tips on how to save money and avoid some of the financial pitfalls which plague many of us.  One recurring theme from the students is that they just can’t do anything to free up cash in their monthly budgets.  Both ladies have their own list but I have been fascinated with the simplicity of their advice.  Following is a compilation of the material they use with my own additions and editorializing.  I have personally experienced the benefit of these ideas.

I write this knowing the practices will result in reduced revenue for some business people providing certain services but a bankrupt public doesn’t make a very good customer either.  The responsibility is on our shoulders as entrepreneurs to navigate our way through the economic valley.  Don’t whine, add value and find a way to make your product indispensable to enough who can afford it.  There is no free lunch!

I will attempt to get the list complete and then come back in the future and fill in the detail.

1. Cancel your newspaper and unread magazine subscriptions.  Consider weekends only if you can’t bear the thought of not reading the comics or receiving the coupons.

2. Switch all your household lights to the corkscrew floresants or better yet the new environmentally friendly LED’s.  Watch for specials.  You should be able to buy the corkscrews for less than 50 cents a piece.

3. Brew your own gourmet coffee and take some in a thermos rather than buying a specialty drink at the drive through.

4. Cancel your home phone.

5.  Cancel your cable TV service or go to a more basic plan.  I called to cancel the other day and was offered a 50% reduction for the same service.  I stayed on.

6.   Shop for a better cell phone plan or consider a prepaid option.

7.  Take advantage of the budget menus at the fast food places and skip the soda.  They will give you a class of ice water at no charge.  It’s the same stuff we pay $1.49 for in the bottle.

8. Eat out of your freezer and cuboards for a month.  We found great meat and seafood and, no kidding, 12 bottles of salad dressing unopened.

9.  Make a list and stick to it when shopping the club warehouses.  Buy your meat and basic veggies here.  I will share a great story Debbie tells about a couple she followed through Costco later.

10.  Take a lunch to work.

11.  Buy generic.

12.  Do the scheduled maintenance on your car rather than waiting until some thing breaks.  The  AAA estimates you will save $8 in repairs for every $1 you spend on maintenance.  ( you knew thew car guy would sneak this one in)

13.  Turn your thermostat down and block off unused rooms.  Used the new energy efficient ceramic heaters if you spend most of your time in a single room.

14. Wash your own car.

15.  Use on-line bill pay service from your bank.

16.  Buy gourmet groceries for a nice dinner at home and make it an event instead of going out for special occasions.  Include a cheap bouquet of flowers.  The flowers and left overs are great the next day and the savings are in the range of 50%.

17.  Find somebody nearby to ride share or take the bus.

18.  Shop your personal insurance for home and auto every 3-4 years.

19.  Use Internet travel sites for air, hotel and car rentals.

20.  Buy a simple high quality multi- exercise machine and use it at home as well as walking to shop or work when you can rather than joining a fitness club.  Hint: But the exercise gear at a garage sale and save 50-90%.

I think it is a 1995 geo Prism.  It has four doors, an automatic transmission and front airbags.  The odometer just turned over 125,000 miles and some would think it is ready for the crusher, but they have a refreshing and very responsible attitude toward this piece of basic transportation.Kyle is their youngest and he turns 16 this fall.  When we chatted across the new hedge which separates our homes they asked about the latest trade I had driven home from my car dealership.  Should they replace the Geo with something fresher, newer and sportier?  As we talked, they concluded the little gray car would work just fine for Kyle in his first couple years of driving as it had for his two older siblings.It is paid for and dependable and they know the history from when they purchased it with only 32000 miles ten years ago.  They let one of the local shops keep it in great shape and always did the scheduled maintenance and though it may not be the sexiest car on the block it works just fine.  Because it has a very low book value they can purchase only liability insurance and forgo the more expensive collision coverage.Every day I watch families spend incredible amounts of money putting young and inexperienced drivers in to new or nearly new cars.  Driven by peer pressure and bad information, both parents and children put each other at risk with too much car with too much power without the experience and or maturity to handle either.  A local Realtor, Mile Kent, on his weekly radio program quoted a reliable source which studied this issue and found that people who will drive their cars to 200,000 miles save an average of $30,000 in doing so.  He commented; “it’s almost like having a part-time job.”  With advanced engineering, improved lubricants and computerized diagnostics, almost any car manufactured in the past 10 years can be safely and dependably driven to 200,000 miles if maintained properly.As I arrive home each night I smile and quietly applaud the Haans and their decision to keep the little gray car.

In todays finance market it is not unusual for our customers to finance 100% of the purchase price of a car plus the taxes and fees.  This creates a situation where the loan total in the first couple of years exceeds the value of the car.  In the unfortunate instance where the car is involved in an accident severe enough to have the insurance company total the car, the coverage is not going to be adequate to pay off the loan.GAP insurance was created for this situation.  A small one time premium covers the gap between the car value and the balance of the loan.  While we are not big fans of some of the add ons that dealers try to slide through at the end of the transaction, this one is very worthy of your consideration and a huge money saver in the event that it is needed.

Today’s vehicles are becoming more and more sophisticated with great features which add to the safety and driving pleasure.  It has been interesting to realize that many of our customers come back in several months and have basic questions about these functions or are simply unaware that these great features even exist. This has prompted us to offer regular “get acquainted with your new car” events offered on a regular basis on evenings and weekends.  These one hour classes give us an opportunity to walk through the details of various features and unlock the enjoyment you should be experiencing in your new ride.  They are fast paced and fun with a little humor, refreshments and an opportunity to connect with our service team and other like minded drivers.  We will show how to do some basic preventative maintenance which can add substantially to your safety and avoid unnecessary costly repairs If you would like to take advantage of this free service just drop us and email or give us a call.  You are welcome even if you purchased your BMW, Volkswagen or Audi somewhere else.

From time to time the Keith Cox Autobahn Team will offer forums for those in our community with special or common interest vehicles.  These forums will cover topics such as performance and or preventative maintenance on particular cars. These forums will take on two basic formats.  One will be a scheduled meeting held here at our dealership and the other will be through the website allowing interactive discussion with others and our specialist.   Our goal will be to make these focused and informative.  We will encourage your thoughts, ideas and experiences in the process.  We can all learn from each other and pass along valuable information.  These forums will also include Professionals from the topic fields and assists all of in the process of separating fact from fiction. Several topics are already in the planning stage which includes TDI diesel operation, bio-diesel conversion and use, 1.8 Turbo performance enhancement, roof racks, trailer hitches and other sport accessories, and performance tires on Quattro and Traction Control cars.     If you have an interest in any of these forums please indicate so by clicking on the “Notify Me” button or giving us a call @360-733-2721.  We will NEVER sell or give away your personal information and you may unsubscribe anytime you wish.  We will give your privacy careful attention.  Your ideas for future forums are greatly appreciated.

The technical nature of today’s automobile makes it nearly impossible for the owner to do any repairs or scheduled maintenance.  However there are several things a driver can do to greatly increase a cars performance and reliability.  Keep these items up to date and check your owner’s manual for issues related to your specific automobile. 

1. Check your oil at least every other time you fuel.
2. Check your tire pressure once a month.  Don’t forget to include your spare tire.
3. Fill your windshield washer fluid anytime it goes below the 50% mark.  Buy a good fluid with antifreeze in it.  
4. Ask you service provider to replace your wiper blades every four months.
5. Check your lights for correct operation every month. 
6. Keep your gas cap tightly closed after each fueling.
7. Make sure you are using the correct octane fuel for your car.
8. Check your trunk for the correct jack and tools to change a tire.
9.  Make a “dry run” on a level surface to get familiar with how to change a tire.  
10. Pay attention to the scheduled maintenance required for you car

I have been reading a book my brother Neal gave me in the 1980’s by Paul Hawkin titled; Growing a Business. I had remebered it as inspirational but as I have reread it I have become intriuged by how well he captured some very insightful aspects of, well, “growing a business.”

It is a good read in its entirity but one concept I picked up in the first 100 pages again was what he calls the “What if” factor.

What if, in your business, you really do listen to your customers. What if you can develop a service or product that builds into making your customers clients rather than consumers. What if you can break the mold in a dozen small ways to add value and duribility to what you do or sell.

I am doing a poor job of explaing what he wrote so well but it is a concept which resonates with me. I sat down this morning a without breaking a sweat quickly listed 20 simple things we can tell our customer we do that I believe are “what if” kinds of things. Over the next couple of days I will try these on those of you that come here and I would love to have you either confirm them or challenge me that they don’t fit with the reality of how we do business and care for our client base.

1. What if we didn’t make our prospects wrestle in the mud for two hours to get to the bottom line price on the cars we sell? My industry does this on a regular basis and I think it is despicable. We have a realistic book based price posted on every car on our lot and if we get an offer for something less or different we can usually give a definitive answer or make a counter offer in 60 seconds or less.

This morning I checked out a blog hosted by Village Books that had a great link for ideas of how we can each make a difference in out world. Check out the link.

Nothing raises the blood pressure quite like the prospect of shopping for a used car.  Many have likened it to a visit to the proctologist: necessary, but seldom pleasant.  There are few industries with the poor reputation earned by used car dealers.  From the moment you step foot onto the car lot, it seems that every step in the car buying process is designed to irritate you, the customer.  Of course, there are good used car dealers, but unfortunately, they are the exception.  It is no wonder people hate shopping for used cars!….. Read the full article here

Welcome to the new Keith Cox Autobahn Blog! We are looking forward to providing you with information regarding researching, buying and servicing vehicles as well as local happenings. And why not throw in some random thoughts and humorous findings while we’re at it. Please contact us with questions, helpful links and local news that you’d like to see in our posts.