how to save $$ on gas

As I reached for my card to pay for my groceries, a message appeared on the payment screen, “do you want to save five percent on groceries with your points, today?” Say what? I looked at my paltry pile of produce. Those points represent a savings of 50 cents a gallon on gas. I chose ‘no’ even though both vehicles’ tanks registered mostly full. What a quandary. The month would end in four days, and we had no great adventures planned requiring gas. At least not until I had an idea! I would go to the CCAPS Thrift Store in Magnolia and look for Christian literature. Months ago when I visited, the store was moving to a new location. I had not found anything worth the gas. Before that I typically filled a cart with books. The next morning, I left the house early and drove to CCAPS and found a bookshelf dedicated to Christian literature and Bibles. I began piling Bibles and Christian Literature into my shopping cart. “Are you planning on doing a lot of reading?” a passing customer asked.“No, I am buying them to take to Love Packages in Butler, Illinois, where they send out 40 tons of literature in shipping containers stuffed with Bibles and Christian books.”The clerk overheard my explanation. She gave me a huge discount for the three bags and a box filled with books..Back home, I questioned Hubby, “How much gas do you need in your van?” “I don’t need gas,” he said. “Well it is the end of the month and our discount of fifty cents is about to disappear. Let’s go to Ruston to the Rolling Hills Used Book Thrift Store,” I said. We had not been there in months. He agreed and suggested another errand we needed to tend there. “No time to waste. We have a meeting tonight.” He drove. I slept. At the largest used bookstore in this area, I walked straight to the bookshelves marked Bibles. At a dollar a piece, they cost more than I often spend for used Bibles. However an adjacent bookshelf had a sign that read “New Testaments: Free.” The staff gave me the box of Bibles they had just brought out to put on the shelf. I accepted it and asked for a couple more boxes. I began transferring Bibles from the shelves to the boxes as Hubby packed New Testaments into another box. We left with 100 Bibles and at least as many New Testaments. We tended to our other errand and made it home in time for our evening meeting. His van still did not need gas. So the next day Hubby decided to save more money and switch phone carriers. That drained a few more gallons from his van’s gas tank. I went to the Barton Library book sale to look for Christian literature. I loaded the sedan with half a dozen heavy boxes of books. By the time Hubby returned, both his van and my car needed gas. “Let’s go buy gas,” he said. Our caravan of two joined many other vehicles lined up at the last minute to cash in their discount points. I don’t know what they saved, but we saved 50 cents a gallon. Back home, Hubby looked at the boxes and boxes of books spread across our living room floor from the last two days. He had a lot of repacking to do. It should have been the end. I wasn’t. Between an estate sale and two more visits to the library sale, I ensured he kept busy for many hours repacking. When he finished he said, “We now have 26 boxes. More than enough to fill the van.” And to think, we did it all because we wanted to get the maximum use out of our fifty cent discount on a gallon of gas.