So you are job searching and have turned your eyes towards the Federal government. After all, the chances of losing a federal job are far less likely to happen than in private industry.

But how can you find job openings and what is the process like?

Where to Go

If you are in search of a Federal job, go to USA Jobs (If the internet is an issue, here are the phone numbers: 1/703-724-1850 or TDD 1/978-461-8404). USA Jobs is the official job site for the United States Federal government. In fact, any job that is available is required to be placed on the site. At any given time there are thousands of jobs posted. At publish date, there are more than 45,000 Federal government jobs [...]

Now that I have been tracking my car for more than a year I know, at any given time, what my cost per mile is. What is my cost per mile? $.08 per mile in gas costs. There have been a few instances where I have decided to re-route my intended plans. Sometimes I consider driving to the grocery store and then to another store like Best Buy. I MapQuest it real quick only to find out that in total I will have to drive about 25 miles round trip. In other words, it will cost $2 in gas to make that trip. I realize at that moment that it really isn’t worth it and I decide to stop by the grocery store on my way home from work, thus negating any added fuel costs.

That’s all fine and good, but you can do that quite easily without Fuelly. What else does Fuelly allow you to do? There is an added social networking feel to the site that lets you compare your cars mpg to other people’s mpg with the same car. If you see that you are averaging about 25 mpg but other Accent owners are averaging 32 mpg then you may have a problem. Is it a maintenance issue? Maybe you need to get some tune-up work done. Is it a driving habits issue? Do you floor it as soon as the light turns green, do you ride peoples bumpers, etc?

After using the site for a while I realized my driving habits were causing my mpg to be about 3 less than the average across the site. I decided to start driving more consciously and since then I have brought myself up to 1 mpg better than the average! For myself, at an average of 1,000 miles per month, what does this mean for me?

A savings of 4.5 gallons per month, or about $10. It also means I am most likely driving my car more sanely and decreasing the wear on my engine and transmission.

Is Fuelly Really Needed?

So in the end my car should last a little longer and I will save about $120+ year. Not too bad, huh?

By no means do you need Fuelly to do this, though. If you start practicing safer and more practical driving habits you will most likely experience the same results. What Fuelly allows you to do, though, is pinpoint your problem and acknowledge that the problem exists. Once you have done that it is up to you to create and implement a solution.

Fuelly exists, for me, purely as a way to mitigate any effort I would have to put into this cause otherwise. The effort I put into tracking my car’s mileage per gallon is inconsequential but my rewards are a bit more substantial.

Let me know if you have used Fuelly for similar results or if you have another system!

Back in high school gas used to be about $1.00 a gallon. Sometimes it is hard to think back that far now, I was filling up at about $12 a tank in my old Neon. The car which I drive now, a Hyundai Accent, has roughly the same gas capacity and costs $24 to fill up. Go figure, twice the cost. Over this past summer when gas prices hit $3.50 or so it was costing a ridiculous $40 to fill up!

Back in the Days of Cheap Gas

Back in high school it was not uncommon to see people just cruising around for fun. I did it quite often. If I was ever bored and didn’t have anything to do I would jump in my car [...]

This week you can find me in 3 different carnivals:

• Savings Not Shoes hosted the Festival of Frugality and included my article Can I Get a Job with a Misdemeanor?
• I  hosted the Money Hacks Carnival and went with an apple pie theme for National Apple Pie day.
• Financial Highway hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction and included my article Types of Dental Insurance Plans Explained.

Guest Posts

If you would like to check out some posts I have been writing for other blogs, check out my guest posts page which I will keep up to date. This week I wrote 2 more: [...]

So close to 100 Subscribers

Being so close to 100 subscribers, I was looking to get some feedback from you guys. Obviously I like the comics, as does HLR, but do you like the comics? Should they continue on as a part of the website? Are you ambivalent? Do you REALLY like them? Just let me know. I know that I am sometimes out of touch with reality, haha… so the fact that I really like them might not be representative of what you guys like :)

Unexpected Situation, Unexpected Results

Moving forward, I felt like the girl in this comic this past week.

On Monday I got into work and was just bombarded. Just so that you know, my two busiest days of the week are Monday and Wednesday[...]

A reader e-mailed me the other day with that exact question. His name is Brandon and he said he came back to my site after originally tripping over the post that I created as a tax guide for recent graduates. That is a roundup post that links to three of my other posts having to do with filling out a w4, figuring out taxable income, and filing taxes.

He said he found the information useful and now a month later he has a question: How long does it take to get his tax refund? He’s waiting, Uncle Sam!

I thought this was the perfect question to make a post out of because today is May 15th, one month after tax day!

It Depends On a Few Things