Cutting Costs

Well it has been very busy at the Murray Clan residence. Marlene has been working hard both inside and outside the home to help keep this family afloat while her lazy husband just goes to school and babysits the kids in the afternoon, if you call it babysitting when the kids are sleeping most of the time. I would just like to let everyone know how proud I am of Marlene. She really has been patient with me throughout my career as a student. It is because of her hard work that we have been able to save money and stay out of debt. She is also a great mother to our two handsome boys who have been getting so big. We could not have asked for a better wife and mother.
Anyway, due to rising gas prices we have officially trained Marlene how to ride the motor scooter. We have made the scooter our primary vehicle. I take it to school Monday-Thursday, and Marlene takes it to work Monday-Friday. Our 2 fuel efficient Honda Accords are just not cutting it now that it costs about $65 to fill up a tank. We do not let our tanks get below half before we fill up though to help reduce the cost. We were both filling our cars up about every two weeks. This means we spent about $260 a month between the both of us. The scooter can go over a week before needing a refill and costs about $4 to fill each week. This is about $16 a month, and we hope to cut the amount we put into our cars by half saving us about $114 a month on gas. (Sorry, a little of the finance side has come out of me.)We will probably be able to save more since we have started to use the scooter even to make little errands to the bank and so forth.
Well Marlene has really become attached to the scooter and enjoys riding it even if it rains. I never thought I would be able to get her on it, but now she likes to take it everywhere. Just look at her happy face. She is really starting to get comfortable riding her new form of transportation.
Chad also loves to ride the scooter though we have to stay around the house because technically it is not legal to have him on the scooter until he is 5 years old. We just take him for rides on the road right next to the tracks, that hardly ever get used. He loves to wear his helmet and beep the horn. Every once in a wile he will tell us he swallowed a bug, or that a bug got in his eye, but this does not stop him. He would ride it all day if he could.
Brian on the other hand just loves to wear the helmet. Just look how handsome he looks with his big blue eyes and chubby cheeks. No, he does not ride the scooter yet, but maybe some day (or year), we will have two scooters and I would take a kid and Marlene could take a kid and we would really save on gas. OK, for all of you who think I am serious, this is a joke.
So if you can't tell we are a big happy family. Chad and Brian love to play with their balloons while sitting in their couch watching the Stanley Cup Finals with their dad. We believe in cheap entertainment. As long as they each have their own balloon and spot on the couch they are at peace, which in turn means we as parents are at peace.