My Week: Our First LIVE Tree & I Saved BIG at the Gas Pump

Our First Live Tree

My husband and I have been married for 14 years.

For the first 13 years, we had an artificial Christmas tree. We liked the laziness factor of our artificial tree. It came with lights already attached to the tree and easily stored in our attic. It was easy, but it was fake.

This year, I wanted a real tree. I wanted that fresh sprucey smell.

And so did our girls, so since my husband is pretty accommodating, he did too.

We headed out on Sunday to a tree farm where a wagon took us to the planted trees.

It was cold so it didn’t take us long to find the “perfect” tree.

I just love our real tree. And it’s a good thing, because it cost us $60. I should have called for prices before we went to the tree farm. I had no idea that the tree would cost that much. But at least our house smells so good.

I Saved Big at the Pump

I do the majority of my grocery shopping at Giant Food Stores in PA. They also have gas stations and often offer a 10 cent discount (per gallon) for every $100 spent on groceries. But last week, they offered four times the gas points on the purchase of gift cards. For example, if you spent $100 on gift cards, you received 40 cents (per gallon) off of gas instead of the normal 10 cents.

That’s a great deal for us because we buy a lot of gift cards at this time of year to give as gifts for family and our staff. It’s also a great time to buy a gift card for a store or restaurant that we frequent. On top of that gift card deal, there was a coupon in the paper for 30 cents off of gas for spending $50 in groceries…which isn’t hard to do.

When it was all said and done, I had accrued $2.60 in gas points. I think 20 cents were from previous shopping trips, but in the end I spent 11 cents a gallon on gas.