DH finished his on-line defensive driving course yesterday evening, then took the test and passed (w/ a fantastic 95% score ... pretty darn good in any circumstance, and really terrific considering the course was in English, his 2nd language). We immediately get a 10% discount on our auto insurance, good for the next 3 years. The course cost $20, and at the discount (based on our current premium) is $125 over 3 years, for a net savings of $105. It took him about 6 hours to complete the course, so that means he netted about $17.50 per hour of work ... Not too bad! Also, he seemed to really get in to taking the course and learned a lot ... He's not a bad driver, but if the course makes him even less likely to get in to an accident, then it definitely was worth the time! [When / if we purchase a 2nd car, I plan to take the course also.]

We filled our gas tank for the first time since getting our new tires at Costco. DH does a rough calculation of gas mileage each time he fills up (he uses the odometer to keep track of mileage between fillups) and he says our gas mileage improved from about 26 MPG to 28-29 MPG. Not sure if we can call the results of one fillup a trend, but I sure do hope it stays that high. I don't know if it's because we now have better (new) tires, or if it's because Costco fills their tires with Nitrogen ... I had never heard of filling tires with Nitrogen, but there was a brochure at the Costco Tire Center explaining how Nitrogen is supposed to improve handling & improve gas mileage. The tires on our car now have little green caps on them instead of black, which apparently is the symbol for nitrogen-filled. I can definitely say that the car handles better, tho' again I can't say whether that's because we now have new tires, they are filled with nitrogen, or both. I'm not a car person, so I can't offer an intelligent opinion on the "filling with nitrogen" issue, but would love to hear what others think. By the way, we didn't have to pay anything extra for the Nitrogen. That's just what our Costco Tire Center is using now.

I splurged this past week when grocery shopping. I bought a carton of Tropicana orange juice, and a bag of fresh baby spinach. Each was $2.99, and neither were on sale. [With the soaring cost of produce, we've been eating much more frozen lately, and buying fresh only when we find a "bargain."] They were both on my grocery list, so neither was an impulse buy but was a planned splurge. Hard to believe I spent that much, and hard to believe buying fresh produce that is not on sale is now considered a splurge! Funny times we live in, eh? They sure tasted GREAT, and they are good for us too ... DH & I both enjoyed every sip and bite...Yum!