Do you usually fill your gas tank up at the same gas station out of habit? Looking to save money on gas? Perhaps you might want to consider seeing if there is another convenient gas station by you that offers gas at a better price. Check out this website to see the lowest and highest gas prices in the Milwaukee metro area. It’s shocking to see the variance in prices. For example, on October 14, 2008, the highest gas price was recorded at a BP station on the South side of Milwaukee for $3.07. The lowest gas price was recorded at a BP station in Southwest Milwaukee for $2.68 a gallon! On a sixteen gallon fillup, that is a difference of $6.24!
This map is a great feature on the website. It allows you to see a map of the Milwaukee metro area so you can quickly find gas stations in your area that have reasonable prices.
Another cool map is the Gas Price Temperature Map. It’s not practical, but the information is very interesting.
On July 23, 2008,
JSOnline reported that a new study from Scarborough Research found that 40% of households in the
Milwaukee metropolitan area clip
grocery coupons once a week or more.
The article stated that the internet ranked last as a source for coupons, with only 11% of households using the internet to find coupons. However, it was the fastest growing source – up 83% over the past two years.
With this study in mind, we thought we’d search Google for online coupons in Milwaukee and see what is available out there. The bottom line is there weren’t a lot of coupons that we found useful. However, we’re sure that more business owners will advertise coupons online over time.
Here are some of the websites we found with online coupons, ranked in order of usefulness:
Valpak - This was the most professional, easy to use website. The coupons were from businesses that we’ve patronized before. Coupons are recognizable from coupon mailers received via US Mail. It might just be easier to browse the online site once every week or two and not even bother opening the Valpak coupon mailer when it arrives in the mail.
Hotcoupons – This was another website where we recognized the coupons that were sent to me from the
Money Mailer. The website is fairly easy to use, but not as user friendly as Valpak’s. There were a few good businesses that we recognized, but the businesses did not seem to be as well known as the companies on Valpak’s site.
MerchantCircle has a large number of coupons on the website for Milwaukee. Many seem to be small, local businesses. However, when a certain zip code was entered in to narrow the selections, only three businesses were displayed, all of which were not well known businesses. The website was professional and legitimate.
Oodle appears to aggregate feeds from Valpak and MerchantCircle. As of October 14, 2008, there were 783 coupons and offers in Milwaukee on Oodle that you can browse or refine by keyword.
KeyMilwaukee sports a handful of coupons you can print. Some of the vendors are great Milwaukee names – Buca Di Beppo,
ComedySportz, and Usinger’s. The
Buca Di Beppo coupon is a good deal – get $10 off any food purchase of $25 or more. The Buca coupon appears to expire on 12/28/08, but it is very difficult to read the expiration date on the PDF.
InsiderPages - This page is not very useful. It appears local businesses can post coupons for free on the website.
Interested in reducing waste and avoiding filling up landfills? Interested in obtaining items you need instead of buying them at the store? If so, perhaps you might be curious to learn more about Freecycling groups in the Milwaukee metro area. According to the Yahoo! Waukesha County Freecycle group, the goal of freecycling is to reduce waste by providing an alternative to sending unneeded, but still usable, items to the landfill. It is a network that connects individuals looking to get rid of items with individuals who can benefit from these goods.
If you decide to sign up for the group, you can choose to view notices on the internet or to receive email notifications. If you prefer email notifications, you have the choice of receiving individual emails for each posting or a daily email which compiles up to 25 messages. A sample of a recent daily email notification included people giving away coupons, a laundry sorter, a LP tank for a gas grill, a baby gate, furniture, a tackle box, a christmas tree stand, day lilies, peonies, and a HP deskjet printer. Visit these Yahoo! Freecycling groups if you would like more information or to sign up for the group.
Milwaukee Freecycle Group
Racine Freecycle Group
Waukesha Freecycle Group
