A disruption in the refinery of crude oil into gasoline due to a fire in a Los Angeles area refinery couldn’t even raise the price of oil and gasoline. For the first time in two months the price of a gallon of gas has fallen below $2.50 on average. Where I live, I just paid $2.38 for a gallon of regular 87 octane.

The fire at the Tesoro refinery in LA will probably effect the price of gas in California, but not too much anywhere else. The refinery processed around 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produced gasoline, jet fuel, and other products.

Demand for gasoline is so low that according to analyst and trader Stephen Schork, “a material disruption to supply to one of the largest markets in the world barely registered with speculators on the NYMEX.”

Wholesale gasoline for October actually increased 1.2 cents to $1.6323 per gallon today while benchmark crude for November delivery increased nearly 50 cents to $66.51 per barrel, this is after increasing 13 cents on Friday.

Prices have actually been increasing ever since Iran announced that it had a secret nuclear program at the G20 summit last week. This is due to the fact that 20 percent of the crude oil in the world is trafficked through the Straits of Hormuz which is on the southern coast of Iran. If something were to actually happen between the United States (or any country) and Iran, that route would be compromised  and oil would likely spike.

Of course, oil is one of the indicators of the economy. There are so many indicators and this is definitely one of them. After all, it’s oil that took a dive when people started realizing how bad the economy was last year. Oil also has started creeping back up and analysts are saying that other things are creeping up as well; such as the sale of homes and autos.

While it would be a good thing to not have to see oil reach the outrageous prices it hit last summer, I really want the economy to start picking up soon. Perhaps when it comes time for Chris and I to leave our college town, I’ll be able to land a real marketing job somewhere.

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It wasn’t long ago that Bryce and I sat down and tried to figure out which bills we could cut out or cut back on. We both came up with a simple answer:

We could cut back $100 a month by simply cutting our cable bill down to just internet service and “basic” cable.

So we did.

I have to admit, the kids really don’t like not being able to watch Dora, but because we don’t have cable anymore, they end up watching more PBS if they are watching TV at all. Really, cutting back on TV means the kids are outside playing more.

As for Bryce and I, we just end up watching whatever is on at night and when I miss my favorite prime-time show, I can easily watch it online. We’re a fairly “connected” household and have several computers that are always connected to a high speed internet connection.

The main websites to catch your “network” TV shows are the actual network websites like abc.com, nbc.com, cbs.com, and fox.com. Also, HULU.com has become a very popular website that is not only free but also is legal, which there are ways to catch your favorite cable shows on the internet, but I’ll let you Google that for yourself rather than me telling you.

There are just so many other ways to get your television than paying outrageous prices for cable TV or satellite TV as long as you have an internet connection.

Also, don’t forget that over-the-air TV is all digital now, so that is another completely free option for everyone who has to have “cable service” with their cable internet (like we do).

It’s been a couple of years since I got married, but if there is one thing that sticks out in my mind when it comes to wedding planning it was the outrageous prices of everything if you were associated with a wedding.

When it comes to wedding planning, you can expect to pay more for something even if during other times of the year or under other circumstances, the price is less.

Wedding dresses are usually outrageous in price, however, David’s Bridal has really found its niche in this new recession based market. MSNBC goes as far as to call it the “Wal-Mart” of weddings. I personally think that title is a bit derogatory to the company and to the thousands of brides that turn to the store for their dress purchases.

One of the best parts of David’s Bridal is that it is a chain located all across the country. That makes it so easy for brides to tell their Bridesmaids all across the country exactly what dress to get and the store will typically have the dress. Their sizes are also pretty uniform unlike at other bridal stores where each brand has a different sizing scheme.

Well, weddings have only decreased slightly in the recession and brides no longer have thousands to spend on wedding dresses. With the average David’s Bridal dress costing in the $300-$500 range, most brides can afford their prices versus other bridal boutiques.

One thing that I never understood when it came to weddings is why are wedding decorations so much more expensive than plain party decorations? When I got married, I was cutting costs wherever I could and couldn’t help but notice little organza circles for bird seed in the wedding section were more expensive than little organza circles in any other section of Marshall’s.

The point is that there are many ways for stores to get your money just because the term “wedding” is somewhere in your plans. You really have to look out for pricing scams based on weddings versus any other time of the year. I found that if you leave that out altogether, you will pay less. You’ll pay less when it comes to food, you’ll pay less when it comes to flowers…