One Mom

Due to some special events over the past eight days, I’ve put more miles on my car than I normally put on in an entire month. With gas prices, I try not to put many miles on the car. Anyway, last week our local grocery store had a special, if you purchased $100 worth of groceries, you would get a 40 cents off/gallon of gas at their station. Cool. So, while that is more than we would spend a week on groceries, I stocked up on non-perishables and earned my 40 cent coupon. Then, I also needed a refill on my Imitrex (awful migraines I have), and because that was also over $100, I received another 40 cent coupon.

Even better, is they allow you to use two gas coupons at once, which meant I could get 80 cents off/gallon. Last week our prices were $3.75 a gallon, and since I had 10 days on the coupons, I chose to wait. Prices dropped to $3.59, and I was going to wait longer hoping they would drop a bit more, but then I received an urgent warning from the guys at The Gas Game (in Grand Rapids Michigan) that something was awry in the market and prices were going to $3.89/gallon by 10:30 this morning.

I roused my little person, grabbed the gas can, my two coupons and headed for the station. It was 10 am, so I beat the increase and paid $2.79/gallon to fill my car and my gas can (you can use the coupons for a total of 40 gallons, which I wasn’t even close to). While I was standing there pumping my gas, there was an older woman on the other side of the pump who was growing very upset. She couldn’t figure out how to scan her coupon (hers was only 5 cents off), and that drove her to tears about gas prices and how was she going to pay for her prescriptions, her groceries after paying so much for gas. I told her to put her coupon in her pocket and drive her car around to my pump and she could buy gas for $2.79/gallon (as long as the nozzle isn’t replaced and 40 gallons hasn’t been reached, the price is still good). She pulled around - still crying - pulled out her calculator to figure out how much gas she could buy at that price and still buy the other items she needed. She bought enough gas to get her to almost 3/4 of a tank, paid me what she owed, hugged me (still crying), said that was enough gas for a month at least for her, and left looking much less distressed than she had a few minutes earlier.

If I could have afforded it, I would have just paid for her gas, but saving 80 cents a gallon seemed a huge relief to her and her pocketbook.

It doesn’t take much to ease another person’s burden … you just have to look for the opportunity. Be aware when God is asking you to look and see how you might help another, if only for a moment.

OneMom