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As a natural-born Texan, I am not pointing any fingers here, but I am including myself and my family. Heaven knows with five daughters and three sons we all have our various likes and weaknesses for the things we splurge on.

I will also share some areas where you can save a good amount of money and still get the things you like and want. In Texas, a lot of the things we like and spend good money on have been skyrocketing in price.

#1 - We love beef in particular our steaks, barbecue, and Tex-Mex food. Just look around at all the different restaurants there are in town. Have you seen the prices of chopped brisket, it's $17 to $25 a pound. Steaks range from $25 to $75 it just depends on the restaurant, the cut, and the size. The proof on the Tex-Mex side, many places started charging for chips and salsa and $10 burritos.

#2  - Transportation, yep our vehicles that we take much pride in are costing nearly more than ever before. Have you tried to buy a truck lately the prices have gone from $25,000 in 1983 to today that same vehicle (1/2 ton base model) is now over $60,000 starting price.

#3 - Utility bills, primarily electricity have gone up and do not appear to be going down anytime soon. While natural gas can keep us warm in winter, electricity keeps us Texans cool, especially during Summer when the temperature reaches 110°+.

#4 - Sports, we are all about our favorite teams in the Lone Star State. We love our football so much that we spend incredible amounts of cash to wear our fave teams' logos. Plus the tickets, the parking, the hotels, they see us coming.

#5 - Impulse purchases like boots, shoes, purses, blue jeans, Amazon, memberships, and pet merch. When it comes to this we don't even flinch at the price.

I stopped paying the high prices on Amazon and some of the other websites. What I discovered is that if I surf the web I find everything cheaper at places like "CapitolOneShopping.com" and I've saved as much as 80%. I also shopped online for my home and auto insurance, discounts on memberships, and vehicles, and restaurant food discounts.

We Texans need to stop paying too much and start saving money. Okay one last thing to know about me, yes I am a penny-pincher. Happy shopping y'all.

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