25 Ways to Cut Your Gas Costs

Well, my local gas station just tipped $4 per gallon this morning, which, according to friends in other areas, had already happened to them a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately I don't see this price receding any time soon.  Here's some ways to keep a grip on your gas costs:

1. Buy an electric or hybrid car (obviously an expensive proposition but if you commute really far each day and gas prices stay high you may come out ahead. Do the math first, of course).
2. Find the cheapest gas prices in town here.
3. Carpool. I used to do this when I went to a lot of meetings and this saved me a ton of money on gas as well as wear and tear on my car.
4. If you do drive for work, make sure you are getting reimbursed for your mileage (when I used to be reimbursed for my mileage, I would simply check our state rates occasionally to make sure they hadn't changed since last I checked).
5. Live closer to work. Another high-front-end type of expense but walking to work could save you a lot of money and give you some cheap exercise as well.
6. Group your errands together and do them in a gas-saving fashion (I tend to make a circle to hit all of the places I need to go to when I do my errands to the bank, library, post office, grocery store, etc).
7. Do as many errands from home as possible (I do nearly all of my banking and bill paying online, for example).
8. Have "no travel days". In other words, don't leave your house unless it is by walking or bicycling a couple of days a week in order to save money.
9. See if you can work four ten hour days instead of five eight-hour days. This will save you the cost of commuting one day a week.
10. See if you can work from home (even better!).
11. Commute by motorcycle or moped instead of car. 
12. Buy gas and store it. You could realistically buy a few tank fulls of gas at today's prices and store it for future use. We used to do this with gas for farm equipment years ago. BUT you need to be able to store it safely and use it before it gets too old.
13. You can always play the market and bet on oil futures. Obviously not a good idea if you don't know what you are doing but some people who "bet" on oil prices a while back are now raking in the money.
14. Try bicycling or walking instead of driving. I have some healthy friends who can bike 20-50 miles a day to and from work without a problem (I am guessing they are super healthy from all of that exercise).
15. Take the bus instead. This is what I did when gas prices hit $4+ a few years back. I left my car at home, bought a monthly bus pass, and found I preferred traveling by city bus rather than driving myself.
16. Check your insurance rates. If you will be ditching your car most of the time to save money on gas, see if you can get a discount on your car insurance.
17. See if your employer has van pool options. My sister in law does this. She lives far from where she works in Atlanta and her employer actually offers free van pools to take her to and from work. The only thing her van pool mates need to do is alternate who drives the van.
18. Drive better. This article gives some great tips on how to not drive like a maniac (speeding, fast braking, etc) and save money on gas.
19. Buy cheaper gas. Actually our vehicle has never had the experience of premium gas so it doesn't know what it is missing. The cheapest gas works just fine in our car.
20. Look at other travel options. When we are going to travel somewhere we look at ALL of the options (the cost of driving, taking the bus, taking Amtrak, flying, even going by way of cruise ship).
21. Don't make wasteful driving trips when other options will work. I am always shocked at the number of parents who drive their kids to and from school when walking or the bus would work just as well. Ditto for my sister's late night McDonalds runs.
22. Don't take more car than you need. If you have two or three cars on hand, take the cheapest one that will work for your purposes (obviously hauling the soccer team will mean you will have to take the Escalade, but running to the store for groceries can probably be done in the tiniest car you own).
23. Make fewer trips. If you are going grocery shopping, try going only once a month to make the grand haul on groceries like this.
24. Can you ditch your car altogether? Having no car at all would be very difficult for us but here's a website of people who have gone car free.
25. Can you become a one car family? At the most I think we had six cars in our driveway at one time. Fortunately we were eventually able to shift down to one car shared between the spouse and I which works out very well (and saves us the cost of gas plus insuring, cleaning, and maintaining multiple cars).

Here's some more great ways to save money on gas.

And If Rising Food Prices Aren't Enough...Take a Look at Gas Prices

The last post was about rising food prices. Now, to add insult to injury, take a look at this article which predicts that gas prices could rise to $5 a gallon this summer. That's all people who are already stretched thin need...
A few years ago when gas prices rose to around $4.50 per gallon, it basically changed the way I looked at almost everything. Prior to that I drove literally everywhere, had a half dozen cars in the driveway, and didn't really consider anything different than the usual "American way" to do things (ie: drive, put myself at the mercy of big oil companies, and work even more to pay the bills). Fast forward to now. I currently have no home (by choice), no debts (by choice), no permanent employment (by choice), and one car (in storage). How did that happen? Here's how:

• I saw that gas prices were about $4.50 per gallon and became offended at both the high price and the way that the government, futures investors, and others jerked the average person around with gas prices that seemed to rise and fall apparently on a whim.
• Then we were on vacation, hopping on and off about any kind of public transit you could think of (city bus, jeepney, tricicyleta, motor scooter, etc) for basically pennies per ride, and it dawned on me that I had never considered public transit in my own country.
• I made a list of what types of public transit I could reasonably use in my own city. The list included walking, bicycling, city bus, light rail, train, and car pooling.
• Next I actually experimented with each type of transportation to see if #1, these options were feasible considering my work/lifestyle, and if #2, using these options actually saved me money. I found out that the answer to both of these questions was a resounding YES.
• As I made each these differing forms of transportation a part of my lifestyle (ie: walking to the grocery store, bicycling for errands that were a bit further, riding the bus all over the city to business meetings and social events, hopping on light rail when it was convenient, car pooling quite often to meetings, and even taking a train to get out of the city for the weekend) I realized that it would be possible to cut back on the cars, the gas expense, and the total reliance on big oil for my every excursion.
• So we now have one car that the spouse and I share. Did I mention that life is much simpler now? Only one car to maintain, clean, keep track of, pay taxes on, register, insure, etc.

That's the short version. After the cars went, I considered what other things I had just accepted as fact and considered ways to turn those assumptions on its head as well. So I quit working, sold the house, sold almost everything we owned, packed up a backpack, and have decided to travel for a while as a kind of "sabbatical" from the rat race.

But back to the topic of this post... The bottom line: when gas prices begin to skyrocket again, consider what alternate forms of transportation you could take to both save money and reduce your reliance on big oil. Who knows? Making this small choice could lead you in a direction you never imagined.

51 Ways to Cut Fuel Costs

I don't have to tell you that fuel costs--both the fuel to run your car and the fuel to run your home--are out of control. Here's some ways to conserve this precious resource (and save you lots of money in the process):

1. Keep your tires properly inflated.
2. Use Mapquest (http://www.mapquest.com/) to figure out where you're going before you leave the house instead of driving aimlessly to find your destination.
3. Take all of the excess weight (golf clubs, etc) out of your car.


4. Use Gas Buddy (http://www.gasbuddy.com/) to find the lowest gas prices in your area.


5. Do all of your errands at the same time instead of a few each day; group your errands for the most efficient use of your gas.


6. Use public transportation four or five days a week and only use your car for the day you do all of your errands.


7. Use the lowest octane gas your vehicle can tolerate.


8. Fill up your tank during the coolest time of day.


9. Don’t drive like a maniac. Reving the engine, racing, quick stops and starts—all are gas wasters.


10. Drive a more fuel efficient car.


11. Sell all of your cars and use public transportation (buses, cabs for errands) when necessary. Don’t laugh—some people could take a cab five days a week and it would still be cheaper than their lease payment, gas, and insurance.


12. Keep your car in optimal condition (tuned up, filters changed, etc).


13. Change your work scheduled to avoid driving during the busiest parts of the day.


14. Drive smoothly—smooth starts, smooth stops instead of jamming on the brakes, a firm foot on the gas instead of “on the pedal, off the pedal, on the pedal” driving.


15. Buy locally grown food (at the grocery store or farmer’s market); it’s cheaper than having your oranges driven in from Florida.


16. Shop second hand; this reduces the cost for fuel used for packaging and transportation of new goods.


17. Save a trip. Shop online, have items delivered to your home, call if you have questions instead of going to an office to have them answered, have your pizza delivered, etc.


18. Hop a ride with a neighbor who is heading in to town.


19. Use Traffic Land (http://www.trafficland.com/) to see how traffic is in your metro area before leaving the house.


20. Use Public Routes (http://www.publicroutes/) to plan your trip by public transportation.


21. Grow a garden—save the huge cost of transporting your food from all corners of the country, the cost of commercial, petroleum-based pesticides, and the fuel costs for having your produce commercially prepared and packaged.


22. Carpool. If you must drive, ride with others to save gas.


23. Look into vanpooling, worker-driver buses, and other transit options if you work for a large company.


24. Use Flex Car (http://www.flexcar.com/) or other car sharing options.


25. Challenge yourself to go one day, one week, even one month without using your car.


26. Look at options for telecommuting, either for a few days a week or permanently.


27. Quit your job. In two income families, the costs for transportation (not to mention, food, clothing and daycare) can quickly surpass the income the lowest wage earner is earning.


28. Lower the heat in your home and put on a jacket/blanket.


29. Trade in your gas-burning lawnmower for a push mower.


30. Garage your car during the warmer months and drive a moped or motorcycle instead.


31. Install an on-demand water heater—these save a considerable amount of fuel.


32. Hang your clothes outside instead of using your gas-fired dryer.


33. Look into fuel banks (http://www.firstfuelbank.com/).


34. Do your errands online—pay bills, banking, order library books, buy postage—many of your errands can be accomplished online and save you the gas you would otherwise use driving around town to do them.


35. Communicate online instead of driving to your friend’s house. Use a chat/video conferencing program to accomplish this.


36. Walk or ride a bike instead of driving—you’ll save gas and get healthy at the same time.


37. Drink tap water—it takes lots of fuel to create the plastic bottles, fill, and transport bottled water.


38. Wear natural clothing (cotton, wool), man-made fabrics are usually based on petroleum products.


39. Read about other’s fuel reduction efforts (http://noimpactman.typepad.com/) and become inspired.


40. Switch from high fuel hobbies (car racing, flying, boating) to low fuel hobbies (fishing, hiking, basketball).


41. Think reusable instead of disposable—canvas shopping bags, containers instead of plastic baggies, books instead of magazines.


42. Move closer to where you work or work closer to where you live in order to save transportation costs.


43. Avoid situations where you will be idling for long: drive-thru bank or restaurant lines, crowded mall parking lots, roads that are under construction, etc.


44. Let your kids walk, ride a bike, or ride the bus to school instead of driving them every day.


45. Vacation closer to home to reduce transportation fuel costs.


46. Use “old fashioned” methods of cooling your home (open the drapes on the cool side of the house then close them to keep out the mid-day sun, open windows in the morning and evening but close them during the heat of the day) instead of the air conditioning.


47. Mail small gifts (ie: gift cards) instead of larger items that cost more in fuel to ship.


48. Reduce electricity use (which costs fuel to generate).


49. Pull out your gas fireplace and install a super efficient wood-burning stove
    
50. Eat at home—imagine how much fuel goes into restaurants—transporting the food to the restaurant, fuel for the stoves and heating/AC system, employee’s transportation cost, etc.


51. Just think--no driving means no tickets, no accidents, and no insurance claims.