Gas Prices — What YOU can do to save some extra $$$
20 April 2008Not exactly IT related but I wanted to get this information out there in hopes that someone else might find it handy 
Recently my wife and I purchased Quicken for her Mac so we could keep a tab on our expenses and after tracking trends for a month we were floored to find out that I was spending $350 per month on gas alone! That’s $4,200 per year, or an extra $21,000 over the life of my five year loan! What the hell man!
Of course things will keep getting worse because gas prices here in North County San Diego keep going up! My wife actually had to pay $4.25 per gallon of 91 octane gas for her Mini Cooper! It’s a tiny little car and only takes like 13 gallons, but still cost over $60 to fill it! I was irate!
I thought, as a consumer, what can I do to just save myself money let alone try to stick it to the man. I decided on the following tactics:
- Drive no faster than 65 on the freeways
- Always use cruise control when I could
- Do not use AC/Heater unless it was insanely hot or very, very cold
- Do not use a ‘jackrabbit’ start, and try to gradually accelerate from stops
I figured these would be the easiest things to change that wouldn’t have a major impact on my commute or pocket book. For safe measure, I checked the pressure in my tires and also cleaned my reusable K&N air filter.
Now, I drive a 2004 Acura TSX which has only a four cylinder engine, but it’s a large four cylinder at 2.4 liters. My commute to work is 40 miles round trip with mostly freeways and on average I filled up every six to seven days getting an average of 26.4 miles per gallon.
I’ve now been driving using the above listed method for over three weeks now and I’ve filled up twice. Each tank had the following statistics:
First Tank:
29.5mpg
425 miles traveled
Nine Days Between Fill-ups
Second Tank:
31.5mpg
465 miles traveled
Ten Days Between Fill-ups
These were OUTSTANDING results! If I can keep up this trend I’ll be cutting my monthly gas price in half and saving about $150 per month or $1,800 per year! And the way gas prices keep going up, it’ll continue to save me more money
I suggest you give my above suggestions a try and let me know your results! I think you’ll be shocked at how much money you’ll be saving with these astronomical gas prices.
Cheers!
One Response to “Gas Prices — What YOU can do to save some extra $$$”
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 am
Reduce Vehicle Weight:
another easy tip is to remove any extra stuff in the car you don’t need. Maybe your car is clean, but a lot of ppl have a pile of crap in the trunk/back seat that doesn’t need to be there.