Saving at the pump comes down to two things: getting the best price and driving less. With the start of summer driving season I thought I’d share tips to do both, starting with getting the lowest gas price.
- Check the AAA Fuel Gauge Report to monitor trends. The site lists the average gas price for today, yesterday, a week ago, a month ago and a year ago. You can look at prices nationwide, by state or major metro region. Data comes from 100,000 gas stations.
- Search MSN’s gas map for the best prices near your home or on your route. A green marker tags the lowest price, a red marker notes the highest. You can zoom in or search by state, city, and zip code.
- An alternative to the MSN map is GasBuddy.com, which lists gas prices that have been spotted and entered into the site by users. Search for prices by location, grade of gas, or brand.
Tips to conserve gas (no silver bullet here, folks):
- Carpool, take public transit, or telecommute to work
- Drive sensibly (read: slowly). Speeding can increase gas costs by 40 percent!
- Ride your bike whenever you can, it’ll save you money and get you in shape
- Select the highest mpg vehicle available to you (in my neighborhood a few folks have converted golf carts!)
- Consider buying a hybrid, scooter/motorcycle, or other high mpg vehicle
Some people swear by additives, but I’ve never seen any hard evidence. Do you put anything extra in your gas tank?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
True, the prices are on the high again. I didn’t know about AAA’s gauge. You might also wanna have a look at Mapquest’s Gas Price feature!
I didn’t know MapQuest has a gas price features. I’ll have to check it out, thanks!
Very good tips there! It’s definitely getting harder filling up the car recently.
Hey Bargain Babe – Great suggestions! One thing I’d like to add is that we should be checking our tires every month to make sure that they are properly inflated. This can improve our gas mileage by about 3%, and save the average car about 20 gallons of gas annually.
I’m actually working as a communications intern on the Drive Smarter Challenge with the Alliance to Save Energy. It is a public awareness campaign focused on informing drivers of the numerous easy to follow driving and vehicle maintenance tips, like the one mentioned above, which can be taken to conserve money and gas.
Please visit the website at http://drivesmarterchallenge.org… and take the challenge, and ask your friends and family as well. Knowledge is power, and the more we can get the word out about this, the better.
Here’s where some credit cards can also be helpful. One of our two cards provides 5% in rewards for gasoline purchases. A 5% discount is better than nothing!