More Gas Saving Tips
Since I’ve recently written about how to save gas, I thought I’d go ahead and highlight some tips from Jean Chatzky in the latest issue of Money Magazine. In the end, she figures that her tweaks will save her over $1,300 dollars and 0.74 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Not bad. So how’s she doing it?
Drive a smaller car: While it might not be realistic to replace your gas hog or add another, more fuel efficient car to your fleet, most families have more than one car. If that’s the case for you, simply choosing to drive the more fuel efficient model whenever possible can dramatically decrease the amount of gas that you burn. If your family needs to use both cars at once, try to prioritize the more efficient vehicle for longer trips. The less time your gas hog spends on the road, the less fuel you’ll use.
Log and plan your driving: By keep a driving log for a week, she was able to spot patterns in her driving, learn how to effectively combine trips, and cut out unnecessary trips. She also started calling stores before she drove to them to make sure that they had her desired item(s) in stock. This has allowed her to delete at least one “random round trip” each day. Beyond the fuel savings, it sounds like she’s saving time, too.
Use public transportation: She’s switched to taking the train to work almost exclusively. For her, it’s a financial wash, but there’s a environmental (and conservation) benefit in that she’s burning far less gas. Also check with your employer. Some offer transportation savings account that let you pay your public transport fares out of pre-tax dollars. This could turn a financial wash into a clear gain if it’s available to you.
Make your gas go further: You can dramatically improve your mileage by accelerating smoothly, obeying speed limits, and minimizing unnecessary braking. This is perfectly in line with my recent driving experiment — recall that I was able to improve my mileage by 15%.
Modified on July 15th, 2008 - 9 Comments
Filed under: Automotive, Energy, Frugality
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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July 2nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I have tried the gentle acceleration approach, coasting as much as possible and keeping myself at or below the speed limit. My Honda Civic went from approx 29 MPG (in town driving mostly) to 33 MPG. It is obvious that I am in the minority with this driving technique, as I notice annoyed fellow drivers at times, and many “jackrabbits”. I wish more drivers got a clue, though. It would greatly help our country reduce its dependence on Saudi Arabian oil.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I can add one huge money saving tip here – don’t panic, rush out and trade your large car (or SUV, heaven forbid) in on a small, high-mileage job. At least not now. Why? Because most of the reactionary masses are scrambling to swap their gas-guzzlers for gas-sippers, with the resultant being record depreciation for hogs & premium prices for sippers. My theory is that after the initial throngs do like they do in a stock market dip (sell low after buying high) and lose their shirts on vehicle transactions, cooler heads will prevail, and more normal pricing conditions will result.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:26 am
Yea I have been thinking and writing a lot lately about saving gas and the great news is that you really can save a lot of money by applying the tips. Edmunds did a test of a lot of common gas saving tips to see which ones work and don’t – it was a very interesting read. One of the most interesting was that they said it really doesn’t matter if you drive with your windows down or A/C, in most cars they actually use about the same amount of gas…
July 6th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Take a look at your tire presure.
keep your car your rolling for the stoplights wil save a lot.
At home you can save on the water bill by reducing the main entrance of water( about 25perc. ) this means less pressure but evrething ins working fine.
July 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
by the way
our gas price is 1.70euro’s a liter thats a difrence with your prices.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:36 am
don’t do your chores day by day, do them allat one time while you are out,most of the time they are not far from eash otherand this will save gas. and car pool to pay bills thats what my girl friend and i do, one time i drive my car and the next time she drives her car.
find fun things to do around your home instead of driving out some place. we like the outdoors so now we are building a patio in our back yard for outdoor fun times.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:17 am
I don’t spend ANY money on gas and save hundreds of dollars a month!
i ride a bicycle.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I created a simple site that may help with point number 2. It allows you to estimate the actual price from point a to point b using the current average prices. It might make you think twice about making the drive when you see how much it costs
http://drivepricing.com
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:10 am
By modifying your driving style you will be able to save easily up to 50% on your fuel consumption. My average is in the order of 290km with 19 liters of fuel. Not very difficult and easy to follow.
Driving this way becomes a habit rather than a chore.
Regards.
Albert.
Save up to 50% on fuel consumption.
http://www.super-miling.com