How to Save Money on Gas to Keep You Moving
One of the major expenses that Americans face is the price of gas for their car. The price of gas changes each day, and recently the prices have skyrocketed! So you cannot determine what it is going to cost the next time you need it. If you commute for work or have to drive a significant distance on a regular basis, you are spending a lot of money on gas.
Since gas is something that you have to purchase, you probably do not even realize how much money you are spending. It may surprise you to know that there are many ways you can save money on gas. Continue reading to find out some simple ways to save money.
Does My Budget Matter?
Before I tell you all the ways you can save money on gas, I want to touch on an important but unpopular topic. That is budgeting. I can already hear you groaning, but creating a budget is really the best way to understand your money and learn to save more. When you create a budget, you begin to understand your priorities. Not only that, creating a budget helps you understand your goals and what they really should be. For some, a budget can help save money for emergencies. For others, a budget can help to work towards being debt-free. For others, it can help determine what areas they need to decrease spending to increase savings.
The best way to create a budget is to make a list of all your income in one column and then list all your expenses in the next column. Once you have these two columns determined you can see the difference between what you earn and what you spend. This gives you an idea of how much money you have left to save and spend on items that are not bills, including gas.
Now that you have taken a look at your actual budget, you realize you need to save more money. It usually comes as a surprise when you look at how much money you are spending for the first time. Until you create a budget, you just have no way of knowing. Now that you have a budget, you want to begin saving money but you are paying out so much money per month, you are probably wondering how do I save?
You actually save money on gas by keeping in mind some things you don’t think are actually related to how much you spend on gas.
Save On Transportation Costs
Those are great ways to save money, but many of those are a one-time savings. You cut them out of your budget and then you do not continue to save money each month because you have shifted your spending to remove it. You want to know how to save money each month. That may take a little more effort on your part.
Throughout the rest of the article, I have listed many ways that you can save money while you are still spending it.
This article has a focus on how to save money on gas, and a big part of this is actually saving money on all transportation costs. No matter how you travel, or your reason for traveling, it gets expensive quickly.
1. Use discount sites like Groupon
Groupon offers discounts on countless items. You have to look for them, but you can find discounts on travel and rental cars. You can even find discounts on gift cards that can be used for gas or other vehicle expenses.
2. Apply for a gas credit card
These credit cards offer you discounted prices on gas and cash back. Shell offers a line of credit cards that give you a certain amount of money off each gallon of gas you buy. The same cards offer discounts at Jiffy Lube for car service. The best thing about this credit card is you can use it at most gas stations, even if it is not a Shell station.
Money Saving Tips With Driving Habits
You are completely in control of some other ways to save money on gas. The way you drive your car can help you conserve gas. While these are quite simple, you may find them harder to do because it requires you to change your habits.
Combine all the trips you have to make into one outing. Your engine runs more efficiently when it is warm, so if you combine all of your errands and do them on the same day, you can save gas and time.
You should focus on being a smoother driver. When you are at a light and it turns green, ease on the gas instead of stepping on the gas pedal. You would be surprised how much gas that will save you. When you know you are going to stop ahead, if you can, begin to slow down gradually instead of maintaining your current speed and hitting the brakes hard. This is not always possible, but when it is, you should do it. If you are in the park, do not let your car idle for more than a few minutes. If you are going to be there for a while, turn off your engine. The top three ways you burn fuel in your car are when you brake, accelerate, and run your engine.
If you speed, you should consider driving the speed limit. Every 5 miles per hour that you reduce your speed on the highway can save you 7 percent in your fuel consumption. Using cruise control can help you maintain your speed and stay at a certain speed. This also prevents natural fluctuation that occurs when you are using your foot to control your speed.
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Carpooling To Save Money
Another great way to save money on gas is to carpool. Carpool is typically thought of only when driving to work. It can be used any time you need to travel somewhere. You can carpool to get your kids to practice or events. If you and the other parents could agree on a schedule, you would only have to drive your kids half the time. You can carpool with others for anything that you participate in on a regular basis. Even if you only carpool occasionally, it still cuts down on the number of trips where you are driving your car.
While this is the same as carpooling, it does help to maximize the trips you take in the car. Are you driving the most efficient route to get to the places you go regularly? Think about driving to work, school, or the grocery store, is there a better way for you to get there? You can use a map app to tell you the best way to get to those places. You may be able to cut down your miles and time by finding a more direct route. It may not seem like a lot for each trip, but if you make that trip twice a day several days a week, like driving to work, you can save yourself a lot of money and time in one year.
Money Saving Tips With Car Purchasing
A big way to save money on gas is to buy a car that is more fuel efficient. When you are in the market for a new car, consider a hybrid or an electric car. Even if you are not interested in those types of cars, look at the fuel efficiency rating on the cars you want to purchase.
Even if you can find a car that gives you a small increase in fuel efficiency, you can save yourself a lot of money in the long run.
Think about it like this - if you can get 5 more miles to the gallon and the car holds 15 gallons, that means you could potentially get 75 more miles to each fill up of gas. Depending on how much you drive in a day, that could be anywhere from 1 to 3 more days on the same tank of gas. Think about how much money you save by the end of the year.
Money Saving Tips With Rewards Programs
There are some gas programs available to you that can help you save money on gas:
You can join a rewards program at a specific gas station. You may be able to get a discount on how much you pay for gas. There are gas stations, especially ones with a market attached to them that offer reduce gas, money back, and discounts within the store. If you go to the same gas station, see if they offer any type of rewards program.
Warehouse club memberships often come with gas stations. They usually have gas for anywhere from 5 to 25 cents cheaper than the nearest competitor. You do have to have a membership to the club to be able to get gas with them, but if you are already a member, or considering becoming one, you should utilize their gas services. The money you save on gas alone can offset the cost of the membership and in no time it pays for itself.
Use an app like GasBuddy or some other tool that compares prices. There are many websites available that quickly tell you the prices of gas close to you. They use your current location and find gas station closest to you and list them by price. These apps are often updated by people visiting the gas station, so they may not be accurate to the second, but they are usually spot on with the lowest prices.
Proper Car Maintenance
You want to save money on gas and you think the only way to do that is to actually pay less money at the gas pump. Well, that certainly does help, however, it is not the only way to save money on gas. There are many ways that you probably have never considered that will decrease the amount of gas your car burns. This means you get more miles to the gallon. You do not have to refill your gas tank as often, which means you spend less money on gas in a month and year.
Tires - Keep your tires inflated properly and it can save you a ton of money. For every pound per square inch (PSI) that your tires are under inflated, you can lose 0.2 percent in fuel efficiency. As you drive and the weather temperature fluctuates, the pressure in your tires goes down.
Often when you get an oil change, the station will fill up the air in your tires, but not all of them do. You may want to ask for them to fill your tires the next time you are there.
Checking the air in your tires is easy and you can fill it at a station that offers free air. Most of us are driving around without the proper amount of air in our tires. The average tire is under inflated by over 7 pounds, which may cause your fuel efficiency to drop by 2.8 percent.
Alignment - You probably already know that if your tires are out of alignment, it causes uneven wear on your tires. It may surprise you to know that it also causes you to lose 10 percent fuel efficiency. You should have your tires aligned on a regular basis to help prolong the life of your tires, and your gas.
Air filter - It may also surprise you to learn that a clean air filter also helps improve your gas mileage. Anything that helps your car to be more efficient is also going to help your car burn fuel better.
Maybe this was familiar to you, but chances are (especially if you are not into cars) you had no idea that gas and tires are somehow connected. By making sure that your vehicle works as it should and that everything is in order, you actually save a lot of money on gas over time.
Bonus Gas And Money Saving Tips
There are a few other tips to save money on gas:
Make sure your gas cap is not loose or missing. Gas fumes escape this way and lower your fuel efficiency. Simply by making sure it is tight every time you get gas can help you conserve.
Get rid of all the stuff in your car and trunk. Every 100 pounds you carry in your car reduces your efficiency by at least 1 percent. Imagine if you carry all of those items around with you all the time. You are constantly cutting down your efficiency.
Close your windows when on the highway. You may want to feel the breeze, but that is a huge gas sucker. Simply closing your windows makes your car more aerodynamic and helps save you 10 percent in gas efficiency.
Save More
Not only do you want to save money on gas but you want to save money on other aspects of your spending. There are some quick and easy ways to cut spending. Then there are some not so quick or easy ways. I bet there are even some you never considered.
One of the fastest ways to save money is to cut out all of the expenses that you do not use. Do you have a gym membership that you do not use? Cancel it. Do you have other items that you are charged for each month that you have no use for? Do you have subscription services that come on a regular basis? Cancel them if you do not use them. If you do use them, decrease how often they ship. Most of the time you do not need them as often as they come. Those are some really easy ways to cut spending.
Now, let's begin to talk about some that are a little more challenging. How often do you eat out? If it is more than 0 times a week, you should cut out some of your eating out. When I say eating out, I mean, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even coffee. Consider reducing the amount of times you eat out a week by half. You will be amazed at how much money you save. It may even encourage you to cut spending in other ways.
Yes, saving money on gas is great, but if you want to save even more, you need to look into various aspects of your daily life and change what needs to be changed. Also, while you’re there, you need to think about how you’re actually going to save all that money after you apply all of our tips. The best way is to have a separate account where you keep your savings and where it works for you.
Conclusion
We all want to save money on gas. It is one of the ways we constantly lose money. These tips may seem like small changes, but believe me a few cents here and a dollar there adds up to a lot of savings by the end of the year. Just remember your goal of saving money and the rest will come.