5 Ways to Help You Save on Gas

Back in High School, I remember searching between the seats, glove box, the adventure jar to scrounge up as many pennies as I could to put towards gas. Finding that extra quarter used to be worth a ¼ of a tank! Having enough for a gallon of gas in High School felt like I was Richie Rich.

Gas is the craziest thing you’ll buy. The price fluctuates up and down as much as Airline tickets. As I write this in 2016, gas is pretty low where I am (under $2). Just 2–3 years ago, gas would creep up to $4 a gallon. I’ll take it at $2 for now!

Lovin’ spending that money elsewhere!

Of course, it’s always very nice to find EVEN more ways to save on gas (so I can buy that one extra shot of espresso…).

I’ve tried using some of those “Gas Station” apps, but I don’t think it’s worth driving an extra 5 miles to save $.03 on a gallon. I’m not a fan of that, but here’s some tips I’ve found helpful:

1. Plan out your errands so you only make 1 trip:

There’s so much packed into this, it’s a crazy habit in itself to manage, but, for example, do all your weekly grocery and misc. shopping at once. It’s tempting to make a couple trips out of laziness or time, but the little trips throughout the year add up. Even if with a fuel-efficient car, little dinky trips back and forth in the city are gas-eaters (you only see the benefit of great fuel-efficient cars on the highway).

Bonus Idea: Have you ever walked to the store? Go with your spouse or roommate, you’ll always end up having fun conversations (and exercise…) Or bike.

2. Put your pedal to the metal only when you need to:

It’s no secret that the more you go all “Need for Speed” in your baby Honda, the more gas you’re going to use. Sometimes you gotta go fast, but make sure you save those times for when you actually need to get movin’. If you’re just driving back from work and there’s no rush, take your time, brake less, use cruise control and save that gas.

3. Don’t wait until you’re about to run out of gas to actually Get gas:

I’ve ran out of gas twice in my life. Both on the highway (Dad was not pleased…). While on a cross-country roadtrip, I let my gauge get too far down in the back woods of a Southern state and it was scary. I jumped out of my car, knocking on windows asking for where a gas station was hoping no one pulled out a shotgun on me for trespassing. Yes, I survived. The stress of driving with the gas light on is NOT WORTH IT. If you need to wait until payday, just put a gallon or two in, but frankly driving while hoping you don’t conk out is unhealthy for you and your wallet.

4. Buy Gas Early in the Day or Late at Night (when it’s Cold):

I learned this from an Engineer from Exxon who consults oil people (I don’t know the technical term..) but he gave me this tip. Apparently, gasoline, when cool, is much more dense. Thus, you get more of it for the same price than when it’s hot. The amount more you get is unknown, but a pretty cool science fact to impress your friends.

Bonus Tip: Buy gas Monday or Tuesday. Prices tend to rise Wednesday — Sunday.

5. When all else fails, invest in A Fuel-Efficient or Electric Car:

This is a rising trend. Especially, as more people worry about the atmosphere and pollution, there are companies building Electric cars that go 200+ miles on 1 charge. These were all “un-sexy” back in the day, until Elon Musk came around (we used his DNA to create “money-making” trees in Palo Alto…on April 1st..) See below for Elon’s car.

There are many “Hybrid” cars on the market. They use a mix of gas and electricity. The battery automatically charges itself so no manual charging needed, but adds an easy 200 miles in between fill-ups (more for long road trips).

Growing even more is Electric cars. The most famous, again, being Elon Musk’s Tesla cars. He’s working on building more affordable ones for the mass market and they look pretty sexy. As of this writing, he has the Model 3 which starts at $35,000.

I’d drive this Electric Car!

His cars are rated the “best in the world” by every major car reviewer. That might be out of your price point right now, but in the next 10 years, I bet they’ll be down to the $15,000-$20,000 range. With average gas per year spent by Americans to be $2000, it would make sense to spend a bit more upfront.

There’s many other tips you can find (see MoneyCrashers) on driving better and such, but these 5 tips, I’ve found, are the first you should focus on to actually put a dent in your gas budget that’ll you’ll see.

Do you have a major tip about saving on gas? Do you have an Electric Car, tell me below what you think of it?