The cost of gas is continually rising. However, that doesn’t mean you need to keep paying more for the gas you put in your car. There are some tricks you can use to improve your mileage and use less gas. Here are some suggestions for beating rising gas prices.
* Check your tires – Under-inflated tires are one of the most common culprits of less than optimal mileage. When they are under-inflated, you need to use more gas to keep the car moving. Since tires lose air due to time and temperature, it is worth checking them regularly. Get a reliable tire gauge and test your tires once a month. Your car’s instruction manual will tell you the optimal tire pressure for your car.
* Avoid idling – Idling is letting the car run without going anywhere. This is a common way of wasting gas. We idle while waiting for the kids to get out of school, while picking up a friend, or warming up a car in cold weather. If you’re waiting for more than a couple of minutes, though, you’ll use more gas than if you turned your car off and restarted it. Also, many people let their cars idle longer than necessary in cold weather. Besides saving your gas, turning your car off will also be better for the environment.
* Use public transportation – If possible, use public transportation instead of driving. Some cities have great transit systems that can get you anywhere within a reasonable time. You may have to plan ahead of time, and be more organized, but the savings on your gas could make it all worthwhile.
* Car sharing – Car sharing gives you the flexibility of driving without the hassles of owning a car. When you participate in a car sharing network, you have access to a fleet of vehicles. You can reserve what you need and have access to it at any time of day, without all the extra expenses. You only pay for the time you use the vehicle.
* Carpooling – Carpooling is a great way to keep costs of gas down. Share a ride with a friend or two who are going to the same place. This can work for shuttling kids around town or driving to work. You can take turns driving or split the cost of the gas. Some cities even have carpool lanes to encourage carpooling and make it easier to get where you’re going if you’re in a carpool.
* Keep speed low – One of the easiest ways to keep your gas costs down is simply to drive a little slower. As your speed increases, the fuel you use increases exponentially. If you can keep your speed until 60 miles an hour, that is optimal for your best gas mileage.
* If you’re thinking of buying a newer car, buy a hybrid – Replacing your car just to get better gas mileage is probably impractical. But if you’re in the market for a new car, you may want to consider a hybrid that uses less gas.
It is possible to beat rising gas prices. Don’t let them hold you hostage. Instead, use some of these tips to improve your mileage and spend less money.
There was a time when road trips were among the best vacation options for those on a budget. But with rising gas prices, they have become much more expensive. Even so, many vacationers still enjoy hitting the road and seeing the sights along the way.
When planning a road trip, it’s crucial to estimate gas costs as accurately as possible. If you just guess, you could find yourself halfway to your destination and out of money! Here’s how to determine approximately how much you will have to spend on gas.
1. For at least a couple of weeks, keep track of your gas mileage. The easiest way to do this is to fill up and reset your trip odometer. The next time you get gas, fill up again and write down how much gas it took to fill up and how many miles you drove.
2. Divide the miles driven by the amount of gas used. For example, if you drove 200 miles and it took 10 gallons to fill up, you would divide 200 by 10 to get 20 miles per gallon.
3. Remember to fill up each time you get gas and figure your gas mileage. Once you’ve done this a few times, add up the results and divide the total by the number of times you filled up to get your average gas mileage.
4. Figure out how many miles you will be driving during your vacation. This is easy to do with online tools such as Google Maps. Just put in your starting point, add your destinations in order, and you’ll see a map with the best route and the total mileage.
5. Divide the total number of miles you will travel by the miles per gallon figure you came up with. Multiply that number by the price of gas per gallon, and you’ll have a good idea of how much you can expect to spend on gas.
Keep in mind that gas prices fluctuate. By the time you take your road trip, gas prices could have gone up or down. They will also vary from city to city. So it’s smart to budget a little bit extra, just to be sure.
Saving Money on Gas
There are some things you can do to keep your fuel costs as low as possible. Here are a few:
* Seek out the cheapest gas prices along the way. Check prices in the towns and cities you’ll be passing through on a site such as GasBuddy.com, and try to fill up at the least expensive stations.
* Use cruise control when practical. This will keep you at a constant speed, which can seriously improve your gas mileage.
* Avoid speeding. Not only can this get you an expensive ticket, it’s also bad for gas mileage. The optimal speed for fuel efficiency is 55 mph, and when you go faster than that you’re using more gas than you should.
* Avoid abrupt stops and starts as much as possible. Try to coast to red lights so that they will have time to turn green before you reach them. When you have to stop, accelerate slowly and steadily when the light turns green.
* Get a tune-up before you leave. Things like replacing air and fuel filters and making sure your tires are inflated properly can help boost your gas mileage.
Creating a gas budget for your road trip can help avoid unpleasant surprises along the way. And if you drive with fuel efficiency in mind, you might even use less gas than you had planned.
The price of gas varies from city to city, but no matter where you go, it’s not cheap. Many drivers have sought to cut their spending on gas by driving less. While this is certainly a good strategy, we can’t stay home all the time. Here are some tips for using less gas when you do drive.
* Avoid rapid acceleration and braking. Accelerating too fast uses much more gas than building up speed more steadily. When you see that you’re going to have to slow down or stop, let off the gas well ahead of time instead of slamming on the brakes at the last second.
* Drive at a reasonable speed. For most vehicles, the optimal speed for fuel economy is about 55 miles per hour. When you get above 60 mph, fuel economy drops rapidly.
* Use cruise control when possible. This keeps your vehicle moving at a steady speed, which translates to greater gas mileage.
* Make your vehicle as light as possible. Take things that you don’t need out of the trunk, and remove heavy accessories that aren’t necessary. The exception to this rule is any accessory that makes your vehicle more aerodynamic, such as a bed cover for a pick-up truck.
* Take the interstate instead of the back roads. When you’re driving on interstate, there’s usually no stopping and starting. The road is also straighter and better maintained, so you won’t even have to slow down and speed up as much.
* Check your air filter. A dirty air filter can significantly reduce your fuel economy. How often it needs to be changed depends largely on driving conditions. If you live in the city, once a year might be sufficient. If you drive on dusty rural roads regularly, you will need to change it more often. If in doubt, remove it and see if there is a lot of dirt in the crevices. If there is, it probably needs to be replaced.
* Keep a tire gauge in your glove box so that you can check your tire pressure regularly. Underinflated tires can have an adverse impact on gas mileage, and they also wear out more quickly than those that are properly inflated.
* Use the air conditioner only when necessary. Air conditioning can wreak havoc on your gas mileage. But if you’re driving at moderate to high speeds, you’re better off using the air conditioner than riding with the windows down. That’s because leaving the windows down creates wind resistance.
Don’t spend more than you have to on gas. By doing these simple things, you can greatly increase your gas mileage and keep more money in your wallet.
Are rising gas prices killing your budget? How much do you have to pay for a gallon of gas? $3.20? $3.50? $4.00? $5.00??? MORE???? Where does it end???
The gas pump MONSTER is raising the prices of gas. Sure, they go up and down. They go up a dollar and down 50 cents…… to condition us to think 50 cents more is a good deal!
For those of us who have to drive back and forth to work everyday – in gas guzzling traffic – every penny hurts. What about traveling? A lot of people can’t even afford to fly to their travel destinations, but now even DRIVING to your travel destination is becoming unaffordable!
So with the ever-raising costs of filling your tank full of gas, there’s no shame in cutting every corner to save a buck.
All a person needs is the know-how, the tips and tricks, the truth and not the old rumors……of how to make that tank last until next payday! I’ve written it all down for you and put it in a report I like to call…
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