Tips to saving on gasoline costs
Gasoline is very expensive, and there is not much hope of it getting cheaper any time soon. There are some methods to saving money on gas, even if the prices are sky high.
Lose some weight
You should first look into your own car. Leaving folding chairs, groceries, and salt in your car increases its weight and lowers your gas mileage. Shaving just 100 pounds from your cars weight will increase gas mileage by a few percentage points. Properly aired tires will roll better and reduce friction, also improving gas mileage. Air filters and other components should be changed regularly as well as they can affect how your engine performs.
Gas Credit cards
The next step is to apply for a gasoline only credit card. Certain gas stations give cash back for purchasing gas at their stations with their credit card. Gas cards give up to 5% cash back for regular purchases at the name brand gas stations. Some general purpose credit cards, like the Amex Blue or Chase Freedom give 5% and 3% cash back respectively. A 5% savings is like going from 20 mpg to 21 or cutting the price at the pump from $3.00 a gallon to $2.85. As you can see, there is a lot of money to be saved by using a cash back card.There are speed limits for a reason
Driving the speed limit is another guaranteed way to save on gas, but can be hard to do for on the go drivers. Very few people understand that driving even 10-15 miles per hour over the speed limit saves just a few minutes on travel time, but greatly decreases the efficiency of your engine. You will see an instant improvement of 20% when traveling at 55mph rather than 70mph.
Short trips ruin gas-mileage
Your car might get really impressive gas mileage, but short trips will greatly dismiss the benefits. Short trips of 5 miles or less use much more gasoline per mile than long trips. A short trip to the store will often yield a mpg ratio of 5-6.
