I have been doing the same as well and it makes a great difference. Not only do you save on gas buy driving a little slower and not taking off at a stoplight, you are prolonguing the life of your car.
Query, "Pearcesealandhomes"; I started a webpage for my business and it will give you an idea. Generally, It doesn't cost much at all for the container; your right. But what about it's livability. I am right now in the Desert of Iraq. I am right now in a modified Steel Container. Here are a few expenses:
The Primer to prevent corrosion, Plywood/Firing Strips/5/8" Drywall, Air Conditioning/Heating, Electrical, Plumbing, Plasma Cutter, Crane, Concrete, Rafters, etc. The list goes on. Why do it?...
* Lower Cost * Higher Quality
* Quicker Built * Green Friendly
* Pleasant Looking * Better Insulated
* Better Fire Protection
Pearcesealandhomes.com (Our Middle Name is Preparedness)
It would seem so easy to just use reusable cloth bags and save our earth. It's also naive. Much more energy is used to produce and transport reusable cloth bags. What about growing the cotton or hemp? Fertilizer, insecticide, and cheap labor? How about the gas, energy and time wasted making multiple trips to the supermarket with a small reusable bag to buy a family size load of groceries that I can get in one trip carrying all my plastic bags with a Baggy Buddy carry handle.
Every large supermarket has a recycle container at the door. If we all just recycle our plastic bags, we can have our convenience and a greener planet.
My company recently started offering the Roth 401K. Then I did some calculations and I realized that my husband and I are going to be really close to the MAGI (Modified Annual Gross Income) limits at which you can no longer contribute to a Roth IRA. The only thing that decreases your MAGI is regular 401K deductions, so I decided to switch back to the regular IRA. This way we'll each be able to contribute $15.5K to our 401Ks, plus $5K to our Roth IRAs (unless we get much higher than expected salary increases)
I've been hypermiling through my last tank of gas, and even though I botched my fill-up on my Scan Gauge II AGAIN, I was able to manually calculate my current mpgs to 29.83 over the life of my last tank. My car is a Accord V6 with EPA estimate of 18/26 (21 avg). To best my mileage by 8 average MPG (my commute is about 80/20 city/highway, so I'm really beating 19MPG most of the time) is well worth the effort I put toward the goal.
I travel in off-hours, drive with load, and coast as much as possible. Cruise control is OK, but it's not as good as knowing what your throttle-position sensor and ignition timing read. Throwing up fuel consumption/hr predictions also help one determine how much gas to give the car.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and keeping the discourse going. I owe you at least the courtesy of a response.
First off, the term "adamant global warming naysayers" was meant to be objective and in no way condescending or pejorative. I merely wanted to point out that people who in the past were very skeptical about global warming, i.e., adamant global warming naysayers, have begun to agree that maybe this is an issue to consider. I sensed that you were offended by the defensive tone of your response when you responded with "adamant global warming doomsday alarmists," which did strike me as a little vindictive.
If I offended you, I apologize, but if you really break down the phrase, it shouldn't be that offensive. At least I don't think so.
You seem to take exception to any environmental considerations when buying a fuel efficient car, but my post wasn't soley about the environmental impact of hybrids. It clearly states that they save gas, and gas is getting more expensive. I am fully aware that this is the primary consideration, and hope that this came through in the article. Then again, I'm guessing it didn't.
You also mention that we shouldn't let a bunch of knucklehead politicians tell us what to do, but in reality, as much as it may bum us all out, that's exactly what happens. Politicians make the laws, and we have to follow them.
As far as emission standards and fuel economy, the government does a play a role. During the Carter administration the government did enforce fuel standards and the car manufacturers did comply. This was in response to higher fuel prices, but it wasn't soley because of market forces.
Those standards, which set a minimum fuel efficiency and saved us billions of gallons of oil, have since been pretty much eroded by the long arm of Detroit (not to mention several Republican administrations) who favors lower mpg standards (or none at all) so they can crank out gas guzzling SUVs.
So while it is true that demand is what dictates which cars will sell, the government can nonetheless impose requirements that would force car makers to offer cars that could be more responsible in terms of fuel consumption as well as emissions. They did this in the 70s. This would ultimately influence supply, and demand would have to adjust accordingly. In other words, you can only freely choose from what's available.
I would argue that this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing given the current climate (no pun intended) of the economy.
Either way, thanks for your thoughts, everyone. It's like the abused child who looks for more. Even though it can be painful, it's still acknowledging my existence.
When I saw this article, it was a pleasant surprise because, sure enough, this is where I first heard about "hypermiling." Driving an '03 Corolla, I resisted trying the practice out until about a month ago when prices really started getting ridiculous. Personally, I went from about 32 MPG to 40. This is my city/hwy record per-tank average, as I don't have some fancy instrument that I probably wouldn't trust, anyway. Nonetheless, 25% is huge! What if every American did this? Our demand would go down and hopefully liberate prices a little. Living on the MA-NH border, I'm noticing that only some New-Englanders get peeved when I accelerate a little more slowly. Reasonably slowly, not "I don't care about any of you" slowly. Surprisingly, it's contagious. Other people start to notice and drive more sensibly, usually widening their following distances before trying anything else. Others immediately gun it and pass me on a two lane road out of an intersection, only to find that I nearly always catch up to them and occasionally even pass them later! Ahh, instant gratification - it's the American way.
My experience with cruise is not so great. Toyota cruise controls tend to shift quickly and gun it on hills - I've fared much better by taking matters into my own hands... or feet. I've yet to try acceleration by cruise control - I have to admit that it seems a bit extreme. Bostonians get really ticked off when you try something like that, and I never would have survived if I'd tried that around New York. It's "gun it or be gunned down" there.
I can't scrounge up the source at the moment, but I've seen credible evidence that accelerating quickly and smoothly doesn't harm gas mileage and may actually improve it; remember, your engine is much more efficient at 45mph (or whatever the street speed is) than at 25mph.
The conventional-wisdom view that accelerating quickly is inefficient comes from conflating quick starts with frequent starts and stops. In particular, if you're in an area where you have lots of unsynchronized lights or stop signs, then starting quickly costs you gas--but from speeding all the way up and then dissipating the energy by braking, not from the speeding up itself.
In short, then, it seems that if you're in a situation where you're expecting to be able to drive for a while at full speed (either no light for a while or synchronized lights), it's both faster and more efficient to accelerate quickly without slamming on the gas.
You can save money and the environment by stop throwing away ink cartridges. You can get a continuous ink system so you don't have to get cartridge refills. They are clean and easy to set up. It has a resetting "never expires" chip in the ink cartridges. I bought mine about 3 weeks ago and love it. It is supposed to equal 61 cartridges of each color. I used to be stingy with my ink and now I let the kids print whatever they want:-)
No apology needed. You may not be a mother, but I'm sure you're plenty of other equally great things. I appreciate hearing from all sides of these issues, and it is especially nice when the commenters (like yourself) are of good taste and form. Thanks for bringing your voice to the discussion!
I think one of the principles behind Wise Bread is that the tactics of the rich--frugality, avoiding debt, saving and investing, education, diversity of income sources--are beneficial to everyone. Spreading the word on that is one of our goals.
I think too, though, that the system makes it a lot easier for the rich to use those tactics than for the poor. It sets up a situation where it's hard for people who feel trapped in the system to see the various paths to freedom.
My goal above was not to make "the rich" out as bad guys, but rather to acknowledge the ways the system can make poor people feel trapped--because I think you have to come to terms with those feelings before you can have an intelligent discussion about the ways that the tactics of the rich can help the poor.
Linsey, I apologize if I seemed harsh in my earlier comments :) It's not the outright criticism of the "childless" that wears people down, it's the subtle comments. Not knowing your background, I misinterpreted what you said. I enjoy your writing and your perspective, especially since it is often quite different than my own.
you won't get hit by any red light runners. I am always amazed at how people accelerate right thru the light...when it first turns green. I bet no one ever got hit at a red light who, after the light turns green, looked left, right, left again and then went on their way....and no, this only takes a split second to do (along with gently accelerating).
I thought I was doing decent, similar to your "before" results. But I can probably do more cruise control on a regular route. Looking forward to it next week.
When you take forever to go at the green light, the drivers behind you have to stall longer and end up getting stuck on two red lights at the same intersection. That wastes fuel too. You don't need to be a NASCAR driver to get your butt in gear when the light turns green.
All the stores here post unit prices, but they're often useless. Back when I used to buy soda, I'd look at the "unit" prices on the shelves, and find that the six-packs had "cents per can," the small bottles had "cents per ounce," and the big bottles had "dollars per liter"! I don't think I ever saw "cents per milliliter" or "dollars per quart," but I wouldn't put it past them.
In particular, the orange juice sizes seem designed to make unit price comparisons hard. They've got half-gallon cartons and then three-quart and gallon jugs. Since that's an easy 2, 3, or 4 quarts, you'd think they'd say that. They don't, though. They have gallons, fractional gallons, and ounces, and seem to carefully avoid directly comparable units.
Still, as you say, it's easy enough, as long as you learned your weights and measures in elementry school, and can do a little basic arithmetic in your head (or bring a calculator).
You always have great posts.....
and of course this is a good one too. But the way you wrote the article it seems there is something wrong with the rich. I am not rich but the vast majority of "rich" Americans are a hard working, frugal lot. They are not the Paris Hiltons. They are folks who started a business and grew it and employed people who are middle class. I dont like the term poor.. Poor is not forever. A lot of people are broke trying to keep up. But if the "poor" were to look to the rich they would find a frugal way of living and hard work which keeps one away from broke.
though not as extreme. I just filled up for the first time since implementing some of these ideas (particularly throwing the car into neutral and coasting toward lights). My max for a while was around 21mpg. today it came out to 26. sweet.
Kudos to you Lindsey. For a 29yr old you certainly have you priorities straight.
When I was 29yrs old I was a world-class hellraiser young guy. It took me years to realize what you know - I really was the the world's oldest adolescent! When I finally married at the advanced age of 44 and had my first child a couple of years later, I figured things out. Children are a miracle which you can't explain to those who don't have them. Because, I got a late start we just have the one - a beautiful, smart 8 year old daughter. Had I known then what I finally figured out, I would have had a houseful!
It doesn't matter what you like or don't like. The notion that we are "free" of governmental interference is absolutely absurd. The only difference is exactly what is interfered with. One group is happy to have a certain set of interferences and labels that "freedom," another set prefers a different set of interferences and has yet other labels. But the hard cold facts are that modern society does not, would not, could not exist without extensive government interference. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having different preferences, but to claim one set is "no" interference whereas another set "is", is patently absurd.
Another way that McDonald's markets to kids. Get kids hooked early.
Danny
I have been doing the same as well and it makes a great difference. Not only do you save on gas buy driving a little slower and not taking off at a stoplight, you are prolonguing the life of your car.
Great tips to save on gasoline:
High Price of Gasoline
Query, "Pearcesealandhomes"; I started a webpage for my business and it will give you an idea. Generally, It doesn't cost much at all for the container; your right. But what about it's livability. I am right now in the Desert of Iraq. I am right now in a modified Steel Container. Here are a few expenses:
The Primer to prevent corrosion, Plywood/Firing Strips/5/8" Drywall, Air Conditioning/Heating, Electrical, Plumbing, Plasma Cutter, Crane, Concrete, Rafters, etc. The list goes on. Why do it?...
* Lower Cost * Higher Quality
* Quicker Built * Green Friendly
* Pleasant Looking * Better Insulated
* Better Fire Protection
Pearcesealandhomes.com (Our Middle Name is Preparedness)
It would seem so easy to just use reusable cloth bags and save our earth. It's also naive. Much more energy is used to produce and transport reusable cloth bags. What about growing the cotton or hemp? Fertilizer, insecticide, and cheap labor? How about the gas, energy and time wasted making multiple trips to the supermarket with a small reusable bag to buy a family size load of groceries that I can get in one trip carrying all my plastic bags with a Baggy Buddy carry handle.
Every large supermarket has a recycle container at the door. If we all just recycle our plastic bags, we can have our convenience and a greener planet.
My company recently started offering the Roth 401K. Then I did some calculations and I realized that my husband and I are going to be really close to the MAGI (Modified Annual Gross Income) limits at which you can no longer contribute to a Roth IRA. The only thing that decreases your MAGI is regular 401K deductions, so I decided to switch back to the regular IRA. This way we'll each be able to contribute $15.5K to our 401Ks, plus $5K to our Roth IRAs (unless we get much higher than expected salary increases)
I'm glad to hear these tips really work - I've been using some of the same ideas, but don't have a handy mpg counter in my Toyota.
I've been hypermiling through my last tank of gas, and even though I botched my fill-up on my Scan Gauge II AGAIN, I was able to manually calculate my current mpgs to 29.83 over the life of my last tank. My car is a Accord V6 with EPA estimate of 18/26 (21 avg). To best my mileage by 8 average MPG (my commute is about 80/20 city/highway, so I'm really beating 19MPG most of the time) is well worth the effort I put toward the goal.
I travel in off-hours, drive with load, and coast as much as possible. Cruise control is OK, but it's not as good as knowing what your throttle-position sensor and ignition timing read. Throwing up fuel consumption/hr predictions also help one determine how much gas to give the car.
I find that working and staying busy increases my good luck. I'm not sure why. I just shake off the bad and keep looking for the good.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and keeping the discourse going. I owe you at least the courtesy of a response.
First off, the term "adamant global warming naysayers" was meant to be objective and in no way condescending or pejorative. I merely wanted to point out that people who in the past were very skeptical about global warming, i.e., adamant global warming naysayers, have begun to agree that maybe this is an issue to consider. I sensed that you were offended by the defensive tone of your response when you responded with "adamant global warming doomsday alarmists," which did strike me as a little vindictive.
If I offended you, I apologize, but if you really break down the phrase, it shouldn't be that offensive. At least I don't think so.
You seem to take exception to any environmental considerations when buying a fuel efficient car, but my post wasn't soley about the environmental impact of hybrids. It clearly states that they save gas, and gas is getting more expensive. I am fully aware that this is the primary consideration, and hope that this came through in the article. Then again, I'm guessing it didn't.
You also mention that we shouldn't let a bunch of knucklehead politicians tell us what to do, but in reality, as much as it may bum us all out, that's exactly what happens. Politicians make the laws, and we have to follow them.
As far as emission standards and fuel economy, the government does a play a role. During the Carter administration the government did enforce fuel standards and the car manufacturers did comply. This was in response to higher fuel prices, but it wasn't soley because of market forces.
Those standards, which set a minimum fuel efficiency and saved us billions of gallons of oil, have since been pretty much eroded by the long arm of Detroit (not to mention several Republican administrations) who favors lower mpg standards (or none at all) so they can crank out gas guzzling SUVs.
So while it is true that demand is what dictates which cars will sell, the government can nonetheless impose requirements that would force car makers to offer cars that could be more responsible in terms of fuel consumption as well as emissions. They did this in the 70s. This would ultimately influence supply, and demand would have to adjust accordingly. In other words, you can only freely choose from what's available.
I would argue that this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing given the current climate (no pun intended) of the economy.
Either way, thanks for your thoughts, everyone. It's like the abused child who looks for more. Even though it can be painful, it's still acknowledging my existence.
When I saw this article, it was a pleasant surprise because, sure enough, this is where I first heard about "hypermiling." Driving an '03 Corolla, I resisted trying the practice out until about a month ago when prices really started getting ridiculous. Personally, I went from about 32 MPG to 40. This is my city/hwy record per-tank average, as I don't have some fancy instrument that I probably wouldn't trust, anyway. Nonetheless, 25% is huge! What if every American did this? Our demand would go down and hopefully liberate prices a little. Living on the MA-NH border, I'm noticing that only some New-Englanders get peeved when I accelerate a little more slowly. Reasonably slowly, not "I don't care about any of you" slowly. Surprisingly, it's contagious. Other people start to notice and drive more sensibly, usually widening their following distances before trying anything else. Others immediately gun it and pass me on a two lane road out of an intersection, only to find that I nearly always catch up to them and occasionally even pass them later! Ahh, instant gratification - it's the American way.
My experience with cruise is not so great. Toyota cruise controls tend to shift quickly and gun it on hills - I've fared much better by taking matters into my own hands... or feet. I've yet to try acceleration by cruise control - I have to admit that it seems a bit extreme. Bostonians get really ticked off when you try something like that, and I never would have survived if I'd tried that around New York. It's "gun it or be gunned down" there.
I didn't mean to post this, but don't know how to delete it. Sorry.
I can't scrounge up the source at the moment, but I've seen credible evidence that accelerating quickly and smoothly doesn't harm gas mileage and may actually improve it; remember, your engine is much more efficient at 45mph (or whatever the street speed is) than at 25mph.
The conventional-wisdom view that accelerating quickly is inefficient comes from conflating quick starts with frequent starts and stops. In particular, if you're in an area where you have lots of unsynchronized lights or stop signs, then starting quickly costs you gas--but from speeding all the way up and then dissipating the energy by braking, not from the speeding up itself.
In short, then, it seems that if you're in a situation where you're expecting to be able to drive for a while at full speed (either no light for a while or synchronized lights), it's both faster and more efficient to accelerate quickly without slamming on the gas.
You can save money and the environment by stop throwing away ink cartridges. You can get a continuous ink system so you don't have to get cartridge refills. They are clean and easy to set up. It has a resetting "never expires" chip in the ink cartridges. I bought mine about 3 weeks ago and love it. It is supposed to equal 61 cartridges of each color. I used to be stingy with my ink and now I let the kids print whatever they want:-)
I got mine here: Continuous Ink and Printer Ink Refills
No apology needed. You may not be a mother, but I'm sure you're plenty of other equally great things. I appreciate hearing from all sides of these issues, and it is especially nice when the commenters (like yourself) are of good taste and form. Thanks for bringing your voice to the discussion!
Thanks for the kind words.
I think one of the principles behind Wise Bread is that the tactics of the rich--frugality, avoiding debt, saving and investing, education, diversity of income sources--are beneficial to everyone. Spreading the word on that is one of our goals.
I think too, though, that the system makes it a lot easier for the rich to use those tactics than for the poor. It sets up a situation where it's hard for people who feel trapped in the system to see the various paths to freedom.
My goal above was not to make "the rich" out as bad guys, but rather to acknowledge the ways the system can make poor people feel trapped--because I think you have to come to terms with those feelings before you can have an intelligent discussion about the ways that the tactics of the rich can help the poor.
Linsey, I apologize if I seemed harsh in my earlier comments :) It's not the outright criticism of the "childless" that wears people down, it's the subtle comments. Not knowing your background, I misinterpreted what you said. I enjoy your writing and your perspective, especially since it is often quite different than my own.
you won't get hit by any red light runners. I am always amazed at how people accelerate right thru the light...when it first turns green. I bet no one ever got hit at a red light who, after the light turns green, looked left, right, left again and then went on their way....and no, this only takes a split second to do (along with gently accelerating).
I thought I was doing decent, similar to your "before" results. But I can probably do more cruise control on a regular route. Looking forward to it next week.
When you take forever to go at the green light, the drivers behind you have to stall longer and end up getting stuck on two red lights at the same intersection. That wastes fuel too. You don't need to be a NASCAR driver to get your butt in gear when the light turns green.
All the stores here post unit prices, but they're often useless. Back when I used to buy soda, I'd look at the "unit" prices on the shelves, and find that the six-packs had "cents per can," the small bottles had "cents per ounce," and the big bottles had "dollars per liter"! I don't think I ever saw "cents per milliliter" or "dollars per quart," but I wouldn't put it past them.
In particular, the orange juice sizes seem designed to make unit price comparisons hard. They've got half-gallon cartons and then three-quart and gallon jugs. Since that's an easy 2, 3, or 4 quarts, you'd think they'd say that. They don't, though. They have gallons, fractional gallons, and ounces, and seem to carefully avoid directly comparable units.
Still, as you say, it's easy enough, as long as you learned your weights and measures in elementry school, and can do a little basic arithmetic in your head (or bring a calculator).
You always have great posts.....
and of course this is a good one too. But the way you wrote the article it seems there is something wrong with the rich. I am not rich but the vast majority of "rich" Americans are a hard working, frugal lot. They are not the Paris Hiltons. They are folks who started a business and grew it and employed people who are middle class. I dont like the term poor.. Poor is not forever. A lot of people are broke trying to keep up. But if the "poor" were to look to the rich they would find a frugal way of living and hard work which keeps one away from broke.
though not as extreme. I just filled up for the first time since implementing some of these ideas (particularly throwing the car into neutral and coasting toward lights). My max for a while was around 21mpg. today it came out to 26. sweet.
Kudos to you Lindsey. For a 29yr old you certainly have you priorities straight.
When I was 29yrs old I was a world-class hellraiser young guy. It took me years to realize what you know - I really was the the world's oldest adolescent! When I finally married at the advanced age of 44 and had my first child a couple of years later, I figured things out. Children are a miracle which you can't explain to those who don't have them. Because, I got a late start we just have the one - a beautiful, smart 8 year old daughter. Had I known then what I finally figured out, I would have had a houseful!
It doesn't matter what you like or don't like. The notion that we are "free" of governmental interference is absolutely absurd. The only difference is exactly what is interfered with. One group is happy to have a certain set of interferences and labels that "freedom," another set prefers a different set of interferences and has yet other labels. But the hard cold facts are that modern society does not, would not, could not exist without extensive government interference. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having different preferences, but to claim one set is "no" interference whereas another set "is", is patently absurd.
But yea. Smart car. 18 wheel rig. Ack.
I always pay bills right away so that I don't forget.