gasoline

The Biggest Ways You're Wasting Money at the Pump

Ashley Eneriz — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 10:00:06 +0000

Ever feel conflicted at the pump when you need to choose between premium gas and standard grade? Consumers as a whole have been led to believe that items with the "premium" name tag are worth the money — and can even save us money long-term. However, this is not true when it comes to premium gas.

A recent AAA report found that the higher cost of premium gas offers little to no benefit for vehicles that are recommended, but not required, to use the fuel. The same goes for cars that do not recommend nor require the higher octane gasoline. According to the report, over 1.5 million new cars sold last year came with the recommendation to use higher octane gas, but it was not required for car functionality. So, unless your car requires the premium stuff, you're better off skipping it.

If you are in the market for a new vehicle, consider choosing a car that does not require premium gas. Driving a car that needs premium fuel will cost you about 20 to 25 percent more at the pump, which translates to about 50 cents a gallon. For a 15-gallon car, that can tack on an additional $7.50 per fill up. (See also: 7 Ways You're Wasting Gas Without Realizing It)

Here are other ways drivers are wasting money at the pump.

Not shopping around

Many times, drivers will pay more for gas due to poor planning. You are desperate to find the closest gas station before you run on empty, and you don't care if you have to pay more. If this describes you, stop living this way. Not only are you slowly draining your budget, but you put yourself at risk if an emergency were to happen.

Once your tank hits the halfway mark, use an app like GasBuddy to find the cheapest gas in your area. Plan to stop when you are near that station for another errand. When you find a good deal on gas, fill up the tank.

Not paying the right way

There are really only two options that are beneficial to your finances when it comes to paying for gas. The first option is to pay with cash. Some gas stations will offer a small discount per gallon if you pay with cash over plastic. The other option is to purchase gas with a credit card that offers rewards or cash back for gas. Make sure you're able to pay your credit card bill in full each month to truly benefit from the rewards.

Using your debit card at the pump doesn't benefit your bank account, and it can also put you at risk. Skimmers and card fraud are increasingly common at gas stations. If you pay with a credit card, it is easier to stop fraudulent charges, and your personal bank account will not be in limbo as the bank sorts out the mess.

Not keeping your car well maintained

Several small factors can add up to wasted money at the gas pump. For example, poorly inflated tires and dirty air filters can make your vehicle work harder than it needs to. This translates to more gas wasted on the road.

Similarly, the heavier your car is, the more gas you will burn. Having a little extra junk in the trunk isn't going to throw off your gas budget, but if you regularly keep heavy equipment or tools in the back of your vehicle, consider lightening the load on days you don't need the items.

Not driving smarter

It seems like common knowledge that a steady driving speed is better for your gas tank than overly accelerating or braking your car. However, each time I drive into Los Angeles, I am amazed by how many drivers accelerate for extended periods of time, brake hard for no reason, or drive over 90 MPH.

Driving at a slower, steadier pace will extend your time between gas fuel ups and keep you away from pricey speeding tickets. For longer commutes, plan your trip so you can avoid heavy times of traffic.

Using these tips can save you as much as $10 to $20 per fuel up, which adds up quickly. Wouldn't you rather spend that money on something fun than at the pump?

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This article is from Ashley Eneriz of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Money Tips: Saving on Gas

Ashley Jacobs — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:00:23 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some awesome articles on saving on gas, figuring out extreme couponing, and why you should love credit cards.

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This article is from Ashley Jacobs of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

What Is in a Barrel of Oil?

Michael Pruser — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:00:12 +0000

Whether you're watching CNN discuss the effects of the recent oil spill in the gulf, or you're watching MSNBC discuss how the price of oil has shifted throughout the month, you probably hear them use the term "barrel," which defines oil in volume. Not being literate in the language of fossil fuels, I had no idea just how much gasoline was contained in a barrel. Much to my surprise, my guess of 50 gallons of gasoline was way, way off.

A barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons, which is the standard measurement in the United States. Now, this is just a way of measuring crude oil, as it has not been delivered in anything but huge tanker vessels for several decades. This measurement device originated in Pennsylvania way back when crude oil was packaged in barrels. Rather than changing to a different unit of measurement, it is easier to keep the original barrel standard.

Typically, 42 gallons of crude oil will produce 44 gallons of petroleum distillate products. Yes, there is actually a gain in processing of a little more than 2 gallons. The breakdown of distilled products is as follows:

Gasoline — 19.5 gallons
Distillate fuel (heating oil, diesel fuel) — 9.2 gallons
Kerosene/Jet fuel — 4.1 gallons
Residual fuel oil (heavy oils and fuels for industry) — 2.3 gallons
Liquefied refinery gasses (ethane, propane, butane, isobutene) — 1.9 gallons
Still gas (methane, ethane, ethylene, butane, butylenes propane, propylene) — 1.9 gallons
Coke — 1.8 gallons
Asphalt and road oil — 1.3 gallons
Petrochemical feedstocks — 1.2 gallons
Lubricants — 0.5 gallons
Kerosene — 0.2 gallons
Other — 0.3 gallons

As you can see, a great deal of petroleum products is created from one 42-gallon barrel of crude oil, and these items are generally produced during one processing cycle of creating gasoline. That's right, most all of these products are the remnants of turning crude oil into gasoline — otherwise known as by-products. So many of the petroleum products used for home heating, diesel engines, airplanes, heavy manufacturing are derived from the production of gasoline. Basically, what would otherwise be thrown away have become important necessities in our daily lives.

Now, after understanding what is created from one 42 gallon barrel of crude oil, I realize how difficult it will be to become fossil-fuel independent with the use of alternative fuel vehicles and energy production. Crude oil distillation products have permeated every aspect of our lives. Being able to rid ourselves of its use will be an arduous task.

Sources:

What's In A Barrel of Oil? (American Royalty Council)
What a Barrel of Crude Oil Makes (Texas Oil & Gas Association)

Guest Post Blurb:

This is a guest post by Michael Pruser. Michael is the managing editor of the popular personal finance blog, The Dough Roller, and also writes for the credit card review sites, Credit Card Offers IQ and Prepaid Cards 123.

This article is from Michael Pruser of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

What will you do when gas drops below $1.50 a gallon?

Paul Michael — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:15:04 +0000

Several months ago, I wrote an article asking what you would do when gas prices skyrocketed. Now, the price of gasoline is in freefall. It’s already dipped below $2/gallon in some parts of my state, and I’ve heard it has already gone as low $1.67 in some parts of the country. The question is, will this change anything for you?

When I arrived in the states, a gallon of gas was just over $1. So, the difference between filling a 12-gallon tank or a 25-gallon tank once a week was clearly no big deal for most people.

Coming from the UK, I was surprised at how many massive vehicles were on the roads here: Hummers; Suburbans; F-150s; Escalades. The list of low MPG tankers with huge fuel tanks staggered me. But hey, in America it’s everyone’s right to drive whatever they want. Hybrid technology was laughed at and electric cars were dinky little toys that could never be taken seriously.

Fast-forward to the middle of 2008 and gasoline jumps over the $4/gallon mark. The 25- gallon tank now costs $100 to fill. Car dealerships can’t sell SUVs and trucks without offering enormous discounts and free gas for a year. Drivers are on waiting lists for Hybrid cars. People are embracing ride-share and public transportation (they’re even starting to walk more and ride bicycles). A new word called “hyper-miling” became all the rage. The signs were all pointing to the end of an era; SUVs and trucks would now only be bought as a necessity, not a fashion statement.

But as you all know, the economy encountered a small hiccup in September. Did I say hiccup? I’m sorry, I meant heart attack. A big one. And as our stocks and 401Ks plummeted, so did the price of gasoline; a very thin silver lining in a big, bad, dark cloud. For the first time in years, gasoline is once again becoming one of the cheapest liquids we can buy . You can see drivers smiling as they fill up the tank. Truck owners no longer have that eye-twitch as they pull into a gas station. But what will this mean long-term?

Will the dip in gas prices affect you? Are you no longer considering a Hybrid vehicle, or are you at least putting off the purchase for a few more years? Are you driving more? Is the morning commute now made in your own car rather than a bus or train?

Personally, I am staying on the same path. That old saying of “once bitten, twice shy” seems quite apt right now. Too many people that I know bought gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks only to see their weekly gas expenses quadruple over the last eight years. And just because we’re experiencing a delightful dip in prices, it doesn’t mean the energy problem has vanished.

Fossil fuels are limited. Oil is becoming more expensive to extract and refine. We need to look to a future that does not need gasoline like a junkie needs his next fix. I will continue to hyper-mile and drive only when I need to. I will never buy a gas-guzzling truck or SUV. And our next family car will almost certainly have Hybrid technology and get great MPG. This is no time to forget the troubles of the last few years. We may have been given a little time to catch our breath, but we cannot afford to be seduced by the lull in gas prices. Sooner or later (and probably sooner) they will rise again. Be prepared.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

It Bears Repeating - Driving Slower Saves Money

Andrea Karim — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:40:39 +0000

I get incredibly bad mileage when driving. I have an old, clunker car (well, it's not humiliatingly old, but it's old), and when I drive the way I want to drive, I get roughly 18-20 miles to the gallon. In my area, a gallon of gas costs $4.40.

Sigh. I might as well be driving a pickup truck, for all the good it does me.

The problem is, I'm a bitch on wheels. I love speed. I love driving fast, and I adore the way my car kicks it into high gear when I floor it and zoom past all the losers going the speed limit. I love changing lanes and beating the lights. I spent my formative driving years in Manhattan, so I know a thing or two about braking, changing lanes, flipping off the jerk who just cut me off and blaring my horn all at the same time. I relish the feeling of taking off at a newly green light and leaving everyone behind me in the dust.

God, I love driving like a total a**hole.

But being an a**hole is expensive, petrol-wise. I keep reading well-written, thoughtful articles about how I can save money by keeping my tires inflated and my oil changed and thousands of pounds of books on my bookshelves rather than in my car's rather spacious trunk. But even with all that maintenance, the one thing that has kept me at such lousy mileage is my inability to drive with any measure of sanity. I've got a lead foot (I'm told it's genetic), and apparently, that alone was preventing me from saving a good deal of cash.

A while back, our own Lynn wrote a good post about how to save money by driving sanely and maintaining your automobile. She mentioned how sudden stopping and starting are often the culprits of lousy gas mileage on your car. At the time, I read the article and said, "Hey, that's true. I once drove 150 at 30mph and saved a lot of gas!". Of course, driving for 150 miles at 30mph is pretty tedious. And Lynn never advocated driving that far under the speed limit.

So, this past weekend, when I was facing another 150 mile journey (a journey that uses roughly one half of my 16-gallon tank when I drive on A**hole Setting), I decided to try driving at 55 mpg, just like we used to do back in the 1970s, before disco music was enjoyed with a sense of irony.

I drove in the far right lane, because I'm not a total jerk. I stayed behind large semi trucks. I used cruise control rather than the gas and brake pedals to alter my speed, unless I really needed to slow down or speed up fast for some reason. More importantly, I just calmed the hell down. I paid attention to the road, but stole glances at the beautiful scenery. I sang along to my CD player, and purposely played music that would not get my blood pressure up (think Credence Clearwater Revival rather than Dropkick Murphys). I stayed out of everyone's way, and marveled at the massive SUVs (mostly towing trailers packed with offroad bikes or boats) zooming past me at 75 mph. It was like having an out-of-body experience, or having the Ghost of Christmas Driving arrive and show me just how I look when I'm barreling over the mountain highway, racing to the top and back down with other holiday revelers.

I got close to 30 miles to the gallon on that trip, almost as much as I got when I had to drive the same route at 30mph. And the time difference is negligible - it took me roughly 30 minutes longer to get home than if I had been tearing across the pass at breakneck speed. My tank, which usually starts running on fumes at 310 miles, took me to a full 430 miles before the gas light went on.

I tell you, I am a changed woman. No more driving like a maniac for me. I'm now contently puttering along in the slow lane with the old ladies and student drivers, listening to the radio and keeping an eye out for traffic that merges at an unreasonable speed. I no longer take off like a skittish greyhound as soon as the light turns green - I just slowly apply pressure to the gas pedal and make my way into the intersection like a sane human being.

I've even retired my middle finger, which was developing some sort of permanent cramping from overuse. My carpooling partner is beginning to wonder if I've lost it.

Other drivers may be frustrated with my easy riding, but I don't care. Driving like an old woman is going to save me hundred of dollars per year - think of what I could spend that on (don't say 'cat food')! I'm thinking of printing up some bumper stickers that say "If I'm going slow, I'm trying to save gas. Don't hate me because I'm frugiful!", but I'm not sure if it's even worth the effort. I've already noticed a number of fellow drivers practicing the same slow, steady manner of driving that I've been trying, and I think it's catching on.

I'm pretty sure that my blood pressure is lower, too.

This article is from Andrea Karim of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Spot shortages of gasoline?

Philip Brewer — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:49:38 +0000

As long as prices are free to rise, I wouldn't expect much in the way of gasoline shortages--at least not widespread, long-lasting ones. But it's actually pretty easy to produce a local, short-term one. In fact, it doesn't take much more than people worrying that there might be one.

Suppose one local filling station has a supply glitch and the local TV stations and local paper run with scary headlines over a picture of the "No gas" sign. If that prompts any sizable fraction of drivers to stop in their local filling station for a precautionary extra fill-up, that could do it all by itself.

Think of it this way: The average car's gas tank is about half full--for every guy who just filled up, there's another guy who's about to fill up. Multiple one-half the size of the average gas tank by the number of vehicles in your city, then compare that to total amount of gasoline in all the filling stations in town.

Doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation for my town, I'd guesstimate that there's around 100,000 cars and trucks that use gasoline and that the average tank could probably hold another 10 gallons of gasoline if they went out for a fill-up. So, that's a potential demand for maybe 1 million gallons of gasoline, if they all decided to top off their tanks.

A typical filling station might have tanks to store 25,000 gallons of gasoline, but of course their tanks are only half-full on average as well, so that means around 12,500 gallons per station. So, the potential surge-demand of everybody deciding that they really ought to top their tanks off could drain some 80 gas stations dry.

Now, it's pretty unlikely for one overblown story about gas shortages to send everyone out to fill up their tank, and there's also probably more than 80 stations in town. But these things can feed off one another--if a demand surge runs one station dry, the "No gas" signs at that station feed the surge by sending another batch of people off to fill their tanks. That runs another couple of stations dry and so on. At the same time, of course, everybody is doing all their ordinary driving--all this demand is in addition to the ordinary, everyday demand.

It might seem a little counter-intuitive, but my recommendation for dealing with this risk is that you keep your tank full. (This is in keeping with my general advice on the ethics of hoarding--as long as you're buying what you're going to use in the reasonably near future, you're not contributing to the shortage.)

It means that you won't contribute to the problem--your tank is already full (or nearly), so you don't need to rush out for a fill-up if gas shortages hit the news. It also means that you won't be severely impacted by the minor, local, short-term supply disruptions that are an entirely predictable consequence of the kind of supply shocks that are pushing prices up.

Frankly, we'd all be better off if gasoline were a bit easier to hoard--it'd mean that more people had a stockpile and wouldn't need to go rushing off to the filling station when news broke of possible shortages. It's hard, though, to hoard more than what fits in your tank--storing gas in gas cans doesn't work well (the gasoline evaporates), plus it's dangerous (gasoline is flammable, explosive, and toxic). A proper underground storage tank is expensive, and subject to considerable regulation.

As a practical matter, keeping your vehicle tank full is about as far toward hoarding gasoline as the ordinary person can go. Fortunately, it's far enough to help considerably.

I'm old enough to remember the gas lines in the 1970s. Those were largely caused by government controls on prices. (Price controls are the classic way to create a shortage.) If there are no price controls, I would would expect any shortages to be minor, local, and temporary. But just because there won't be severe, widespread, and long-lasting shortages, doesn't mean that there won't be any. An extra half-tank of gasoline makes it a non-issue if there's a minor glitch in gasoline distribution affects a few local stations. If you let your tank get close to empty, that same minor glitch could see you driving on fumes, hoping that the next station has gas--and in no position to do comparison shopping if the price looks a little high.

On a previous post on a related topic, one commenter reported that the process of evacuating for Katrina produced spot shortages of gasoline. Clearly, anyone trying to flee a disaster is better off if they can just go, without having to stop for gasoline--possibly having to wait in long lines. In an emergency, some fraction of the gas stations may be inaccessible--fallen trees, flood waters, or the police blocking traffic some directions. In addition, some stations may be closed because their workers have already evacuated or the power is out. The stations that are open will be the first to run out of gasoline.

Of course, don't wait until there's news of gas shortages to take this advice. That would make you part of the problem. Do it now.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

How To Protect Yourself From Gasoline Thieves

Fred Lee — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:51:12 +0000

Attention drivers! Fasten your seat belts and prepare yourselves for a wild and crazy journey back to the madness of the seventies. But you’d better remember to hold onto your hats. Or in this case, your gas caps.

In a situation redolent of oil embargoes and gas rationing, fuel prices in this country continue their dizzying ascent into the stratosphere. As a consequence, there has been an alarming increase not only the rising number of gasoline thefts, but in the extreme lengths that some of perps are willing to go to in order to steal the precious petrol.

Most of the thefts still involve people driving off before they pay, with convenience stores that sell gas along busy interstate highways being the primary targets. In fact, with these stores providing as much as 80% of the gas to consumers, they are, on average, expected to lose as much as $1000 of gas this year, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.

What really has law enforcement officials concerned, however, is that in addition to drive-off thefts, some bandits are targeting consumers, using more brazen methods that move well beyond the standard siphon to include pumps, saws, drills, and even guns. Apparently SUVs and large pickup trucks are the car of choice because they have larger gas tanks (and are thus more profitable) and provide easier access to them due to their higher suspensions.

Difficult as it may be to imagine, what the thieves end up doing is literally drilling a hole in the tank and letting the gas drain out, which they will later sell on the black market. Now besides the obvious hazard of a having gas leaking out the bottom of you car, the cost of replacing your tank can run as high as $500.

As gas creeps up well beyond the $4.00 benchmark, the situation might very well get worse. So with this in mind, here are a few things that you can do to protect yourself, or at the very least, minimize your risk:

1. If possible, park in a secure, locked garage, especially when parking overnight

2. Position your car under a streetlight to increase visibility.

3. Park in high traffic areas where your car is in plain sight.

4. Don’t park in public lots for a long period of time and, if need be, move your car frequently.

5. Keep the access door to your gas cap in full view whenever possible. Don’t let it be obscured by a wall or shrub.

6. Buy a locking gas cap. If you don’t already have one, a ten dollar investment can save you a lot of headache.

7. Report any suspicious behavior, especially around your car.

In the end, like most things in life, the responsibility lies with you to practice a little common sense and make it harder for thieves to get to your gas. This, in turn, will save you time, hassles, and of course, money.

One other solution would be to simply get a smaller car. Besides the obvious savings and convenience, they have smaller gas tanks making them less attractive to thieves. Small cars are also much lower to the ground, so accessing the gas tank is that much more difficult, if not impossible.

Unless, of course, they’ve brought along a jack.

This article is from Fred Lee of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Fill your tank

Philip Brewer — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:22:17 +0000

Last week I saw several reports about a sharp jump in people running out of gas on the highway. The stories attributed the increase to high gas prices, suggesting that people who were short of cash simply didn't have enough to fill their tank. That's a good example of how it's very expensive to be poor.

(Two examples: The AAA reports calls from out-of-gas AAA members in Philadelphia have doubled. In Atlanta, the taxpayers will foot the bill for a gallon or two, as Jason White described in One way to combat high prices.)

Notwithstanding a few sources of free gas for people who'd otherwise be stranded on the highway, it's pretty darned expensive and inconvenient to run out of gas. In many big cities it's against the law to run out of gas on the highway--you may get a free gallon of gas, but it comes with a ticket that makes it no bargain at all. Even if you dodge that bullet, your plans are thrown into total disarray--along with those who were counting on you, plus anyone you might call to help you out.

It'd be one thing if buying less gas saved you money. But it doesn't. What saves you money is driving less.

After all, it's however much you drive that determines how much gas you need. If you don't change how much you drive, there's not really anything you can do at the gas station that'll cut down on how much gas you need to buy.

In fact, I'd go on to suggest that it makes good sense to keep your tank reasonably full most of the time. Think of it as an investment--gas in your tank is an asset just like cash in your checking account. It doesn't earn any interest, but the interest rate on most checking accounts these days doesn't keep you even with inflation anyway. As an investment, gas in your tank has done pretty well just lately.

The main win, though, is not the "investment return," but the convenience of hardly ever running out of gas, plus the convenience of not having to worry about minor disruptions in the supply of gasoline.

So, what do you do if you can't afford to fill your tank? If it's just because you're a little short until payday, that's one thing. But if payday comes and you're still a little short, that suggests that you're living beyond your means. (Admittedly, means severely pinched by the recent rise in gas prices.) You might consider driving less. If you can't drive less, you might look over your budget for other possible savings. But your spending on gasoline depends on how much you drive, not how full you fill your tank.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

How Wisebread helped me get 45mpg out of my 28mpg car.

Paul Michael — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:25:47 +0000

There have been several great articles written by my fellow Wisebread writers on gas efficient driving , slowing down and hypermiling . I think the sign of a good blog is that we take our own advice, and in the case of gasoline, I’ll take all the help I can get. But even I was shocked at the amazing results I got.

Before I took the advice, the best I got out of my 2006 VW Passat was 31.8 mpg. And I was happy with that. As you can see from the image below, the top mpg for my vehicle is 28mpg highway, and a paltry 19mpg city. So, I felt good about myself.

But as it turned out, I had a lot of bad driving habits. For a start, I was guilty of a lead foot, slamming it down as soon as the lights turned green. I would drive at the speed limit or just above, which meant doing 70mph when I was allowed. And I would often drive a little too close to the car in front. Not dangerously so, but enough to make me have to stop more quickly at a red light.

With all of this going on, I was still a pretty good driver. Getting my 31.8 mpg was nice to see (I have one of those mpg monitors in my display, which is very handy). But, I wanted to see if I could squeeze a little more out of my car using the tips from Lynn and David .

Here’s what I did:

First, I slowed down. I found 55-60mph was all I needed to do. Sure, it sometimes added a little more time to my journey, but only a few minutes. On my morning commute, I set off a little earlier.

I left much more space between my car and the car in front. This allowed my to coast more, and I did a lot less braking. Sometimes I would find myself never stopping, but merely slowing and speeding up. And remember, when you stop at a light you’re getting a big fat ZERO mpg.

I stopped treating traffic lights like the beginning of a Nascar race. Instead, when the light turned green I pulled away slow and steady. Sometimes I’d hear honking horns but I just ignored them. So what?

I used my cruise control. This is one of those hypermiling tips that is killer. Unlike the accelerator peddle, the cruise control + and – settings are much more accurate and controllable. I could accelerate by 1/2mph or 1mph, and slow down in the same way. This is very gas efficient.

That was it. I started a few months ago, and this week I hit 45mpg on a trip that I used to get 29mpg on. The proof is below. It’s not the best quality, it was taken on my cell phone, but it’s not tampered with in any way. Scout’s honor.

What does that mean monetarily? Well, my car has an 18.5gallon tank. It costs around $65 to fill it up (and who knows how much more that will increase to…scary thought).

Using my old method of driving, the most mileage I can get from that tank (if I’m only taking highway journeys) is 588 miles. That’s 31.8 x 18.5. Now, with my new method of driving I can get 832 miles from that one tank of gas. That’s 244 extra miles, or about 5 gallons of fuel. That’s a bunch! And I’m filling my car up every two weeks, which means Wisebread has saved me up to $40 each month. And by the way, I don't do a lot of city driving, but when I do I still get 34mpg. That's almost double the estimate for my vehicle.

It just goes to show…it pays to listen to your friends sometimes. Thanks Lynn and David.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

The Gasoline Pump "Y2K" Problem

Xin Lu — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:45:20 +0000

Here in San Mateo County, many gas stations are starting to sport prices above $4.00 per gallon. The trusty Gas and Shop down the street is still holding on to $3.93 per gallon but it seems inevitable that gas will cross that $4.00 mark. Funnily enough, some of the older gas pumps around the country in rural areas are experiencing a technical issue similar to the Y2K problem. Basically, these pumps were not designed to charge more than $4.00 a gallon.

In this article from the Seattle PI , we find a garage owner who has pumps that only charge up to $3.99 9/10. He bought them brand new in 1995 and it would cost him thousands of dollars to upgrade so for now he is informing his customers that the pump price is incorrect. The article also points out that it is illegal to operate pumps that do not display and tally the correct price, but the government understands the situation now and is giving the pump owners ample time to fix the situation.

Now you may be thinking, wow those pump makers are dumb! However, the fact is in 1995 noone expected to charge $4.00 for a gallon of gas. The average price of a gallon of gas was around $1.20 in California in 1995 and the people who made the pump probably figured their pumps would not be in service long enough for gasoline to climb to $4.00. Since the pump uses mechanical computers, adding a number is more difficult than it looks.

So the next time you drive down a dusty highway in the middle of nowhere and find one of these older pumps, make sure you find out what the real price of gas is.

This article is from Xin Lu of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Save More Gas by Safely Following Trucks

Xin Lu — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:19:05 +0000

Since reading Lynn's article on saving gas by driving slower I have been trying to apply the tip to my daily commute. The problem is that these crazy Northern California highways are not very friendly to slow drivers. What I have been doing is driving behind big trucks in the slow lane so that I do not get honked at or pulled over by the highway patrol. Apparently driving behind big trucks also saves you gas due to something called drafting, and you can safely take advantage of this to save an additional 5 to 10% of your gas.

The science behind drafting is closely related to why driving slower saves energy. Basically, you have less air resistance in front of your car if a big truck has already passed through the air and your car is in the tunnel or "slipstream" behind it. A truck also blocks some of the air rushing at you. On the popular Discovery Channel show Mythbusters it was shown that if you follow a big rig by 100 feet you can decrease your fuel consumption by 11%. The daredevils went a bit further with the experiment and followed a truck at only 10 feet and managed to decrease fuel consumption by 40%.

As the MythBusters crew said, it is extremely dangerous to drive too close to a giant truck because the truck driver might not see you, and you may also be pulled over for tailgating. A safe follow distance at 55 miles per hour is about 160 feet to 240 feet since your car is travelling at approximately 80 feet per second and you want two to three seconds of reaction time to hit the brakes. If you are travelling faster you need to give yourself even more space. I definitely do not recommend dangerous driving behavior just for the sake of saving a bit of gas, but if you are driving slowly on a highway full of speed demons, safely following after a truck could save you gas and harassment.

This article is from Xin Lu of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

What will you do when gas hits $4 per gallon?

Paul Michael — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:53:12 +0000

The image you're looking at is a classic VW ad from 1979, a response to the gas crisis at that time. I just filled up my tank, and 16 gallons of Plus Unleaded cost me over $52 here in Colorado. If you're in California, you're paying more. Use diesel? I already feel for you. So the big question is, what are you going to do when regular gas hits $4/gallon this summer?

It's not a case of if, but when. Oil refineries aren't going to appear out of nowhere, they take time to build. And as the summer months are just around the corner, so is the peak driving season. That's the time when the gas prices hit the roof, and talk of that $4/gallon price tag is already floating around the news desks and chat rooms of America.

Some people say we have it lucky; like my dad, who lives in the UK and pays around double that. But here's the big difference - in the UK and Europe, there are many more transportation options and cars are built to run more efficiently. When I lived in the UK I never drove a car. I actually got my license when I moved to America, because I soon discovered just how poor public transportation was. In Britain I could rely on regular underground trains, very regular buses and British Rail for longer journey. But that's not a great option here in the US. We simply cannoy give up our cars and expect the same quality of life. These days, suburbs are built a long way from the nearest grocery store. It may be walking distance, but who really wants to walk 45mins to the store, and back again with bags of heavy shopping?

I laugh when I hear people say "there's no way I'm paying $4/gallon" or "the American public just won't stand for it!" What else are they (you, us) going to do? Seriously? Gasoline should be treated like electricty, water and natural gas. It's a necessity of modern life. But, it's not. Gas companies can continue to charge whatever they want, and we will continue to pay it and make reductions elsewhere. We'll buy more store brands, eat out less, buy more fuel-efficient cars or, occasionally, walk somewhere or take a bus. But the daily commute will still be there, as will the weekly shop, and cars run on gas. If the price goes to $6/gallon, nothing will change. We'll still pay it because we have no viable alternative.

The net result of course is that gas companies can make more money by selling less product! Genius, really. Airlines are also feeling the pinch (two have gone under in the last week) and the ones that remain will pass on the price of fuel to you, the happy customer.

Maybe someone will invent an electric car. Oh hang on, they did. It was called the EV1 and it worked. Actually, it worked too well. The prospect of a car that ran entirely on electricty and required little-to-no maintenance was too much for the oil companies to bear. GM scrapped them all for "some reason." I think we all know why. If you haven't seen it yet, watch "Who Killed The Electric Car?" for more information.

Trailer - Who Killed The Electric Car?

Maybe some bright spark will invent a car that runs on water. Oh, well, that one's already in the works. If you didn't already know, Ohio inventor John Kanzius has invented a machine that can "burn" salt-water. The result is an engine that runs on the most abundant resource on the planet. See the video below .

Now, when large oil and gas companies learn about this invention, I can see one of two things happening. One, they will embrace the technology with open arms and help John develop a salt-water engine. Ha, sorry, my little joke. Or two, they'll buy up the patent and let the idea rot for about 50 years, then introduce some lame salt-water/gasoline hybrid. That's basically what they did to the electric car, which is why hybrid cars are now becoming all the rage...and these beauties still rely on all that lovely oil.

So other than growing wings or inventing a Star Trekkian molecular transportation beam, I would like to know, genuinely, what you plan to do when gas does hit that magic $4/gallon. Me, I'm going to do what almost everyone else in the country will do. Pay it, whine and moan, talk about it at work for about 2 hours a day with co-workers, and eat out less.

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This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Why is Gasoline So Cheap? A Cost Comparison of 40 Common Household Liquids

Xin Lu — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:02:26 +0000

One day at lunch my coworkers complained about how expensive gasoline is right now, and I asked one of them if he knew that one gallon of milk is more expensive than a gallon of gas. He looked at me blankly and said, "really?" Then another coworker who used to live in London chimed in and said, "yeah Americans have the cheapest petro I have ever seen. In London it is probably about $8 a gallon."

After this conversation I set out to find out how cheap gas really is compared to other liquids I have used and consumed. I went around my house and office and made a list of common fluid substances and here are the results:

	Liquid Product	Dollars Per Gallon
	Arrowhead Bottled Water	1.28
	Clorox Bleach	1.99
	Gasoline	3.53
	2% Milk	3.99
	Arizona Ice Tea	3.99
	Whole Milk	4.49
	Soda by Pepsi & Coke	5.33
	Pelligrino Sparkling Mineral Water	6.40
	Minute Maid Orange Juice	6.99
	Snapple Peach Tea	7.68
	Propel Fitness Water	7.68
	Henry Weinhards Root Beer	7.68
	Glaceau VitaminWater	8.96
	Safeway Canola Oil	9.84
	Boba Milk Tea	10.67
	Dawn Dish Detergent	11.43
	Charcoal Lighter Fluid	11.96
	Monster Energy Drink	12.80
	Rubbing Alcohol (Safeway)	13.52
	Safeway Peanut Oil	13.89
	Liquid Tide Detergent	14.49
	Windex	17.29
	Kikkoman Soy Sauce	18.21
	Softsoap Liquid Soap	20.45
	Starbucks Frappuccino Iced Coffee	20.48
	Elmer's Glue	20.54
	Progresso Clam Chowder	22.07
	Safeway Balsamic Vinegar	25.60
	Safeway Rice Vinegar	26.32
	Reallemon Lemon Juice	26.79
	Robert Mondavi Chardonnay	28.16
	Cheap Whiskey for Cooking	28.16
	Ragu Pizza Sauce	30.17
	Garnier Shampoo	35.23
	Molasses	37.23
	Old Spice Body Wash	41.17
	Worcestershire Sauce	48.64
	Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil	77.75
	Neutrogena Healthy Skin Makeup	1162.47
	Krazy Glue	2322.29

These prices were taken from the local Safeway and the cheapest gas station down the street. Since I live in San Mateo, California these prices are a bit above the national average. The way I calculated the prices of things that are not sold in gallons is to take the price per ounce and multiply it by 128 since there are 128 fluid ounces in a gallon. This table shows that gasoline is one of the cheapest liquid products we buy.

This is quite puzzling to me because we require a lot less Krazy Glue than gasoline on a daily basis, and yet gasoline is several magnitudes cheaper than glue. However, because we consume so much gasoline we feel the pinch more on a day to day basis and we complain about it. The price of petroleum also contributes to higher grocery prices because everything needs to be transported around the country. Nevertheless, gasoline is ridiculously cheap in America, and perhaps that is why we do not have very good public transit systems compared to Europe.

Another thing I noticed is how expensive sodas and other packaged drinks are. I do get most of my drinks free at work , but the most frugal thing to do is to just drink tap and save the money for gas! Anyway, I challenge you to make a comparison chart of your own, and then you may not feel so bad about the price of gasoline.

This article is from Xin Lu of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

The Bank of Gasoline

Jessica Harp — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:33:52 +0000

Fuel prices may be going down, but for some motorists fuel prices never went up. Over 8,000 motorists in the St. Cloud, MN area are paying an average of $.50 to $1.50 less per gallon than the current market price for their gas. How did they lock-in these low rates? They went to the Bank of Gasoline.

Since the mid-1980s, First Fuel Bank customers in the St. Cloud, MN area have been able prepay for their gasoline and lock in the price of their gas – no matter what gasoline prices do in the future. Customers can purchase as much gas as they like, whenever the price seems right. When gasoline prices rise above the price of their prepaid gas, First Fuel Banks customers can tap their gasoline accounts to fill-up their tanks. Conversely, when prices dip under the price of their prepaid gas, customers are free to purchase gas at another fueling station.

Although First Fuel Banks is only located in the St. Cloud, MN area, there are rumors of expansion to 11 other northeastern states.

Another company joining the prepaid gas bandwagon is the Fuel Bank. The Fuel Bank, based in Ft. Meyers, FL, is still laying the groundwork for a nation-wide prepaid gasoline network, but once established it promises customers the ability to pick-up their prepaid gas at any station in the nationwide network.

Although being able to lock in low gasoline prices sounds great, there are a few drawbacks.

The primary drawback to prepaying for your gasoline is that payment for these fixed prices is by credit card. If you don’t have the money to pay off the purchase in full when the bill comes, then the interest on the credit card will make the gas much more expensive due to interest charges. Depending on the price of your prepaid gas, you may not realize any actual savings.

Secondary drawbacks include the unavailability of stations at which to redeem your gasoline and the opportunity cost of prepaying for your gas. Depending on the price you lock-in versus the market price of gas, you might be better off letting your money sit in a high-yield savings account.

Nevertheless, if you live in an area near one of the Banks of Gasoline and have the savings to prepay for your gasoline, you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank...

This article is from Jessica Harp of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Will gas top $4 a gallon this summer? I say yes.

Andrea Karim — Tue, 08 May 2007 06:30:14 +0000

Before you go jumping all over the place and pointing out that I have done no real market analysis to back up my prediction, I would like to point out: I have done no real market analysis to back up my prediction. This is just a gut feeling.

Like a good, Birkenstocked liberal, I was listening to NPR on my commute home today, and it was announced that gas prices had just topped $3 a gallon in the US.

This wasn't exactly news to those of us living on the West Coast. Our gas prices topped $3 a gallon a couple of months ago.

This time around, prices are being blamed on reduced output at refineries, although no clear-cut reasons are being given for the reduction.

Refineries operated at 87 percent capacity last week, below pre-Hurricane Katrina levels in 2005. They produced 8.9 million barrels of gasoline per day, while the country has been consuming 9.2 million barrels per day, or 1.6 percent more than this time last year.

NPR had the audacity to quote someone, I believe it was a AAA representative, as claiming that the refinery difficulties stem from refinery technician lay-offs in the 1980s. I've never been good at economics, and my memory of the 80s is sort of clouded by hairspray fumes and Madonna lyrics, but something about that explanation struck me as disingenuous. Lots of companies had lay-offs in the 1980s, but most major corporations have managed to rehire people, you know, over the past couple of decades.

Also, it's not as if gasoline demand increases are unpredicatable - summer's coming, so prices are expected to increase, but the increase started much earlier this year than last. It would seem to me that oil refineries have had twenty-odd years to correct their personnel reduction.

A slightly more plausible explanation that encompasses a broader range of possible reasons for the gas price hikes:

Conspiracy theories aside, a number of factors are preventing more supply from flowing into the U.S. market. The overall picture is a system under such strain that any outages or disruptions ricochet quickly into retail prices. Because of high costs and a lack of public support, refiners haven't built an entirely new plant since 1976. While they've been expanding existing plants, the industry isn't keeping pace with growing demand. Any additional stresses -- hurricanes such as Katrina or the persistent power outages -- curb output. Add to that a shortage of skilled workers and government rules mandating cleaner fuels, and the reasons behind scarce supplies emerge.

I love how they manage to turn something like suspecting that oil companies are greedy for profits into a conspiracy theory. Nice touch. The thing about conspiracy theories is that they are, on occasion, correct. I remember how, when I lived in the Silicon Valley back in 1999-2002, and we were experiencing those "rolling blackouts", most everyone was grumbling about how suspicious the entire thing was. NPR and mainstream news outlets called it a "conspiracy theory" back then, too, but it turned out to be, well, a freaking conspiracy.

As someone who does care deeply about the over-consumption of fossil fuels, even I understand the importance of maintaining an afforadable fuel supply to the US economy until alternative infrastructure can allow us to rely on other means of moving ourselves from one place to another. For those of us with fewer options other than driving, gas prices are very important. I'm curious as to why the media isn't delving more into this topic, really investigating why prices are going up the way they are right now.

Lots of people believe that this current supply reduction has everything to do with the kind of accidentally-on-purpose reduction in output that occured during the well-engineered energy "crisis" that we experienced in California back in 2000 and 2001.

It looks as though certain Congressional minds are at least pretending to care about the whole thing.

The recent hike in gas prices has prompted Sen. Charles Schumer - who has received plenty of calls from those motorists - to call for a federal investigation into the oil refineries that make the gas.

He said he thinks the hefty prices could have resulted from oil companies being lax on maintenance, thus short on capacity.

"The looming question is, are they putting money into maintenance and keeping up refineries as they should?" Schumer asked. "Or are they happier with lower production and higher prices?"

Me, I'm going to call it now. Gas prices well above $4 a barrel on the West Coast and averaging $4 a barrel nationally, before July. That's what I'm putting my money on. I'll be happy to eat humble pie if I'm wrong (note to self - dig up good recipe for frugal humble pie).

Next up: What to do about the rising cost of gasoline. Does it make sense, from an economic standpoint, to take the bus (if that's even an option)?

(Photo by xophersmith)

This article is from Andrea Karim of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

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Will gas top $4 a gallon this summer? I say yes.