What is everyone doing to save on gas?

[hanlonfive]

I am soooooo ticked..............saw on the news last night that by the end of summer the "experts" are saying that crude oil is gonna reach $90.00 a barrel! So needless to say, they said to look for at the pump prices to reach about $4.00 a gallon. Ugh!!!!! It sickens me. Don't they understand that they are killing the economy when they do crap like this? Sorry for venting but it seems that if this keeps up I'll have to go to work just to pay for the gas to put in our cars. It's a horrible cycle

Anyway, with the rising gas prices I was wondering if anyone here had any good tips on saving gas, improving your gas mileage or possibly making your own. <grin> I had seen on the news where this guy in Kentucky (i believe) was making his own "gas" from a moonshine still. He was also selling the still plans for about $1600. Hmmmmmm............any ideas on that?

Kelli

[Alice In TX/MO]

I got these from about.com

1) Check your air filter
A clean air filter is the key to good fuel economy. A dirty air filter restricts the flow of air into the engine, which harms performance and economy. Air filters are easy to check and change; hold the filter up to the sun and if you can't see through it, you need a new one. Consider a K&N or similar oiled filter which is cleaned rather than changed; they are much less restrictive than throw-away paper filers.
2) Keep up the (tire) pressure. Under-inflated tires can easily cost 2 to 3 MPG or more. Buy a reliable tire gauge, check your tires when they are cold (driving the car warms up the tires and the air in them, increasing the pressure), and keep them properly inflated. Use the inflation pressures shown in the owner's manual or on a data plate in the driver's door jamb.
3) Slow down. As speed increases, fuel economy decreases exponentially. If you one of the "ten-over on the freeway" set, try driving the speed limit for a few days. You'll save a lot of fuel and your journey won't take much longer. Just be sure you keep to the right, so you won't impede the less-enlightened.
4) Hang with the trucks. Ever notice how, in bad traffic jams, cars seem to constantly speed up and slow down, while trucks tend to roll along at the same leisurely pace? A constant speed keeps shifting to a minimum -- important to those who have to wrangle with those ten-speed truck transmissions -- but it also aids economy, as it takes much more fuel to get a vehicle moving than it does to keep it moving.
5) Try premium. Most new cars will run well on any grade of gasoline, but I've heard anecdotal evidence of older cars getting better economy from higher octane gasoline. Try a tank or two, record your mileage, then do the math, translating cost-per-gallon to cost-per-mile. The expensive stuff just might turn out to be cheaper.
6) Get back to nature. Consider shutting off the air conditioning and opening the windows. (Personally, I don't always mind the heat, but I do mind showing up all sweaty and smelly; the solution is to bring an extra shirt and arrive early, leaving time to change.) Keep in mind that at higher speeds the A/C may be more efficient than the wind resistance from open windows and sunroof.
7) Back off the bling. New wheels and tires may look cool, and they can certainly improve handling. But if they are wider than the stock tires, chances are they'll create more rolling resistance and decrease fuel economy. If you upgrade your wheels and tires, keep the old ones. I have fancy sport rims and aggressive tires on my own car, but I keep the stock wheels with a good narrower-tread performance tire in the garage. For long road trips, the stock wheels give a smoother ride and better economy.
8) Clean out your car. The more weight your car has to haul, the more gas it needs to do the work. If you're the type who takes a leisurely attitude towards car cleanliness -- and I definitely fall into that group -- periodically go through your car and see what can be tossed out or brought into the house. It doesn't take much to acquire an extra 40 or 50 lbs. of stuff. The difference in economy may be small, but every little bit counts, right?
9) Out with the new, in with the old. Many people I know keep their old cars around even after they buy a new one. A spare car, especially if it's an econobox, can be good insurance against temporary rises in gas prices due to world events. The costs of keeping the car may or may not be less then the fuel saved, but it does allow for more predictability in your budget.
10) Don't drive. Not a popular thing to say on a car site, I know, but the fact is that if you can avoid driving, you'll save gas. Take the train, ride your bike, carpool, consolidate your shopping trips. And always ask yourself: "Is this trip really necessary?"

[Brighid1971]

LOL! I love some of the ideas I've seen, and have even seriously considered tinkering with a little pickup truck, turning it into an electric vehicle. Maybe even getting a Volvo diesel station wagon and converting that into one that uses cooking oil...might be worth the $600 for the kit

The ways we save gas? Well, two things--the husband only drives back and forth to work, that's it. When we need to go food shopping, his mother lends us her car and we get it done all in one afternoon. The other way is that I don't have my license ( unpaid "no doc" tickets...) so I'm not driving either.

[mary,tx]

Originally Posted by hanlonfive

Ugh!!!!! It sickens me. Don't they understand that they are killing the economy when they do crap like this? Kelli

I rather doubt the people fighting in the Middle East care how high our gas prices go.

We are being way more careful about how many trips to town we make. Still, some things are hard to cut out. Like I told DH last night, I could stay home, but it's hard for the teenagers to understand that we can't afford to go in to town everyday for Seminary.

mary

[mammabooh]

Well, our local grocery store chain has a deal where every $50.00 you spend earns you 20 cents off of each gallon of their gas. We re-roofed our house, so we bought $3000.00 worth of Home Depot gift cards at the grocery store. That, in addition to our regular grocery purchases leaves us with free gas until winter!

[Guy_Incognito]

A couple of things :

Fit a manifold vacuum gauge in your car - cheap ones are 5 bucks.
Drive at the highest manifold vacuum possible. Experiment with gear changes at different speeds - you'll soon find the most economical speed at which to change up or down.

If your accelerator pedal has a little bolt as a stop underneath it, cut a hole in a tennis ball and put it over the stop. Drive so that full throttle is when the pedal touches the tennis ball. You can still stomp on the pedal, squash the ball and get (almost) full throttle if you need it.

[Dink]

I take a cooler to the grocery store so that if I need to make stops on the same route I can without having to worry about my grocerys and I plan all stops so I dont have to go back out.

[lgslgs]

We keep a little record of how far it is to various destinations. We also keep track of what kind of gas mileage we get on each vehicle.

That lets us stay aware that a trip to town costs about $1.35 in the old car or $2.90 in the SUV. If we drive the SUV we make sure to pick up pet food, feed store items, and bulky or heavy items all on a single trip.

With either vehicle, if we are going to several destinations within a few blocks of each other (post office, bank, library, pharmacy, Big Lots) we park in a central location and allow plenty of time to walk to each - stopping back at the car to drop items off as needed.

We go to very few festivals or events any more. Our favorite Ohio State Harmonica Championship is this weekend and we are probably going to miss it for the first time in years - unless we decide later today that we really want to spend $10.50 to go there. If we do end up going, you better believe we'll pack a thrifty lunch or snack to keep from adding to the costs.

Our favorite bulk food store is 44 miles away. That's about a $6 trip right now. If we go every few months and hit the Asian food store as well, we easily cover the $6 in gas through our food cost savings. We drive to car to that one, of course, not the SUV.

It's habit now to factor in the the cost of travel just as if it were an admission charge of some kind. That lead to giving up things like running into town for a gallon of milk, postage stamps, or to fill a gas can for yard work. We group all of those things with other errands.

Lynda

[susieM]

We stay home. Gas is $6.58 a gallon, over here.

[treesonggal]

Gee, just love that tennis ball idea!

I have cut my trips in half between my place and the boyfriend's (120 miles round trip!). So instead of driving up to his place every weekend (he lives with and cares for his 94-year-old mother), I drive up every other weekend and stay longer.

Now, I'm nudging him about all the trips to town he makes!

Public transportation.

Even in our rural area, I discovered that the county-wide handicapped service van is available to ANYONE, disabled or not. Cost? $1 for a round trip into town. All you have to do is to call ahead 24 hours in advance. The van picks you up at your door and takes you anywhere that you wish to go. Since I'm disabled, I use it often anyway..yet I don't understand why it's not packed with people!

Why drive to the supermarket, shop, etc. & back home, when for $1.00 you can just leave your car in the garage? I have a van and a wheelchair lift, yet I'm quite happy to save a bunch of money on gas by using public transportation.

[Wolf mom]

Bought an older honda CR-V, 5 speed. average 31 gal/mile, & leave my truck at home.

All shopping is done returning home from work. Never go to town otherwise.

Will check the air filter... Emptied the 100 # of pet food yesterday, & won't use the back as storage anymore. Thanks, ROSE.

Prices sure will go up even higher with gas going higher. All goods have to be trucked in here!

[cowboyracer43]

The headline in the local paper yesterday:"Gas Guzzler Capital of the Nation." A resident of Campbell County Wyoming is TWICE as likely as a person in any other locale in America to drive a 4WD truck or SUV. Not only that, but they are driven at outrageously high rates of speed. I usually drive 76/65 on trips to Gillette and I am passed by no fewer than 10 trucks and SUVs. (At least my personal vehicle is a VW tdi and I average 48 mpg. There are a lot of status seekers out here driving Hummers, too. Everywhere.

[Jennifer L.]

It's kind of depressing for me because I've always done most of the things talked about for saving gas, but mainly it's the "go to town and make all the stops at once" route. Either that or stay home. I've got an extended cab piick up truck and that's not something you want to just jump in an go unless there's a good reason for it.

Funny thing is, I don't see anyone slowing down! On the state roads here it's routinely 62 mph, and on I-81 it's going to be 75. If you go 70, you are passed by everything. My conclusion is MOST people aren't hurting yet, or their incomes are high enough to factor it in, or else they are saying to themselves that it's "still cheap enough" and going anyway.

Oh, one thing I'm probably going to do is essentially stop using my 1967 Ford 5000 tractor. It takes gas like it's going out of style. I won't be using it so much anymore, just keep it for emergencies.

In some ways the price of gas doesn't bother me, it's what the price of fuel oil this winter that's going to be scary.

Jennifer

[mpillow]

I'm having husband (who has a hard time staying home on days off ) pick up things on his way. Today he had to drive one hour to my parents to clean/repair furnace then he has to get hay out of the field on his way home...3/4ton truck... However a hospital we had to use 8 years ago while on vacation overcharged us (they got audited) and we got a check for $102 all gone to fill his tank.....

I need to have AC recharged in my car and inspection sticker this week and I'm going to hide his truck keys and then the only drive will be to the lake (1.5miles roundtrip) on hot days. My 5yo is an impossible brat so we cant walk as she is a danger to herself as far as traffic goes

My shopping is every other month now. And a nice little grocery just 1/2 mile away but it is pricey so I try not to go there as much as possible.....but sometimes they call if they have some old food for animals and I buy something just out of guilt for their generosity.

[Ravenlost]

We're about to trade in our old car for a Vibe which gets 34 mpg highway. Hubby will use it to make his hour commute to work. I rarely go anywhere. Grocery shopping is done every two weeks and is 18 miles away. I do all my errands on grocery shopping day. So, except for trips to the doctor, I only leave the house twice a month. I've discovered I prefer shopping online versus going to a mall. Yup, I'm a hermit.

Also, hubby is not using his tractor as much this summer (it helped that it wasn't running for a while). He's decided not to bush hog as much as he normally does and is only keeping the area around the house, tree farm and barn short.

[babysteps]

We are on a mad hunt for a VW Deisle Bug. My husband and I will be traveling to town to work together all next week and when the school year starts (I'm a school librarian) he probably will either ride his bike to work in the mornings or home at night. I cut out a fun trip and will try and combine it with another trip. We have always gotten the most out of every trip to town.

Other things we are doing are saving money, money, money by pinching each and every penny (however our weekness is books and mags. sigh.) We put in a big garden, have been hanging our laundry and are doing about 75% more on our own. There are some electric appliances I'm about ready to pull the plug on.

taking those babysteps, christine

[BobDFL]

I got my boss to let me work from home, which eliminated 5 x 60 mile round trips a week. Now I only need to come to occasional meeting.

I also had the people who work for me, work from home ( saving them about the same ).

My wife also is doing the whole multiple things on a single trip to town / store.

Between my Pickup and my wife's conversion van we've gotten down to roughly ( some months worse than others ) a combined 2 tanks of gas a month ( thats still $200 a month at current prices ) which is a whole lot better than the 8 tanks a month.

[crystalniche]

We have been using the little car instead of the van and making as many stops as possible whenever we go out. Also if we need something small like bread or milk we use the corner store we can walk to instead of going to the grocery store that is too far to walk to. It might cost us a few pennies more but it is worth it not to have to drive and spend the gas. I figure if I have to give anyone the extra it will be the store owner not the gas company. I use the mail or online to pay the bills now, no need to go driving around wasting gas money! I shop a lot on eBay or online and find that I'm getting things for better prices than at the mall. I sell on eBay but have tons of stuff right here so don't have to go out looking for awhile. We do stop at 1 place to buy when we drive past tho~it is never a special trip, just when we are already driving past anyway. The feed store is right across the road from there so that helps too. Both are on our way so not a special trip to either one.

About the 5 year old~they sell a harness with a leash for children. You could try that and keep her close. She undoubtedly won't like it much but will get used to it in time. You just have to be very firm with her. Let her know in no uncertain terms that YOU are the boss~not her! A walk would most likely do her a lot of good especially if you made it interesting for her. My Mom took 4 kids on afternoon walks and made them so interesting that we always obeyed so we could keep going on the walks. We walked all the way to the post office which was about 2 miles away~then back again. I was 4 years old at the time.

[BeesNBunnies]

What am I doing to save gas? Not a blessed thing. Nope....nada. I drive a 4 cylinder truck.....which helps. When gas first started going up I tried to economize. I've finally given up. I am spending money on gas that would normally be circulating in the economy to the benefit of all. Now I am just watching as the economy starts to circle the bowl.

As a side note.....I DO try to call instead of drive. I need the drivers side seat recushioned in my truck. Called up several places and finally one said to go ahead and bring it on in.....he could get to it today. It's 30 miles in to town. I drove in and he looked at my seat and said he could fit me in in about 3 weeks. I said hold it...you said you could get to me today. He said yep I had time to look at it today....bring it back in 3 weeks and I'll fix it. Needless to say I'm sure his ears are still burning after the tongue lashing and gas/economics lesson I gave him! I swear some folks are still exchanging oxygen into carbon dioxide only because it is against the law to use them for target practice!