Feature Articles: Budgeting & Saving
Cut down on how much gas you use and save
By Sandra Huston, Ph.D, former assistant professor & state specialist, Personal Financial Planning; Adapted by Brenda Procter, M.S., state specialist & instructor, Personal Financial Planning, College of Human Environmental Sciences, University of Missouri Extension
With high gas prices, saving a little at the pump can
add up to bigger savings. Here are some ideas for
increasing your car’s fuel efficiency, saving money and
helping the environment.
- Walk or bike when you can. The best way to save on gas is not to buy it. If you live in town, sometimes you can walk or ride a bike to where you want to go.
- Avoid traffic, if possible. See if you can adjust your work schedule to work at off times so you don’t get stuck in traffic and can use less fuel.
- Carpool with a friend or neighbor who you work with. You can arrange to take turns driving, or one of you can drive while the other helps out with gas.
- Use air conditioning less at slow speeds. On short trips or at low speeds, air conditioners reduce gas mileage a lot. Drive with your windows down or run your air conditioning at a lower setting.
- Use air conditioning more at high speeds. At high speeds, open windows create drag and reduce your gas mileage, so it’s cheaper to use air conditioning on highways. Turn it off a few minutes before you get where you’re going. Let the fan circulate the cool air.
- Keep your car in good shape. Cars in poor running condition use more gas. If you can come up with the money for a tune up, it will pay for itself in better gas mileage.
- Clean or change the air filter. Replacing or cleaning a clogged air filter can improve your car’s gas mileage by as much as 10 percent.
- Clean the spark plugs — dirty spark plugs waste gas.
- Check your tires. The wrong tire pressure wastes gas and is hard on the tires.
- Use the recommended grade of motor oil. Using the manufacturer’s recommended grade of motor oil can improve your gas mileage by 1 to 2 percent. Look for motor oil that says “energy conserving” on the API performance symbol to be sure it contains friction-reducing additives.
- Use steel-belted radial tires to increase gasoline mileage by up to 10 percent.
- Drive for fuel efficiency. Aggressive driving (speeding, accelerating and braking too fast) can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent on the highway and by 5 percent around town.
- Drive the speed limit. Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 miles per hour. Each 5 miles per hour you drive above 60 is like paying an extra 10 cents per gallon for gas.
- Try to accelerate slowly. A “lead foot” on the accelerator can cost you over time. It takes less gas if you accelerate to higher speeds gradually and methodically.
- Don’t let your car sit in idle too long. Try not to idle your car engine. Idling gets zero miles per gallon. It usually takes less gas to restart the car than to let it idle for more than two minutes.
- Use cruise control on highways. Cruise control helps you maintain a constant speed and usually saves money on gas.
- Don’t top off the tank when you fill up. Some of the gas may expand in the heat and overflow from the tank.
- Don’t use a higher octane gas than you need. Most cars are built to run on regular unleaded gas, so it’s like burning money if you use a higher octane.
- Clean out the trunk. You need a spare tire and an emergency kit in your trunk, but check to see if you’re carrying extra weight you don’t need. Remove the pet food, kitty litter, chains or school books and other extras from the trunk. The more weight you haul, the more it costs.
- Buy a fuel efficient car if you can. Fuel is a big part of the total cost of owning a car. A fuel efficient car can save you thousands of dollars over a few years. Even if the car costs a little more, the gas savings may pay for itself.
References:
On the Web at http://fueleconomy.gov/.
Energy Information Administration,
http://eia.doe.gov/neic/experts/contactexperts.htm.
AAA’s http://fuelcostcalculator.com/ and http://fuelgaugereport.com/MOavg.asp.
5 Tips: Saving money on your
car, By Gerri Willis, CNN/Money contributing
columnist,
http://money.cnn.com/.
More Ways to Save Gas, Pat Veretto, Your Guide to Frugal Living, http://frugalliving.about.com/.
Adapted from Reduce Your Gasoline Consumption and Save by Sandra Huston, Ph.D., former MU Personal Financial Planning state specialist.
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Last update: Thursday, May 07, 2009
