Ten Mostly Painless Ways to Save Gas This Summer

Summer is here, and no doubt you’d like to drive to work without having to take out a second mortgage. Here are ten ways to save money on gas with a minimum of pain and torment.

1. Lighten up – Probably the fastest and least painful way to save gas money. Every 100 pounds robs you of 1 – 2% of your fuel efficiency, and that adds up fast. Take out your golf clubs, dead bodies and other unnecessary bulk to save gas and money.

2. You can drive fifty-five – The speed limit isn’t really there to increase safety; it’s a relic of the last gas crisis. Autos are most fuel efficient at around 55 miles an hours, so go light on the lead foot and you save tons of money on gas. But don’t go too slow, that’s less efficient too.

3. Pick the route with the least stops – Cars use a lot more gas when starting and stopping so when possible, pick the route that has the least stops and starts. This will also help save your brakes. Remember that most stoplights are calibrated to maximize flow, so if you keep the speed legal you’ll save money in two ways.

4. Combine errands – The easy and obvious way to save money on gas; don’t make a billion trips to do stuff. This’ll give you good reason to talk to your family or roommates, since you’ll want to make sure you’re all on the same page to make the most of your savings.

5. Close the windows – Many people think that rolling down the windows and turning off the AC will help save on gas. But for most cars, the fuel efficiency you’ll lose from the wind resistance created by having your windows down will cost you more money than you’ll save.

6. Get under pressure – Low tires will sap your fuel efficiency with shocking speed, so if you want to save money on gas you need to check this at least every month. There’s usually a placard on the car door that tells you the PSI you need and the pressure gauges can be bought for less five bucks.

7. Air filters – It’s way too easy to let the maintenance on your car slip, but replacing the air filter on your car can give you an extra 10 to 20% fuel efficiency, which will save you lots of gas money.

8. Car pool – Get to know your friends and neighbors. If you don’t have a car pool buddy, consider posting at work to find one. You want to save money on gas? This alone can cut your expenses in half.

9. Get a tune up – The idea of the tune up has gotten out of style, and that’s bad news for your wallet. A car that’s gotten as out of tune as a cheap guitar can cost you 10% in fuel efficiency or more, so tune up to keep gas costs down and save money.

10. Get a hog – A motorcycle, that is; an actual pig probably won’t save you gas or money unless you can train it to take a saddle. But the two wheeled variety can get 70 – 90 miles to gallon of gas, which will lead to big savings.

Why You’re Going Broke Getting To Work

You might be starting to feel as if you’re only going to work to make enough money to go to work. Gas prices keep on rising. And rising. And rising. You might be wondering when rising gas prices are going to stop, or if they ever will. And the odds are, you’re wondering why they keep going up. Well, good news. This article is going to tell you why gas keeps going up and when, if ever, you can expect them to go down.

Reason Number One: Supply and Demand

The more people who want something in limited supply, the more it is going to cost. The number of people who need gas keeps going up, and so do the prices. China and India have nearly a third of the world’s population, and their need for oil has skyrocketed, driving up the prices for oil and as a result, gas. The golden years of the economic boom in the US also led to skyrocketing gas use as people bought bigger and bigger vehicles.

Reason Number Two: The Oil Bubble

First there was the Internet Bubble. Then there was the Housing Bubble. Now it’s time for the Oil Bubble. Both internet stocks and houses had their prices rise rapidly as people began to invest in them in a frenzy, and the resultant competition drove the prices up, up, up. The same thing is happening to oil, which is driving up gas prices. The higher the prices get, the more people are attracted to the promise of them going up even more and the competition gets even worse.

The good news for gas prices is that eventually, just like the other bubbles, this one will eventually burst. Eventually people are going to come to their senses and the bidding for each barrel will get less intense. Oil prices will drop, then gas prices will drop.

Reason Number Three: Low Reserves

For several years, oil refineries have made an effort to become more efficient, which means that the amount of oil they are keeping on hand has decreased. This affects gas prices because it makes the reserves more vulnerable to natural disasters and mechanical failure, all of which make prices more likely to rise. The extra risk feeds into both the supply and demand and bubble problems, amplifying them and gas prices.

The upshot is that gas prices will eventually go down. Efforts are being made to expand crude oil production, and the overall economic downturn will actually benefit you in regards to gas prices. So if you can wait it out, you’ll eventually be able to afford to go to work again.

To Heck With Gas

There’s possibility you might have noticed a slight increase in the price of gas. Okay, you’re probably grinding your teeth every time you just pass a gas station, to say nothing of the stress of actually buying gas. It’s enough to make a person say the heck with gas entirely. If only.

Fortunately, there are alternative fuels available, with more on the way. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to find a fuel alternative that will save both your teeth and your sanity when you go to the pumps.

Biodiesel

This alternative fuel is available right now. Commercially available biodiesel costs right around the same amount as regular diesel, which could still be a savings compared to regular gas to begin with.

The real alternative that will save money is using purified cooking oil as fuel. By running ordinary used grease through a strainer, you can use it without modification in some diesel vehicles. Given that you get used oil for free at many restaurants, this is an alternative fuel that can really save you money.

Hybrids

As the name implies, hybrids use two or more fuels as an alternative to just using gasoline. This is one of the more common kinds of alternative fuel strategies, since they don’t require any change in your habits.

They way most work is to use a gas or diesel motor to power a generator that charges batteries that power the electric motors that drive the wheels. Whew. This increases fuel efficiency by a number of means, including using the friction from braking to charge up the batteries, for example, and taking advantage of having less weight from the engine.

Fuel Cells

One alternative fuel source that will become widely available in the next few years is the fuel cell. Of all the alternative fuels, this one is the most science fiction like of them. A fuel cell is basically a battery that never goes dead. Never, so long as the chemicals that provide the energy keep coming in.

The chemical that most fuel cells are slated to use is hydrogen. 8 dollars of hydrogen will take a car around 160 miles. This is very roughly equivalent to getting 80 miles to the gallon with regular fuel. And as fuel cells as an alternative fuel become more popular, hydrogen prices will almost certainly drop, so this is one of the most promising.

So if the price of gas is getting you down, then take heart, alternative fuels and some relief are just around the corn

Is Saving Money at The Pump Making You Pay At The Table?

Now, unless you live in a cave that doesn’t require oil heat, you may have noticed that gas prices are going up. You’ve probably also noticed that the price of food has gone up, although that maybe a good thing since because when you can’t buy food anymore you can afford to fill up at the pump.

It seems obvious that increasing gas prices would increase food prices. After all, food has to be moved from place to place, and if that costs more, you can bet that it’s going to be the consumer that ponies up the difference. The more gas prices go up, the more food goes up.

What you might not expect is that attempts to save some money at the gas pumps may be costing you at the dinner table. No, they haven’t found a way to tap the raw power of a Twinkie. At least, not yet, although they’re surely working on it. No, according to some, part of the rise in food prices is related to two of the most popular ways to save on gas prices.

Biodiesel and ethanol.

Biodiesel is a kind of vegetable oil that can be used in diesel vehicles. Biodiesel is made from a number of plants, but most of what we use is a made from soybeans. Ethanol is an alcohol that can be used in many cars, and is made from corn.

Right now, 15 percent of US corn production goes towards ethanol, and a somewhat smaller percentage of soybeans goes towards biodiesel. This creates an increased demand for the plants, which causes higher food prices.

You’re probably thinking that you don’t eat all that much corn or soybeans, unless you eat a lot of tofu tortillas, in which case this will directly affect you. The problem for the rest of us is that both of these are used as livestock feed.

As prices go up, so does the cost of feeding animals, which causes meats, dairy, and poultry to rise in prices. This is compounded by the fact that planting more corn causes fewer soybeans and other plants to be cultivated, which again causes the costs of food as a whole to rise.

What can you do about this? Well, you support your local farmers, who are less likely to start growing plants for this purpose if you buy from them. The place to look will be your local farmer’s market.

An even better way is to increase the fuel efficiency of your car. By taking efforts to use less gas, you’ll not only save money but you’ll help lessen demand for gas and alternative fuels, which will help lessen both the cost of gas and food. By increasing your fuel efficiency you can save at the pump and the supermarket.