Friday, June 27th, 2008 9:51 am by
jdmacor 
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Four dollars a gallon! Four dollars a gallon!! I can’t believe how much I paid at the pump today! I drive a Lexus RX 400h; the h standing for hybrid. Yet, I am still hit just as hard in the wallet as anyone else. Sure, it doesn’t help that my hybrid SUV only gets decent mileage (about 25 mpg’s), but things are still horrible. The question I asked myself and the question it seems that everyone is asking themselves is, what can I do about gas prices?
Well, the short answer is nothing. There are market and political forces at play here that are beyond any individuals control. At the same time, there are ways to alleviate this pain until prices (hopefully) settle down at a more comfortable level.
50 Ways To Save Money On Gas
- Change your oil.
- Make sure your tires have proper air pressure.
- Don’t constantly haul around large items.
- Change your air filter.
- Take off your bike rack when you aren’t using it.
- Avoid things like drive through to stop idling.
- Avoid braking hard.
- Avoid accelerating too fast.
- Plan your trips in advance to avoid wandering.
- Get a GPS navigation system.
- Take off slowly when you are at a complete stop.
- Park in the shade.
- Walk whenever you can.
- Park in the first spot that you see.
- Join the gasoline company loyalty clubs.
- Sign up for credit cards that give your cash rewards.
- Use the lowest octane gas for your car.
- If your car requires a higher octane, try mixing it with a lower one to save.
- Keep your eye out for gas deals while you are driving.
- But don’t go crazy driving around for deals.
- Check out the web to find low gas prices (see below).
- Don’t fill the tank until you are really low on gas.
- Fill your tank completely full.
- Use the radio to avoid traffic jams.
- Stay on the highway as much as possible.
- Try to average 55 mph.
- Buy gas on Wednesdays (statistically the cheapest gas prices fall here).
- Buy gas a few days before a holiday to avoid the price hike.
- Go to your dealer for a tune up.
- Anticipate slowing down by keeping your eye on all traffic.
- Carpool with you colleagues.
- Make use of the carpool lane while carpooling.
- Avoid gas stations that are right off of the highway.
- Some club stores and grocery store offer gas discounts.
- Ride the bus or subway at least every once in a while.
- Use your car’s cruise control.
- Don’t shop at gas stations that charge extra for credit card usage.
- During the winter, don’t warm up the engine for more than a minute.
- Make sure your gas cap is on securely.
- Bring lunch with you to work, to avoid going out to lunch.
- Buy a smaller, more fuel efficient car.
- Buy a Japanese car.
- Buy a hybrid!
- Buy a scooter.
- Buy a motorcycle.
- Buy a car with a manual transmission.
- Get rid of your car.
- Sign up for ZipCars.
- Move closer to your work.
- Replace your car’s fuel injector.
Short Term Gas Saving Solutions
Long Term Gas Saving Solutions
Website’s That Help You Save Money On Gas
- My Mile Marker
- The Top 10 Highest Gas Mileage Cars
- GasPriceWatch.com
- Motor Trend
- Gas Buddy
- Gas Price Watch
- FuelMeUp.com
- AltFuelPrices.com
- GasNearU.com
- MSN Autos
How are you weathering the storm of high gas prices? Do you have any other tips for saving money on gas? Are you any closer to buying a hybrid?
111 Responses to “ Hack Gas Prices: 50 Tips To Save You Money ”
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The best thing that all of us can do is to reduce consumption in every possible way. By reducing demand for it, prices will fall. For too long have we been indulgent and the time for some major introspection has arrived.
Very useful tips! Many I didn’t consider.
Another tip is to easily convert your car to burn water into HHO (brown’s gas) to supplement gas usage in your car. It could potentially double your gas mileage in your car depending on the age and the fuel efficiency of the car.
Have you heard of this technology before?
Nice tips. Gas prices are very expensive in Turkey.
Great Tips! I have recently found that my little Chevy Aveo car actually gets better gas mileage than my motorcycle.
I’m considering investing in a motor scooter for short hops. They look really cool and the electric motor scooters don’t depend on gas at all - plus they are really quiet.
If you’re considering purchasing a motor scooter, check make sure you know what you’re getting into before you buy one.
Thanks for the gas tips. Gas over where I live is almost $4.50, which is outrageous!
What happened David? You have been unusually silent the last week!
yeh, cool tips to save gas
the price is increasing day by day, and i am planning for a bullockcart
That’s quite a good list on conservation there. One thing more you don’t need to plan on a bullockcart yet, a friend of mine recently got herself an electrical scooter that runs on a battery. Ideal for today, wouldn’t you say?
Thank you for tips. I’ll try its now!
Thanks for the cool things…
Hehe. Nice tips indeed.Thank you
Great tips. Up here in Canada, gas is more expensive. I’d like to buy a hybrid but hopefully the price goes down in the near future.
Gas prices are only going to rise, manipulation manipulation manipulation. Cheers for the tips.
The price you paid is really high…
Its unbelievable how much it costs now…
But could we change this?
Thank you for your tipps.
These tipps were really great.
25 of them were usefull for me, I think, I will save some dollars per month. Thanks a lot!
50 tipps are really a lot.
Very nice article!
Congratulations.
You guys should see the prices over here in the UK, I think it converts to approx $10 a gallon. Hence why I ride a moped!
I want a hybrid… My car is using wayyy too much gas. My parents threatened to disown me if i get a motorcycle lmao!
[...] Yet, I am still hit just as hard in the wallet as anyone else. Sure, it doesn??t help that my hybrihttp://www.jdavidmacor.com/2008/06/27/hacking-gas-prices-50-tips-to-save-you-money/Dark times The San Angelo Standard-TimesThe sun hovers above towering cranes and rail cars at Texas [...]
Very useful tips! I’ve already started doing some of these. Even though I have a fuel efficient car, the current prices makes one think about gas costs.
Wow that’s a lot of tips. Hopefully oil prices have already peaked; they have been coming down a bit in the last week or two.
Here’s another one - shop online!
It’s like about $10 US a gallon in Australia
Good info. I also like the website fuelly.com The next couple of years will be interesting to see how high prices need to go before real change happens in moving away from dependence on oil.
@ Steve - something tells me we will always be dependent on oil in our lifetime, any other talk is election fodder I think
47. Get rid of car!
It really is that simple.
Joking aside, great list!
John
Thanks to these tips I have been able to cut my gas consumption about 10%-15%. Unbelievable how much difference it can make. Taking your foot off the accelerator when going down hill and having patience really add up as well. Every penny counts.
Awesome tips! I particularly like “park in the first spot you see.” I never really thought about the gas you spent circling the lot for a better parking place. By taking the first available spot, you’ll save some gas and get a little exercise.
That’s the most complete, but concise list I’ve seen focused purely on gas saving. Nice job.
The “move closer to work” is what’s saved me the most money. Ten minutes, no traffic, and filling up once every two weeks.
indeed. maybe write your legislator to ask them to support initiatives for research into alternative energy (including tech for cars).
Very helpful information!!! I used some of helps. The prices for fuel go beyond all limits! Though I have a very efficient car
Thank you for tips. I’ll try it sometime when I’m on the road, always stuck blogging.
nice tips but don’t you happy that the price have gone down so much in November:)
price goes up and we stop buying, price goes down we start buying again, i think prices are going to be like yoyo’s for a while..but who knows when they will stabalise
Wow,
Excellent posting and I never knew there where so many things I can do, already printed this off and will make it a check list.
Excellent tips, but I dont agree with some
Nice tips, Gas is very expencive at turky
Its realy problem for you “Four dollars a gallon!”, i know how is it.Iam rus, where coast litre=1$.it isnt joke
I have changed transport. Now I use buses, it is much too economic.
But not so fast
prices are down now
There is not a lot we can do about petrol prices, seems like it rules the world. I use buses a lot but i really hate them as they are too slow and very unrelieable.
Good tips by the way!
It’s more of a psychological thing. Most people don’t take into account the fact that they might burn more gas than they save.
Cheers!
It is really a good idea.
@Waxner. I second that.
It’s more of a psychological thing. Most people don’t take into account the fact that they might burn more gas than they save.
Hilarious. I enjoyed read the tips. I particularly like the tips that asks you to get rid of your car.
I’d never heard the tip about buying gas on Wednesdays being cheaper … thanks for the heads up.
I will try this useful tips. Thanks.
Very usefull tips.
It is great.
Now we all are very frugal about gas. WE are sitting at home and celebrating holidays.Happy New Year!
Definitely the folks were very frugal about gas. A few cars and taxis and other transport in the streets,
It is really a good idea. thanks for the heads up.
Gas, well let say that Russia hold half of Europe in hand when the gas is in question.
Till
Great Tips. I use CNG. That cuts down the costs
Hurah, gas prices has fallen a little bit this week.
Hi, thanks for useful tips in this times. Prices has fallen? Where. Here in Spain atill are the same.
I wonder if we will all continue to conserve gas now that prices have dropped down again?
Because of cold winter in Siberia many drivers reduce rides and the consumption of fuel.The market laws are valid.The prices go down.But just a little bit.
Thank you for these great tips. We all need saving solutions for all our expenses during this global economic crisis.
Even though gas prices are back to normal now, money saving tips are always appreciated.
Gas prices are going back up… good time to read this article!
With everything happening to the economy nowadays, I’m glad you came up with these 50 stuff!
I wonder if we will all continue to conserve gas now that prices have dropped down again?
Excellent tips, especially during the crisis!
I don’t think so Ali, CNG’s still much cheaper than any other fuel.
Great post.
In my opinion, still the best solution to save on gas, is to buy a motorcycle, because you save on gas and more importantly on TIME..
The best way to save gas is to use buses/walk anytime it’s possible. You’ll also help the environment so I guess that’s good too.
Although it is a dangerous method, I like drafting, you would be amazed at how much fuel you save if you stay 50 feet behind a truck!
Till then,
Jean
Energy conservation is seriously important, climate change, the strangle hold Russia has on gas supply all point towards us being more careful
We should all be glad we are not living in the Ukraine!
Why are you?
You know, you can all life complaining that you won’t succeed because of others, your country, policy,not having enough money,etc.. or you can do something..
Think about that
Always fill your car up at the coldest part of the day, you will then get slightly more in volume.
The best way to save gas is to use buses/walk anytime it’s possible. You’ll also help the environment so I guess that’s good too.
Yeah, $4 a gallon, that’ll kill ya!
I pay closer to $6 a gallon here.
Thank God gas got so much cheaper now. During the time when gas was at $4, I was riding a bicycle. That saved me so much money.
First most of things are getting costly and main element is fuel and gas prices on High Peak in such situation your tips give much relaxation because half of work for us it will help a lot to save money.
Gas prices have been maintaining pretty steady. Not road raging is def a good way to save on mpg!
Thank for article ^^
The problem with high fuel prices is that they affect the prices of everything else you buy because the cost of freight goes up as well.
Great tips!
Maybe its time to buy a hybrid car!
The Toyota Prius has gained notoriety and now it has actually become “cool” to own one.
Your blog is amazing and i must appreciate the way you had mentioned everything is marvelous. Your blog works for me as a adviser.I like the points that you have mentioned to save money on gas. Thank you
Damn, here where I live, gas is cheaper than water. No joke.
-Bill
Thanks for the advice, gas is stupidly expensive here in the UK, so you need to be extremely careful when driving not to waste any.
This is the perfect way to say this is nice work.
Gas is more expensive in all Europe, we import it from Russia, too much. Good guide.
Nice I like it.
They are such good ways of saving money. Thanks
he best way to walk-walk!
Seriously, it is just advice.
Personally, I prefer to bike, Gas is not necessary, and helps to perfect health.
It was instrumental but I don’t think it was the primary reason for our current economic crisis. There are so many factors involved but if any one thing can be stabilized to help get the economy back to a healthy position, that one thing would be the price of gas.
Fiat Banking is the real villain. You cannot make money from paper and ink forever and expect to remain wealthy, it simply cannot happen. Inflation and deflation are NORMAL within such systems, as are corporate bodies milking the plebes.
The 50s list is really good to try. I understand that the petrol price is going to increase again :(.
It is nice to know that it is a bit lower now that 4 a gallon, but still hurts your wallet.
It’s interesting how the tips were set up. I thought they were all going to be things like “walk to work” but instead, there’s many solutions. Thanks for the advice
More than 40 great tips out of 50 but most i like is Ride via bus or subway at least every once in a while or alternate if really people take your tips seriously life easily become more cheaper.
Prices are creeping up again, time to re-read your tips!!
With gas prices so high this is very valuable info, thanks David. I have heard the will go down some in the future, do you think that will come true?
As I was writing this I saw on the TV that crude oil prices are dropping, so go figure heh
We use ilinc and skype to host meetings with clients…which cuts down on our corporate travel expenditure. The less driving the better!
These are solid tips. Tweeting for sure…especially now that oil is back on the rise!
thanks for sharing… very appreciate
Excellent info! its help me a lot by this article
Phew, with gas prices creeping up again, I stumbled across this at just the right time. I’m sure these tips will come in handy. Thanks a lot.
I am fairly frugal (though not always), but sometimes I take it too far: I have T-shirts with holes in them, I never buy new clothes, we’re shopping for a new couch because our current one has holes in it, and I ran my current pair of running shoes until the soles fell off Pay Per Click Advertising.
However, I have gradually learned to be frugal in many ways that I would recommend to others Search Engine Advertising. I don’t think you should have holes in your couch, and you should definitely replace your running shoes more often than I do, but there are many ways to cut back on spending and live a more frugal lifestyle Pay Per Click Information.
I don’t think there is much you can do besides just hope that the gas prices go down.
Great Work I like it.
so interesting..
buy the gas on wednesday
No. 40 is hillarious!