Gas Prices and Tight Budgets

In recent weeks there’s been some relief in high gas prices, but even the current decrease isn’t enough to really help those who are finding that gas prices are eating a large portion of their budget. The tighter your budget, the harder this is to face.

While the current price drops are nice to see, I don’t think anyone expects the prices to stay down. This means it is a very good habit to use less gas whenever possible, so that it is routine when prices increase.

Even stay at home moms can find ways to use a little less gas and save money. The obvious things to do include things like walking the kids to school when possible rather than driving, using public transportation when reasonable and combining errands. But there are other ways to save.

One way is to pay attention to gas prices around you. Know which stations in your area cost less than the others. You don’t want to have to waste time and gas looking for the cheapest stations. Knowing who tends to be cheapest can help quite a bit. You can also use sites such as http://www.gasbuddy.com/.

Clean out your car. If you tend to lug a bunch of extra stuff in your trunk, clean it out! That extra weight is costing you extra gas.

Use good driving habits. Fast acceleration and hard breaking are harder on your car and use more gas. Especially on the freeway, keep to the speed limit, as engine efficiency commonly decreases over 60 mph.

How’s your car doing? Tires properly inflated? When was your last oil change? Tuneup?

Saving money on gas is one of those things many people don’t notice right away. You don’t see it, after all, when your car is using less gas because you accelerated sensibly. You don’t see the extra fuel consumption as you lug around all that stuff in the trunk. But when you realize that you’re hitting the fuel pumps less often, you’ll know.

[tags]gas prices,budget,saving gas[/tags]