Call it Gas, Call it Petrol-Doesn’t matter its still too much! tips to save money

Gas prices go up…what’s new? Well it’s a tough time for cars right now. People comminute to work daily in there cars. But what else do they do? They go to the grocery store, department store, dry cleaners, CVS, then to McDonalds for there Mcdinner. What is even more expected is after getting there Mcdinner they go to a movie after. Do you see a problem here? You drive to all these places, it uses gas. Everything you seem to do uses gas, and that gas is more then $4 USD a gallon. So now what the heck do we do now that our paychecks are all going to gas and not what we really want? Well the answer is simple, you need to cut down and use common sense when doing things. Cutting down on the use of gas and on the amount of gas we must buy will help a lot.

The best option to this now is to get a Hybrid car, like a Toyota Prius. The Prius is the best pick Hybrid car because it gets 45 miles per gallon! That’s almost 4 times the amount you can get out of a gallon on a normal car! But this option isn’t a realistic one unless you can afford the car. Don’t panic yet, there are other options that will cut down on gas.

For us normal people who can’t have a hybrid car we can take steps in making our cars save on gas. First I would suggest making sure your car is in 100% working order, cars get the best mileage and can stretch it better if they are fully optimized. That means the brakes work (don’t stick), the tire pressure is at the level it should be (just being 5 lbs off of the recommended tire pressure could cut each gallon of gas by .07 miles! It doesn’t seem like much but do that for a year, yes that’s a few gallons wasted and anything over 2.4 gallons will be $10+ wasted just for free air pressure!), and the sludge of the engine should be maintained using products like Castrol GTX for best mileage. Second, weight of the car effect how far it goes on a gallon. Don’t bring heavy things in your car that you don’t need. The lighter you can make your car the better mileage you will get. Lastly, this one people don’t think about at all, and many should. You pull up to the gas station and tell the man “fill it up”. Unless you are going that far without a refill station around that’s the worst thing you can do! Lets do a little math problem:

My car has a 17 gallon gas tank. I tell the gasman to fill the tank to 17 gallons. Each gallon of gas weighs 5.8 lbs. How much weight is all the gas?

Answer= 98.6 lbs! Good Work.

Now that you know a full gas tank weights 98.6 lbs doesn’t the gas answer seem clear to you now? If you fill the tank to travel from your house to your work then to the store then to home again you are using more gas, just to move gas. 98.6 lbs is a lot of extra weight that can be factored down. A gas tank that has 4 fill ups to quarter of a tank will go miles more then a car with 1 fill up of a full tank. So, if you just drive around town don’t fill the tank, and if you have to go out of state or on a long trip and don’t know if there is a gas station on the way, or if you will make it there then go ahead and fill up the tank.

All of those ways will help you save gas and money, but wait a second, I have another tip. People have to use a skill they haven’t for a long time…there common sense. There are ways if you plan it out right you can save gas if you think it or not. Like say you need to go to the dry cleaners, target, and bust buy. Go to the closest one first, then the 2^nd closest then 3^rd closest. It’s common sense, don’t leave your house, go to the on furthest from your house 1^st, then go to the closest one, then go to the middle one then drive home. That is stupid. Go to the closest or furthest one 1^st then order them in distance from each other so you don’t pass by one then return extra to go to that one then go back home the way you came from.

Lastly I want to add a little thing about idling:

When you let your engine idle, all you’re doing is unnecessarily increasing your fuel costs. Contrary to popular belief, idling is not an effective way to warm up a vehicle, even in cold weather. The best way to warm up your vehicle is to drive it. Nor is idling “better” than frequently turning off and restarting your vehicle’s engine. “If you are going to be parked for more than 10 seconds, turn off the engine. Ten seconds of idling can use more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it” (Natural Resources Canada).

Thank You for taking time to read this, I would love to hear your thoughts and commits. Check out my other works and hope to see yours too. Remember, if you cut down on gas you not only save money but you might even lower the prices at the pump if enough people are doing it, make sure there aware anything is worth a try.

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