How Your Computer Can Help You Lower Your Gas Costs
There are a number of ways to lower your overall expense of gas purchases. You can do it without changing your driving habits or adding anything to your car. The most basic of these ways is to locate the gas stations that have the best prices.
Sounds pretty obvious but for some reason when it comes to gas this elementary behavior is thwarted. If you were buying a camera you would shop around for the store with the lowest price. For some reason most of us were trained to treat gas differently. You probably buy gas where it is convenient regardless of price. The closest gas station to where you live is a likely place for your fill ups regardless of price.
When your gas gauge shows your tank is low and certainly when you think you might run out of gas you fill up at the very first station you find. In most cases this station will not have the best gas prices. This is one more instance where you may be buying gasoline at a higher price than you should.
One of the best ways to find a gas station that has the lowest prices is to search online. There are a number of sites that provide information on local gas prices. Here are a few:
GasBuddy.com
Automotive.com
FuelMeUp.com
Utilizing the internet is a great idea because you can research the best gas prices without driving. By not driving, you are not burning gas to find the best prices. If you burn gas to save money on gas you will find it is a self defeating strategy.
Studies done by the American Automobile Association have shown that it costs approximately 51.7 cents per mile to drive your car. That means for every three miles you drive looking for low price gas can cost you $1.50.
That means that if you need to put 15 gallons into your car you have to save about 10 cents for every three miles you drive. If you can find low price gas by not driving around to find it, for every three miles in travel you have eliminated, you have gained 10 cents per gallon.
This is important to remember when doing your online research. If the gas stations with the lowest gas prices are 6 miles away from your usual fill up spot, you have to beat the price of your usual spot by 20 cents just to break even. That is why you need to utilize the information in a manner that saves money rather than costs money.
The best way to take advantage of the online pricing information you have gathered is to make sure you use it in conjunction with planning your driving activities. For example: if you always pick up your dry cleaning on Tuesday and your information shows one of the lowest priced gas stations is near the cleaners, you should plan in advance to purchase your gas at that station in conjunction with picking up your cleaning. That way you are taking advantage of the low price without any extra driving.
The internet is a great resource in your quest to lower your gas costs. If you can utilize the information garnered online along with proper planning of where and when you will fill up, then you should start to see considerable savings.
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