Photo Credit: GasBuddy.com
I filled my car today and it was $2.64/gallon today, a 10 cent drop from yesterday. It’s great to see fillups go from $50 to around $35. As you can see by the lovely chart above, my city is seeing gas drop a bit in the past month.
The skeptic in me doesn’t think this trend will continue and I ave decided to keep my conservation habits even as gasoline is getting a it less expensive.
- Removed excess clutter and weigh from my car. My trunk was a mess and had a lot of things in the back. I donated a couple bags of clthes finally and organized it a bit. Less weight means better mileage.
- Carpooled when possible. A few of my friends and I try to carpool. It saves on gasoline and on some wear and tear with our own cars.
- Combined errands to minimize trips. Instead of doing several trips around the city, I bunch errands together that are in the same vicinty. I also learned to not be as impulsive with driving around.
I am not happy when gas prices rise, but hopefully I’m learning to be wiser with using my car.
Has fallng gasoline prices affected your car driving lifestyle?
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Regardless of the price of gas, fuel savings still add up. Yes, you may not save as much when gas is down, but you’re still saving!
Keep in mind that gas is only going down right now because our economy is spiraling the drain. It’s not going to go down or stay down forever, and using less fuel is always a good thing when considering the impact on the environment. (Regardless of if you believe in human-accelerated global warming, it only makes sense to pollute as little as possible.)
Check out That One Cavemans last blog post..I Could Be Rich if I Didn’t Have All This Debt
Great points Caveman! The extra savings can also snowflake into more debt payments.
yeah, the cost of a barrel of crude shot up today so good reason to be skeptical.
i consolidate driving trips constantly. i allow myself ONE trip per weekend and i manage e that by, say, stopping at the grocery store on the way home from work instead of making a separate trip from home on the weekend. I track mileage everywhere so i can see what’s worth doing and what’s not.
OPEC already voted last week to cut production, so if they manage to follow their own quotas, prices will rise. Iran and Venezuela depend on high oil prices, in the range of $80 to $100 a barrel; right now, it’s about $67 a barrel, so you now in which direction it’ll be headed, especially if Americans get complacent with the cuurrently falling prices.
I too am afraid that gas will go up again. I actually seem to remember a spike after the last election. Watching carefully this time too. Falling gas prices have not changed our routines. We have cut back on extra driving and try to stop for errands on the way home from work rather than make extra trips. I will continue this for -maybe ever.
Check out Janes last blog post..Who Says "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished?"
I carpool about 3/4 of the distance to work with 2 others. So I drive 1/3 of the time. I use about 20 gallons per week. So the savings is simple to calculate.
A 10cents per gallon drop in gas price at the pump on 20 gallons is $2 (or $10 per month). Around here I have seen a drop of about $1 per gallon in the last 2 months, resulting in a savings of $100 per month. That’s like getting a $1200/yr. raise!
We’ll see next week if you’re right Jane!
I have tried to keep my driving habits like they were when gas was above $4. I think Americans have shown it is possible to cut back on gas demand as that is what happened so we should continue to cut back as much as we can.
That will help reduce demand and help keep prices lower, not to mention reduce pollution.
All good points Neil!
@Ken Carpooling can definitely save some money. $1200 is a nice ‘raise’!
@Fern: Consolidating trips is at the top of my list and we’re joining Costco to save some more money.
Yeah, I’m joining Costco too, after letting my membership lapse for many years, but to save more here, too, i’m joining with my mother, so we’ll split the membership fee, which i know has gone up.
FYI, OPEC’s announced 1.5 million barrel a day oil production cut went into effect Nov. 1. Let’s see if good ‘ol Yankee frugalism can counteract the production cut and keep prices down.
the last time i was a costco member, i remember that buying just 1 40 lb box of clumping cat litter nearly paid for my annual membership. I’m going to price that cat litter this weekend and see if that’s still the case. From what i’ve read, the biggest cost savings at Costco relate to staples like milk, eggs and butter.
sorry, i meant to say that the SAVINGS of buying a 40 lb box of cat litter nearly paid for my membership fee, meaning, cat litter is very expensive in your average supermarket.
Wow, that’s for the heads up Fern. We got a cat, so this is a deal for us.
Sure thing. costco carries several different brands of cat litter, but the one i think is a really good buy (or at least was a few years ago) comes in a 40 lb. green cardboard box. I forget the brand name, though.