Tips for Saving Money on Gas and Conserving Fuel

Everyone is talking about the price of gas these days, and it’s no wonder. If you raise the price of a commodity three times over the span of a few years, people will notice. If you do this with the one commodity that is embedded in the true cost of everything else, then you’ll certainly have something to talk about. While there is little you can do to about the way other people use gasoline, you certainly can change your own consumption and save a great deal of money.

Demand is, in a nutshell, the problem with gasoline. Like any other type of fuel source that has ever been exploited (and sorely missed when gone), it will surely be used up faster and faster until its all gone. In the meanwhile, as soon as there is infrastructure to use gas, there’ll be plenty of incentive to use it. In fact, now that the very large nations of Asia are using fossil fuels in massive quantities, the remaining stores of petroleum are being used faster and faster, driving up the price in anticipation of increased demand.

What is likely but not proven is that the world may have reached the peak of its ability to extract usable petroleum. This means that even as demand continues to increase, production may simply not be able to keep up. If you think we’ve got high gas prices now, just wait. Anyone who remembers gas lines in the 1970s will have an idea of what a fuel-poor future might look like.

To combat this and stall the onset of what many believe is the beginning of the end to a 300 year age of fossil fuels. While there certainly are alternatives to petroleum fuels, as is the case in the form of the oft touted ethanol and bio-diesel, there aren’t enough plants currently on Earth to power the billions of automobiles, ships and trucks that nearly all nations have come to rely upon.

No, it’s important from a financial sense as well as a sense of self-preservation to conserve gas as much as possible. You can do this directly by directly changing the manner in which you directly consume gasoline or indirectly with the choices you make in shops and online.

In fact, it’s reasonable to say that just about everything that’s related to commerce relies in one or many ways on cheap oil. Whether it’s the transport that brings products to markets or the fuel required to produce and manufacture products, indirect gas consumption is actually a very major part of the increased price of many goods, as they’ve risen with increasing oil prices.

Some of the lessons from the 1970s still apply. For instance, even though the speed limit has been raised on many roads, one usually conserves a great deal of fuel driving at 55 instead of 65 mph (or 90 versus 110 kph in Canada) – as much as 20% with some vehicles. Fuel efficiency for gas and diesel vehicles differ, so it may take some experimentation and practice to find a good speed that you can stick with on the freeway.

It pays to not only keep from driving too fast, even if the posted limit allows it but also, refraining from “jack rabbit starts” from stop signs and traffic lights. Removing extra weight from your vehicle and removing ornamentation that increases wind drag at speed are also very helpful. With maintaining proper tire inflation and keeping a car or truck in tune, you can make your existing vehicle even more fuel efficient.

Saving gas is also a consequence of simply driving less. To accomplish this you can get in the habit of combining your car trips or making an effort to do your shopping a lot closer to home. The values that far-flung, big box retailers aren’t so much of a bargain if you have to blow $50 on gas just to get there.

Some people have even decided to make a change in career so they can stay closer to home or even telecommute. Many people who intend to keep their cars go to the effort of getting bikes for most travel and save the fuel for situations where it’s absolutely necessary.

Staying as local as possible with your travel and purchases, while once a good way to lead your own fight against climate change, is now the sensible option from a budgetary standpoint, too. It’s never to late to treat gas as the non-renewable resource it is.