Cut your Gas Budget

Gas prices fluctuate but still learning how to save money by reducing your need for gas saves money. Gasoline for driving is an ever increasing expense and is one that is easier to lower than some other escalating expenses such as health care and education. A few of the ways money can be saved on gasoline is to limit the use of the car, walk short distances, car pool to work and to school and finally buy cars that are hybrids between electricity and gasoline. (This last may not be the best option since these new automobile innovations are expensive.)    

Limiting the use of the car

A car in the garage with the keys in your trouser pockets or in your purse has become a habit. It was a luxury few could afford in the early 1900s, but since World War II a car has been a necessity for everyone. The building boom and suburbia is why the necessity to have a car gradually turned into an obsession, and then into a full blown addiction. The trend can be reversed.

Take the bus or car pool while leaving the one vehicle in the garage is the best option. Children not within walking distance to school—and most aren’t—will ride the school bus to school. Bicycles are an excellent option and these are being seen more and more but are mainly for exercise and not because of budget constraints. That could become an option when saving money on the purchase of gasoline.

Walking has other benefits and will help in the problem of obesity. It activates body metabolism while saving both on gasoline and health care bills. This suggestion isn’t new but a look at the size of newer homes with multiple cars parked in and out of them says mainly far too many are doing too much sitting. They sit at the wheel while traveling to work, sit at the desk when there and they only walk across the street or down the block for lunch and to the parking lot for their car at the end of the day.

Car pooling

It’s good to be neighborly and share your car with those who are going to work. This method could also solve the problem for the need for an extra car. The one car will stay at home and will be available for grocery shopping, and for appointments and whatever comes up for that stay at home mom or dad. Even when both work one car will be for driving to work and the other spouse can car pool or take a bus or some other alternative mode of travel.

Other benefits are getting to know people who live in your area and who can share a part of their time with you. Once people needed people more than they needed cars, but with self-sufficiency and gadgets and the need for borrowing frowned upon, neighbors frequently stays strangers all one’s life.

Adding up the ways one can save gas is easy. What is not so easy is getting in the habit of not having that car available for every whim that comes along. It’s surprising how much money can be saved when a car is not ready to be jumped in and rolled toward that latest urge. Surplus trips will be omitted and transportation becomes a necessity and not simply a cruise when one is bored.

Therefore, saving money on gasoline works by inconveniencing oneself to the luxury of a car or at least a second car. The savings are twofold: Since you’re not out and about and staying home working in the garden, you’re not spending money. In time that adds up to money in the bank, and probably to healthy habits such as walking, gardening and getting acquainted with your neighbors.