How the Internet Can Help You Lower Your Gas Costs

By Scott Siegel
There are a few quick and easy ways to lower your gas costs. You can do it without the need to change your driving habits or the need to add anything to your car. The simplest and easiest of these ways is to find the stations that offer the lowest prices.

This seems pretty obvious but in most cases when it comes to gas this logical behavior is ignored. If you were buying a computer you would look for the store with the best price. It seems that most of us were trained to consider gas differently. You invariably buy gas where it is easy regardless of price. The gas station in closest proximity to where you live is the most common place for most drivers fill up regardless of price.

When you think you might run out of gas or when your gauge shows your tank is low, filling up at the very first station you find is usually the only choice. This station will not usually have the best gas prices. Just one more instance where you may be spending more on fuel than you need to.

The most efficient way to find the gas stations that have the lowest gas prices is to use the internet. There are a host of websites that provide information about local gas prices. They usually report the prices and the locations of the gas stations listed. Here are a few:

GasBuddy.com

Automotive.com

FuelMeUp.com

Searching for gas prices online is a great idea because you can look for the best gas prices without driving. You can find the best gas prices without burning gas to do it. This is important because burning gas to save money on gas is a self defeating strategy.

Studies done by the AAA indicate that it costs on average approximately 51.7 cents per mile to operate your car. So every three miles you drive to find a better price could be costing you $1.50.

This is important to take into consideration because if you need to fill your tank with 15 gallons of gas you will need a savings of 10 cents per gallon for every three miles you drive. By locating the best prices for fuel online you eliminate the need to drive and you will gain 10 cents per gallon of fuel for every three miles of driving you have eliminated.

You need to keep this in mind when doing your research online. If the stations with the best prices are 6 miles away from your usual station, you would have to beat the price of your usual station by 20 cents to break even.

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 can be a great resource in helping you to lower your fuel costs. If you make sure you utilize the online information along with some smart planning of when and where you fill up, you will start to see a reduction in your fuel costs.

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