Gas Saving Tips – Personal Finance Help

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gas station If you are a normal person, you hate spending money on gas. Especially when, for no apparent reason, it jumps up 5-10 cents in one day. Many of my clients seeking personal finance help are looking for tips on saving money in various areas. I’m going to focus on how to manage money as it relates your fuel economy. As a side note, I think it’s important for you to have a good quality budget set up so that you have a pre-determined spending goal on gas. You can look in Google for a budget tools, or check our resource link for a comprehensive budget spreadsheet. Here are the 3 tips I think are most practical

Drive Sensibly - My grandma’s Lincoln town car has a mileage gauge. It’s amazing the difference in mileage when I am accelerating aggressively (pretending it’s not a town car, but rather a sports car) versus taking it easy. Studies have shown that hard accelerating, speeding and braking can lower fuel economy by 33% on the highway and 5% city driving. So, take a lesson from my grandma if you want to learn how to manage money better, drive safe and slow. Less accidents, less gas.

Use Cruise Control – On top of cruise’s ability to allow you to rest your legs on long trips, it helps you avoid speeding which uses more gas. Also, it prevents you from dropping your speed causing you to have to accelerate more often to get back up to speed. Not only will cruise save you gas, but as you’re using it as an exercise in how to manage money, you’ll avoid those annoying speeding tickets.

Buy fuel efficient vehicles – There are a few benefits here. The initial cost of smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles are lower. When I teach my clients how to manage money and be more frugal, their vehicle choices often play a big role. They save money on the purchase, and smaller cars are much better on gas. When I bought our 2008 civic, it qualified for Canada’s eco-auto rebate program. I received $1000 back from the government.

So I know how much you’d love to feel important and successful and have everyone drool over your big SUV, but it’s bad for the environment and your wallet. In many how to manage money lessons I give clients who are looking at a new vehicle, I try to help them choose fuel efficient vehicles. They’ll not only have more money to save for their future after the initial purchase, but they’ll also save money on their gas. Search online or check out our budget spreadsheet to figure out which car works for your income and which one will allow you to save the most money.

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