How to save money on gas

Rising gas prices has been a topic of conversation across the country right now. In this article I am going to share some of my logistics and personal experience with how to save money on gas. I spent quite a few years in logistics and also working with telematics hardware on vehicles. With that, some things come to mind from that experience such as how to reduce fuel spend by reducing idle and overspeed. Those were the terms we threw around but in layman’s terms that is simply don’t speed and don’t let your car run when sitting idle somewhere. Here are some ways to save money on gas.

1) Use an app that lists the cheapest gas prices in the area

I have experimented with a couple of gas apps and found a few of them that are very effective.

GasBuddy

Gas Guru

Waze

Gasbuddy (www.gasbuddy.com) surprised me with how many different features it offered.

First, the app lists out the price per gallon at each gas station along with how far away it is from your current GPS position. This is pretty standard with most app features.

Second, they offer a free card that links to your bank account. You can get up to 25 cents a gallon off at specified gas stations. I was really excited about this at first, then I found out I need to put emphasis on the “up to” part of the equation. I decided it wasn’t worth it to seek out those offers where I could actually find over 20 cents a gallon discounts. Most of the gas stations only offered say 2 cents a gallon off. I would much rather use my cash back offer from my credit cards (more on that later).

Third, they partner with many retailers and give gas back if you make a purchase with those retailers.

Gas Guru is another app that I have tried. I like that it is simple and scaled down compared to Gasbuddy. There is no need to create an account and it simply does what it is supposed to do, and that is find the cheapest gas near you based on your GPS location.

Waze has been around for a long time and I have used it for GPS directions. Waze simply shows gas stations on the route, which makes it harder to search for the cheapest gas. On the other hand, the benefit of Waze over the other apps is that it shows them on the route so you can select the most convenient locations. With the other apps you don’t know for sure if you have to back track to get to the cheapest station.

2) Use grocery rewards for gas purchases

I use both Tom Thumb and Kroger for gas rewards. I am sure there are other examples out there, but these are the two in my area. Both of these grocers sell gas onsite at the grocery store. When you make grocery and gas purchases with your reward card, points are added. You can then use these points for per gallon gas discounts. This is a no brainer for ease of use and easy money.

3) Logistics trip planning

I applied logistics trip planning throughout my career as a logistics engineer. I will generally plan out all aspects of a trip including where to get gas along the way. As previously mentioned, the gas apps can assist with where the lowest gas prices are at. Planning out the most gas efficient route along with hitting the cheapest priced gas stations can go a long way finding ways to save money on gas.

4) Reducing idle

You may think it isn’t worth the effort to shut off your vehicle when you make a short stop somewhere. On the contrary, you can unnecessarily burn gas by letting your car run while sitting idle. This is a pretty effortless way to save money on gas. Simply turn off your vehicle when you make a pit stop.

5) Reduce overspeed

In my days of selling logistics telematics software, idle and overspeed were two critical factors when presenting ROI to customers. I am not suggesting everyone should go out and invest in telematics devices to monitor their speeding, but rather simply don’t speed if you don’t need to. Staying at or under the speed limit will save money on gas. Having a heavy foot on the gas pedal at all times will slowly add to your gas bill. The additional engine power to speed burns fuel. It is that simple and yet another easy way to save money on gas in your car.

6) Buy a hybrid vehicle

Buying a hybrid vehicle isn’t necessarily an easy or short term method to save money on gas, but it is arguably the most effective. I suggest a hybrid but an electric vehicle will obviously also serve the same purpose. There are two reasons why I am suggesting a hybrid over an electric vehicle. One, I own a Honda Insight and am very happy with the gas mileage. I get about 42 MPG with this vehicle. I prefer to speak using first hand knowledge. Second, I live in Texas and the infrastructure really isn’t in place for electric vehicles. I honestly couldn’t tell you where an EV charging station is around Dallas. I actually bought the hybrid back in 2019 to save money on gas when gas prices were closer to $2 a gallon. Little did I know that gas prices would be pushing $5 a gallon where I live, so in hindsight this was the best car buying decision of my life!

7) Use credit card rewards on gas purchases

As I mention in my post (www.https://financecoachonline.com/how-to-make-money-with-credit-cards), using credit card rewards for gas purchases can be a huge way to save money on gas. Gas rewards are often times used as “the current rewards offer.” For example, for the current quarter, Discover IT card is offering 5% cash back on gas purchases. With the rising costs of gas today, this can be a large sum of money. I am sure you can do the math here, but 5% of say a $60 gas purchase is $3 back on every fill. Not bad and that is just free money for filling your tank!