The Best Way to Find the Lowest Gas Prices

There are several ways to reduce your overall expense of gas purchases even before you consider changing your driving habits or taking any actions on your car. The most rudimentary of these is to find the stations that have the lowest prices.

Sounds pretty obvious but for some reason when it comes to gas this elementary behavior is thwarted. If you were buying a camera you would shop around for the store with the lowest price. For some reason most of us were trained to treat gas differently. You probably buy gas where it is convenient regardless of price. The closest gas station to where you live is a likely place for your fill ups 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

Utilizing the internet is a great idea because you can research the best gas prices without driving. By not driving, you are not burning gas to find the best prices. If you burn gas to save money on gas you will find it is a self defeating strategy.

Studies done by the American Automobile Association have shown that it costs approximately 51.7 cents per mile to drive your car. That means for every three miles you drive looking for low price gas can cost 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.

This is important to remember when doing your online research. If the gas stations with the lowest gas prices are 6 miles away from your usual fill up spot, you have to beat the price of your usual spot by 20 cents just to break even. That is why you need to utilize the information in a manner that saves money rather than costs money.

The best way to take advantage of the online pricing information is to make sure it is used in conjunction with intelligent planning of your driving trips. One example: if you always retrieve your dry cleaning on Wednesday and you found one of the stations with good prices is near those cleaners, plan in advance to buy your fuel on the same car trip you take to pick up your cleaning. In this way you are taking advantage of the best gas prices without any extra driving.

The internet can be a great resource for lowering your gas costs. Utilizing the online information in conjunction with advance planning of where and when you will purchase your gas can offer you considerable savings.

By: Scott Siegel

Scott Siegel is the author of a 143 page book of automotive industry insider information on saving gas and dollars at the pump (beatthegaspump.com). Visit us to learn how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to increase gas mileage.
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