Uncommon Cents

One of my fellow personal finance bloggers, LuLuGal over at How I Save Money, is having a drawing for a gas card for bloggers who, among other requirements, blog about how escalating gasoline prices have effected them. Below is my story:

Yes, like lots of other things with rising prices, there’s no question I’ve had to make changes in my life due to the price of gas. Those of you who have been following my quest to use 5% less gasoline have seen how difficult it is to actually do, at least for me. For others who may be speeding, not keeping their tires inflated, or driving in substantial traffic, they may have more opportunities to cut into their gas usage, but since I was already driving pretty conservatively with regularly inflated tires and without much traffic, it was much more difficult for me to make much headroom there (although I did experiment with different routes).

In the end, what using less gas came down to was driving less, and given that I live in a location that’s a mile from the bus line (which for me is impractical for work given my two jobs), it’s really come down to making changes in my weekend and holiday activities. I clearly have to choose what social or family events I can go to in order to make much headway on gasoline consumption. I’m doing more than that, but I think the effect of those efforts are minimal: planning ahead to group together what would be separate trips to eliminate unnecessary driving–I will commonly park in a central place and walk to the various points I need to reach from there (for instance, I will park at a shopping center near me and go to the Long’s and First Hawaiian Bank in that shopping center, go across the street to the larger mall for their 99 cent store, and cross another street to reach the post office where I would previously have driven across at least one of those streets previously). I’m also keeping very close track of my mileage, the same way I have with my spending for years–writing down where I go on what day and how many miles I’ve traveled. Finally, I’m researching which gas stations seem to have lower prices without going out of my way and trying to maximize my use of my 5% reward on gasoline purchase credit cards to try to get any discount possible. In fact, that maximizing is going on in a way today; I typically fill up on Sunday, even though the tank’s close to 1/2 full; this week I’m waiting until Tuesday. Why? My credit card statement closes on Wednesday, and the gas station I go to regularly typically takes two days to process my charge and have it end up on my statement, so I’ll be able to avoid coming up with the cash to pay for that gas for another month!

So while I’ve at best been able to make a rather minor dent in my gasoline use and bill with these steps, I’ve managed to make some progress–but more clearly, the gasoline price hikes have definitely had an effect on me and my behavior.

Tags: Budgeting, Frugality, Goals, Links

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