Driving To Save Gas Money
January 3rd, 2007As ironic as the title sounds, that's what this post is about. San Diego has wildly varying prices in gasoline. There is a Shell close to work and Costco gas station that both offer prices at around 20 cents savings. As my car takes about 14-15 gallons to fill up, that means about $3 of savings.
Saving money is almost always good. However in this case you generally need to wait in line, and/or drive out of the way to save your money. At Costco especially you end up idling for 5-10 minutes waiting for an open pump. This means you will lose around 30 cents of your initial $3 savings (10 minutes of idling at .5 gal/hr --Source). Plus driving 3-4 miles out of the way means another 30 cents gone (assuming around 25mpg). So now you're done to just $2.40 cents of savings, and potentially wasting 15 minutes of your time.
People still say this may be worth it. I have gas stations right on my way home that mean no out of the way traveling, but I do pay for this advantage. I know it seems like a petty thing to rant on, but I think you could probably save as much by taking the first open parking spot in a lot, driving the speed limit, etc. Granted if you combine them all you have more savings.
Are you one of those people that go out of the way to get the cheapest gas?
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Generally not worth the time for me. Course gas prices don’t vary much here. Maybe a few cents at best around town. I generally just stop at what ever one is easiest for me. I used to always stop at one particular station because it was about the ONLY place that would read my check card at the pumps…now I have a new card so i can go anywhere again.
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I haven’t looked at gas prices for over a year. Thankfully my work invloves driving.
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Actually I never really look either, I pretty much just pull in when its time, and fill’er up.
January 3rd, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Arco has made billions because people drive five minutes to save $2.50 on gas and then, without thinking about it, spend $4 on a bottle of pop and bag of chips. I do find it curious how we can be so price-sensitive to some items and so uncaring on others. Buy your house and car for cheap and you can spend too much on about everything else.
January 5th, 2007 at 3:54 am
I don’t like to compete for the gas pumps, so I usually go to gas stations that are on the right hand side of the road, not crowded and have pay at the pump.