The Best Way to Find the Lowest Gas Prices

By: Scott Siegel


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.

This seems pretty obvious but in most cases when it comes to gas this logical behavior is ignored. If you were buying a computer you would look for the store with the best price. It seems that most of us were trained to consider gas differently. You invariably buy gas where it is easy regardless of price. The gas station in closest proximity to where you live is the most common place for most drivers fill up 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.

One of the best ways to find a gas station that has the lowest prices is to search online. There are a number of sites that provide information on local gas prices. Here are a few:

GasBuddy.com

Automotive.com

FuelMeUp.com

Searching for gas prices online is a great idea because you can look for the best gas prices without driving. You can find the best gas prices without burning gas to do it. This is important because burning gas to save money on gas is a self defeating strategy.

The American Automobile Association has done cost studies on operating cars. These studies have determined that it costs about 51.7 cents per mile to operate your car. Based on that 51.7 cent number every three miles you drive searching for low gas prices will cost you $1.50.

If you need to fill your car with 15 gallons of gas you have to realize a savings of about 10 cents for every three miles you drive. If you can locate the best prices for gasoline without driving to find it, you will gain 10 cents per gallon for every three miles in travel you have eliminated.

This is also important to keep in mind when you find the best prices online. If the best prices are 6 miles away from your closest station, you would have to beat the price of the closest station by 20 cents to break even.

The smartest way to utilize the online pricing information, is to use it to plan your driving activities. If you need to pick up your dry cleaning and one of the lowest priced stations is next to the cleaners, you should plan on filling up at that station when you pick up your cleaning.

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.

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Information about the Author:

Scott Siegel has written a 143 page manual of industry insider secrets on saving gas and money at the pump (beatthegaspump.com). Visit us to discover how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to increase gas mileage.
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