Save Money on Gas by Changing Driving Habit?
May 27, 2008 
Sun
I have two gas station receipts in my hands: one from last Monday and one yesterday. They are both from the same gas station where I always fill up my car on my way to work every week. On these two receipts, in addition to the ever-increasing gas price, which has gone up from $3.659 per gallon of regular gasoline last week to $3.799, another noticeable difference is the total amount of gas I purchased: last week 12.610 gallons and yesterday 11.678 gallons, about 1 gallon less then a week ago. Since I drive my car almost exclusively to work, the miles I put on the car every week are similar. So where does that 1 gallon reduction come from?
Of the 35 miles drive to work, 20 miles are on a major highway where people usually drive 80 miles/hour. Though it’s not always a smooth ride, especially in the morning rush hour, there is a good 10 to 15 mile stretch where I don’t have to hit the break a lot. Starting the week before, after being reminded by the gas saving tips on The Penny Saved, I began to use cruise control whenever I can, though I didn’t set the speed at 55 mph as suggested by the Consumer Reports. On a good day, cruise control can take over 30 to 35 miles of my 70-mile daily commute. And after the first week of experiment, I already saw the positive result, though I didn’t exactly change my driving habit 
While I am willing to use cruise control to save on gas more often, I am not going to try Jesse’s another tip: “Turn that A/C off.” Not just that it’s not comfortable to let the wind blow on my fact at 75 miles/hour speed, rolling down the window could do more than undoing the little gas I saved by using cruise control because of the added load to the car from the wind. That’s one save money tip I won’t do. Another is I don’t buy used electronics, a computer, a digital camera, or whatever it is.
Wise decision! Sounds interesting and I’m going to try it as well starting tomorrow. It is really alarming that the gas price continuously increases and it is a good thing that everyone should act to save something! The story is good and I think I’m about to share it with my friends…
I am not in panic state yet, but if I can save a little bit without having to drastically change anything, then it isn’t a bad thing.