You know, some guy named Ripley once showed me that things aren’t always what they seem. For example, a banana tree is not a really a tree at all, but a massive herb that can grow as tall as a four story building.
If you think that’s something, koala bears aren’t really bears — they’re marsupials.
And next time you visit New York City, keep in mind that an egg cream contains neither eggs nor cream, but simply chocolate flavored syrup mixed with soda water and milk.
Lead Pencils and The Drive for The Cheapest Gasoline Prices
I bet you didn’t know things aren’t always what they seem when it comes to buying gasoline either.
With the high price of gas back in the news, it seems like more and more people are suddenly doing their best to try and minimize the impacts to their pocketbooks. For example, here in California prices are now over $4.00 per gallon in many locations.
Yesterday the Honeybee came home from shopping at Costco and informed me that there were so many cars lined up to get the low-priced gasoline there that the queue stretched around two street corners. There were so many cars in line — including a neighbor of ours — that she conservatively estimated people were patiently waiting at least 20 minutes to get to the busy pumps.
Obviously, the discount being offered by Costco was big enough to entice people to wait that long to fill up their tanks.
On that particular day, the price for regular gasoline at our local station barely a mile down the road was $3.91.
Care to guess how much the folks in line at Costco were paying? Three dollars and seventy-nine cents. Yep. A whole 12 cents per gallon less.
Is waiting in line for 20 minutes truly worth the hassle of saving a measly 12 cents per gallon? If you ask me, it’s pure lunacy. After all, for a ten-gallon fill-up, that’s a very modest savings of $1.20. Heck, for $2.40, even a 20-gallon fill-up isn’t that impressive.
Then again, the reality is, just as a lead pencil contains no lead, the frugal fuel shoppers who waited in that long line at Costco to save 12 cents per gallon probably didn’t save any money at all!
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
A shooting star is not a star — it’s a meteoroid — and more often than not shopping for low gas prices isn’t a smart idea. This is especially true if you have to drive more than a short block or two out of your way to take advantage of a lower price. That’s because the savings at the pump are are almost always eaten up driving around to get the bargain.
Then there is the seemingly niggling issue of idling cars. When it comes to fuel consumption, the California Energy Commission notes that two minutes of idling is equivalent to driving one mile. So a car idling for twenty minutes ends up burning the same amount of fuel required to drive 10 miles.
With all that in mind, let’s examine just how much money my frugal neighbor really saved.
It turns out that Costco is a 12-mile round trip from our houses. Since our local gas station is but a 2-mile round-trip, my neighbor had to drive an extra ten miles out of his way. Add to that the extra fuel he burned by keeping his vehicle idling in line for twenty minutes and he used enough fuel to drive 20 more miles than if he would have simply paid $3.91 at the corner gas station.
Now, if I assume the average fuel mileage of my neighbor’s car is 20 miles per gallon, he burned an extra gallon of gasoline — not to mention at least a half hour of his life — just so he could save 12 cents per gallon.
Based on my very reasonable assumptions, you can see that, at best, my neighbor spent $3.79 to save roughly $2.40. In other words, he would have been much better off financially ($1.39 to be exact) buying the more expensive gas.
The truth is, an English Horn is actually an oboe that originated in Poland, and folks that strive to save a nickel or three for a gallon of gas usually end up paying more money than those who don’t try at all.
Believe it, or not.
Photo Credit: Meagan Fisher
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It’s incredible what people do to save pennies. The half hour of time is the most costly thing in your equation. I am way too busy to spend half an hour to save just a buck.
Anyway, people would have been much better off buying a small fuel efficient car and save on gas in the long run. The price hike relief of the last 2 years was just a mirage and fuel price will just keep going up from now on. (my prediction)
Great points. In high school I had a friend who would drive 20 minutes down the highway to get the cheaper gas – by about a dime. Since we were young and stupid of course we weren’t driving conservatively either. There is no way he saved money.
My recommendation: Download a free app on your smartphone that will search all the nearby gas stations (based on your GPS location) and report their prices to you.
You’ll see which nearby gas station has that desirable combination of BOTH cheap AND convenient (e.g. no excess driving or idling required).
This is also a good strategy if you’re driving down the highway and want to know whether to buy gas now, or buy gas 20 miles down the road.
Caution: Don’t check your phone while driving! Distracted driving is deadly!
Lots of interesting and amusing facts, however, I didn’t realize idling ate up that much gas. We had a horrible winter and would sometimes warm up our car for 10-20 minutes in the morning. (and yeah, it did take that long when it was -10 out) My husband would say it was worth the $1 to not freeze his butt off on the way to work though. You CA people don’t have to worry about such things.
I know this fellow that will drive 30 miles to get a load of “free” mulch from the city green waste yard. I helpfully pointed out that he could buy much better cedar mulch for $25 a load at the landscape place closer to home, and save on the gas. It didn’t register, so I’m done with offering unsolicited advice (for now).
I believe it! I’ve never understood those long lines at the Costco gas stations. A few pennies for waiting for such a long time doesn’t equal any savings at all. I’d much rather go to the nearest gas stations, choose the lowest price of the two (because there’s almost always two gas stations at an intersection) and just try to drive less over all.
All the facts are very interesting as well.
I am such a line jockey, I don’t like to wait for anything.
And yes 20 minutes of my time is worth way more than this, (except when I’m blogging, then it is worth pennies….)
He drove that distance just to get gas?
I believe the term for it is “transportation costs” or “friction cost”! Always consider that! The cost of coupon clipping will be “the time spent clipping coupons” for example.
I’ve gotten into debates with certain individual(s) about such situations. One must always consider time when trying to save money. Spending 20 minutes to save a few pennies in asinine. Picking up pennies right in front of me…that’s different.
Overall, as we get older, we can’t make more time….but money could always come in, right?
The useless driving that some folks do is the real culprit. Future cars will run on money not gas. Click on Doable Finance above and read the article.
@40: The time issue is the biggest point to me too. I mean, to wait in line a half hour just to save a few bucks (at best)… how little do these folks value their time?
And I hate lines too.
@SPF: Ha! I, too, know people who will drive 10 miles out of their way to get a free ice cream cone worth 99 cents. They’d be much off just staying local and paying.
@Afford: That’s cool — I need to check that out.
@FirstGen: I knew idling wasn’t an insignificant thing, but I didn’t realize idling ate that much gas either! Now I’m consciously counting my idle time while sitting at long red lights. LOL
@101: Let me know if he wants some free ice cream cone coupons.
@LittleHouse: Isn’t it amazing? There is always a line at our Costco. Always. It’s usually only three or four cars deep, but even then the savings are less than a dime a gallon. I just don’t get it.
@Dr. Dean: I hear ya on the blogging! LOL
@WB: Not sure if he was in the vicinity to do other things, but then that would have killed my article. Even so, I absolutely guarantee you there are many people who will drive that far just for gas — or free ice cream cones.
@Mr. CC: Yeah, but even so, I know your coupon clipping example ticks off a lot of die hard coupon clipper addicts though!
@Squirrelers: True. (I never pick up pennies. I’m afraid I’ll throw out my back. It’s not worth the risk.)
@Doable: I think that money-o-meter would be better served on some people’s checkbooks! LOL
What if he was already at Costco? Is he wasting time or money then? If he had errands to run and Costco was close then he didn’t waste anything. Of course I don’t care how cheap it is I rarely get in the line at Costco if it is more than two cars deep.
True; he may have already been in the vicinity. Still, if he was at Costco he used about a half gallon of gas idling in line, which wiped out most of his savings anyway. So in that case he essentially wasted about 30 minutes of his time — but that’s worth something too!
Gas is usually about 25 cents cheaper per gallon where I live than where I work, so I watch my gauge and only fill up near home. However, I would never try to take the long drive home on an almost-empty tank- not only is it bad for the car, but 25 cents per gallon isn’t worth the risk of being stuck on the side of the road.
I might add here, by shopping for the lower gas price, people cause incentive for competition which may in turn cause gas prices to decline.
When you factor in the extra maintenance and vehicular depreciation rather than just gas, it is even sillier to drive extra to find “cheaper” gas…
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