{"id":519,"date":"2022-10-10T04:15:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T11:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=519"},"modified":"2022-10-19T08:24:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T15:24:32","slug":"trying-to-save-money-on-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id519-trying-to-save-money-on-gas.html","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Save Money on Gas? Driving Out of Your Way Rarely Helps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"save<\/a>As inflation continues to wreak havoc<\/a> on household budgets, people are looking to save money wherever they can. For example, I know people who will drive five miles out of their way, ten miles round trip, just to save a nickel per gallon. Then there are those who are so<\/strong><\/em> passionate about saving money on gas that they’ll happily drive even farther<\/strong><\/em> out of their way.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I never<\/strong><\/em> worry about saving a few cents at the pump.<\/p>\n

When I need gasoline, I usually just pull in to the first gas station I see. That is because driving out of your way to save a few cents doesn’t make much sense. Why? Because in most cases the savings at the pump are eaten up while driving around to get that bargain.<\/p>\n

Once again, I will use my trusty spreadsheet<\/a> to illustrate my point. The results are shown in the two tables below:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

(Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

For example, let’s assume you drive 10 miles out of your way (round trip) to save four cents per gallon at a cheaper gas station. Let’s also assume you buy 12 gallons worth of gas. Looking at the top chart, we can see that you saved 48 cents.<\/p>\n

Now let’s assume you are fortunate enough to find a place that was charging $3.00 per gallon of gas. Looking at the bottom chart, which assumes the car averages 20 miles per gallon, we can see that you spent $1.50 driving to the station with the lower gas price. So in reality you lost $1.02 ($1.50 – 48 cents) in your quest to save four cents per gallon!<\/p>\n

Your loss would be even greater if the price of gas was higher, or you drove even farther, or your car got less than 20 mpg.<\/p>\n

For this example, even if you only drove five miles round trip and the price of gas was only $2.50 per gallon, you’d still lose 15 cents (63 cents – 48 cents).<\/p>\n

When shopping around to save money on gas, you should naturally expect any savings at all to become less as:<\/p>\n