Today I wanted to start what I hope to become a series called “The Five-Minute Money Manager”. I am in management in my regular job, and I have read the book The One Minute Manager quite a few times. Good stuff for the management world and it got me to thinking.
Once I became serious about getting my finances in order, I was surprised at how many things really only took about five minutes to fix. Then they became habits for me and permanent “money savers” in my life. How to save money on gas can be one of them for you, too.
Believe it or not, there are some simple ideas behind saving money on gas. First, you need to research it. Which can be done spending no time at all. This is what you do. One day, take a look at ALL the gas stations that you pass on your way to work. For me, there are approximately 10-12 of them. From there, find the station with the cheapest gas. I would eliminate the Mom & Pop places, cuz the quality of the gas is probably not what you’re looking for.
When I did this for the first time, there was right around a 20 cent difference in the price between the cheapest and the most expensive. From there, guess what? Go to the cheapest place. I would imagine that most of us do our “filling up” either on the way to or on the way home from work, so there you go. A five minute project that will yield you savings forever.
And while we are on the subject, a couple more miscellaneous thoughts on the subject. Once you complete this project, double check yourself every so often. There is one gas station on my way to work, and I have yet to figure why or how they do it, but about once every two weeks, they will drop their price by about 30 cents a gallon, and they do it for only one day. I’d imagine it’s to drive business, but I save lots of money on those days.
Also, when filling up at places outside of your way to work, always avoid gas stations near interstates or major roads. By this I mean like parkways, etc. What I have noticed is that gas is typically more expensive at these places. Of course this applies to those of us living in cities that have highways and freeways and parkways running through them. I guess these gas stations know that they can get more from the people that are just stopping for gas, don’t know where they are going, and don’t want to stray too far from the highway.
There you have it. Spend these five minutes of “research” so to speak, and take advantage of the savings forever.
To learn more about these and other personal finance topics, stay tuned for my soon-to-be-published book “Don’t Be A Mule: A Common-sense Guide to Saving More, Spending Less and Generating Extra Money in Your Everyday Life.”
