My Family’s Money

Gas is one of those necessary expenses that you can’t really skimp on, especially in a city with the sprawl of San Diego. My previous post about the anticipated changes in our income got me thinking about how much the fluctuations in prices here in California have actually affect how much we spend on gas. Here is a graph charting the monthly averages for the State of California from The Fuel Gauge Report:

Here is my family’s gas spending from about the the first peak on the above graphic:

As far as my untrained eye can tell it appears that we are at the mercy of the price of gasoline. (The obvious exception being in July – when we were down to only our old, gas-guzzling Volvo while our super efficient Toyota was in the shop for over a week for repairs). When the prices at the pumps sore, our pocket books sour. Stupid gas.

So what can a brother do? I can’t exactly stop driving the 30 mile round trip to work every day. San Diego’s public transportation system would take me hours to get to work and cost about the same as driving would. The only real, cost reducing option I have thought of would be to ride a bike – the only problem is I don’t own one … and I am out of shape … and its cold in the winter.

Then sometime near the end of last month, shortly before I left for a trip to Ethiopia, I discovered hypermiling. Simply put, hypermiling is getting the best gas performance from your vehicle by driving like a Grandma. Its safe. Its simple. Anybody can do it. Some of the most important techniques include:

• Accelerate slowly and stop gradually – using the brakes means wasting gas.
• Use cruise control (or use your foot like it has cruise control) – constant pressure may mean losing speed going up a hill, but it also means you’ll save a little extra in fuel economy.
• Keep up with routine maintenance – your air filter, tire pressure, and fuel injector all play some role in your car’s MPG

Think about it. Try it out. Make the world a better place. And most importantly, drive like a Grandma (but not like my Grandma – she once drove on the wrong side of the road with me in the car when I was young. Needless to so say, we did not save any gas.)

Helpful Hypermiling Links:

Ways to Decrease Fuel Consumption – From Hypermiling.com
Beating the EPA – From CleanMPG.com (gets pretty technical)