We have two cars. One is the primary car, and the one at home with me during the week, but used by all on weekends. The other is my husband's car, driven 1.5 miles to and from the bus stop for the commuter bus to downtown Seattle, 5 days per week.
We've been budgeting $10 every two weeks, for my husband's car for gasoline, which is not quite 3 gallons with today's gas prices.
We fill the primary car with gas every other week. We use a gas station which has the least expensive gas, within close range of our house, 3.1 miles away.
My husband doesn't have the option of just stopping in at a gas station on his way to/from the bus stop. He had been going out on weekends to get gas.
But now, instead of him making a separate trip out to the gas station that we frequent, I bring gas cans in the car's trunk with me, when I buy gas for the primary car, and fill the cans in the same transaction as refueling the primary car. We have 2 gas cans, totaling 3 gallons in capacity. My husband pours the "gas can" gas into his tank when he has time. This eliminates the need for my husband to drive out and back to get gas.
Old way -- husband drives out to get gas for his car, when it's convenient for him, and separate from fueling my car
New way -- pick up gas in gas cans to bring home for hubby's car, when getting fuel for my car -- one trip out/back eliminated
Our Savings
Gas is averaging $3.67/gallon with store loyalty card.
My husband's car gets 17 miles per gallon, according to an online calculator for his make/model/year.
The round trip to this gas station and back is 6.2 miles (as calculated by Google Maps)
The formula is this:
cost of gas per gallon, divided by mpg, equals cost per mile (which is 22 cents for hubby's car)
multiply cost per mile, by round trip mileage, equals cost to drive out/back to get gas (which is $1.36)
The end result is that we've been able reduce the budget for hubby's gas, as my husband is no longer spending gas to go buy gas.
So, by using gas cans to get hubby's gas, we save $1.36 every two weeks, or $35.36 per year. Again, not an overwhelming savings, but every last bit is helping us close the gap between income and outgo. This savings translates to $2.95 per month (which is the amount that we've reduced our gasoline budget by, on top of the savings from me not driving kids to and from school anymore), bringing our monthly reductions to:
Original electricity savings of $35/mo, plus natural gas savings of $10/mo, plus new use of toaster oven saving $1/mo, plus gas savings using gas cans for hubby's gas of $2.95/mo, totals a savings of $48.95/month.
There's an added bonus to buying my husband's gas this way. Every couple of months, I have a 10 to 30 cent per gallon reward on my store loyalty card. By paying for both car's gas in the same transaction, both cars get to use that reward, saving us an additional 30 to 90 cents on his fill-up, in addition to mine.
By the way, you can use that formula above, to figure how much it costs to drive to gas stations, that are not along your regular route, or figure any of your driving costs. Use Google Maps for the mileage between two points. The mileage comes up on the same page as the directions.
By the way, you can use that formula above, to figure how much it costs to drive to gas stations, that are not along your regular route, or figure any of your driving costs. Use Google Maps for the mileage between two points. The mileage comes up on the same page as the directions.
