Gas Prices Continue to Rise
Most of us are predicting that this summer will be spent pretty close to home, no matter what your original plans were. The price of gas has been going up a whopping ten cents a week where I live, just now hitting the $4 mark. I know it’s even higher in other areas, and without a parallel rise in pay—indeed with a parallel drop in it for many people—we don’t have many options unless we live in walking distance of local resources. In my suburban area just south of St. Louis, we certainly don’t; everything is at least a mile of walking distance away. I could definitely see my daughter and myself taking our new shuttle service to save money this year.
There are plenty of things we can do to help reduce gas costs; I will list them below. Feel free to include your own ideas, of course. But in reality, we know what this means—we must reduce our dependency on nonrenewable resources. You think it’s bad now? Just wait until we really start to run out—and we probably will within our lifetime, if not our children’s. The time to invest in renewable sources is nigh.
To help keep your wallet as thick as possible for the time being, however, here are a few tips.
Carpool. My husband used to carpool with a coworker at his old job and we went from using two tanks a week for his half-hour commute to just one. He works close to home now, which is another option, if you can do it—try to find a job closer to home.
Get everything done in one trip. Don’t repeatedly go out to do seven different things; try to consolidate them with one trip.
Keep your car well tuned-up and running well. This always helps with gas mileage, if even a bit. Tire air pressure is important, too.
Work at home if you can. If you can telecommute one day a week, it will help. If you can work form home even more often, even better. If you can consolidate your work week to fewer days—say, by working 12 hour shifts—and it works with your schedule, try it.
Charge people for rides. Even if it’s out of the goodness of your heart, if you are taking a coworker home and back each day for free, he or she is saving a lot of money while you are losing some. You don’t have to ask for a whole tank, but even something every other week would help out.