Local Cheap Gas Prices

The first move, and arguably something that you will do the most when trying to reduce your gas bill, is to check for your local gas prices. Finding cheap gas prices can be a chore, especially if the savings you're making seem petty (at $2 a gallon in average gas prices, how much are you really going to save over a month?).

Before you think such thoughts and throw out the idea of finding local cheap gas prices, let's look at some statistics:

(All figures are taken from U.S. Department of Transportation ( http://www.dot.gov ))

In 2004:

Average miles traveled per vehicle: 11,800
Average miles traveled per gallon: 22.1
Average annual fuel consumption per vehicle (in gallon): 532

Now let's add the fuel costs to this list (from 2004):

Average national fuel costs per gallon: $2.07

Yes, these are averages. Yes, from these statistics alone you would save around $50 per year even if you shaved off 10 cents on your average annual fuel costs (per gallon). But consider this:

Depending on where you live, local gas prices could vary as much as 20 to 30 cents above and below your local averages. Not only do savings like that take $100 to $150 off your gas bill, but in terms of percentages – the average annual gas bill (based on national averages) is around $1100 – you're cutting out over 10 percent of your gas bill.

Those are savings to look out for.

Having said all that, let's look beyond the statistics.

A lot of the vehicles used in these figures get very little annual miles, and suffer from a very poor miles per gallon ratio. Essentially you'd only get worried about your gas bill when you were traveling a lot more than the annual averages suggest, right? In that case, you have a right to be worried about rising gas costs. Considering that gas prices have ballooned over the past five years (and despite the U.S. Government's recent efforts, will continue to rise), car maintenance and improving your mileage are not the only things that matter anymore. By taking a few extra minutes to pick out the right pumps and following cheap gas prices will save you quite a bundle over the next few years.