Let’s face it, gas prices are up and hurting our hard earned money. I was dropping close to $270 a month in gas with my pick-up truck. I could go out and buy another vehicle, but I’d lose more money than I could save in gas. You factor in the up in insurance, the car payment or chunk of cash for the newer vehicles, and you’re not really looking at great savings. I decided to hang on to my truck. Though the main reason is, I like my truck.

Drop the tail gate! Cars, obviously you can’t do this. But truck drivers out there, drop your tail gate. The tail gate is a glove that grabs up every bit of air it can. Imagine, the faster you go, the more air your tail gate grabs to force your engine to work harder to go the same speed. If your engine is working harder, your losing gas that much faster. If you don’t need the back of your truck all that much, just throw a cover over it. Bed covers are useful for saving gas, and they don’t usually look too bad either.

Some of us may not like to hear or admit it, but slowing down will aslo have a dramatic result on your gas usage. The faster you go, the more gas you need to push all those technical parts in the engine all the way down to the tires. Don’t speed up to go up hills, just hold steady, you’ll most likely make it up them. Once going down them, you’ll pick up speed for free, and save on gas yet again.

Another option, a lot of gas stations are offering cards that save some cents per gallon. Doesn’t sound like much, but pennies add up over time. I have a .10 cents card for Parker’s gas stations. If I use it every time I feel up my truck, I’ll save close to $100.00 a year. If I did this for my wife’s van as well, there’s another $100.00. There are deals like this with certain grocery stores, and wal-mart has got in the game with it’s own gas station and deals.

Tires, yes a tire has a lot to do with gas as well. If your tires are low on air, they force your engine to work harder. Harder working engine, more gas it drinks.

Air Conditioning uses more energy which equals more gas. If you can go with out the a/c, go without it.

There is the bad news of rising gas prices. These are some ways to save gas, and there are more out there. Recently, a new fuel cell is making the news, but i’m not informed enough on the project to go deep into it. Saving gas, in the beginning, is tedious. If you don’t need the money, chances are you’ll do some and not the others or none at all. I’ve kinda fell into it for a while, and now I drive and do the things I need to out of habit. To each their own, as the old saying still works.