How To Save Money on Every Gallon of Gas You Pump

I drive a lot - over 42,000 miles per year. So the amount of money I spend on gas for my car is something that's always on my mind and with gas prices soaring this summer, I needed to find a way to save money.

We've all read the articles about getting better gas mileage with our car by properly inflating the tires, getting a tune up or cleaning the air filter. I've already done all those things but I still needed to find a way to save some cold hard cash.

Let me give you some background. I drive a 1999 Chevrolet Tracker and get a solid 25 miles per gallon. Sometimes more and sometimes less - but overall I average 25 mpg. I am approaching the 260,000 mark and my engine still runs like a charm.

The car is paid off and I plan to drive it for as long as it'll last and squirrel away those would-be car payments for now. I drive 150 miles per day for my commute to/from work and my current gas budget is about $450/month (with gas prices hovering at $3.50 per gallon here in Michigan).

About a month ago I discovered a way to save money on my gas budget. The secret: Speedway Gas Station. http://www.speedway.com/

In the past I've always avoided Speedway because it seems like they are the first station in my area to raise their prices when gas increases. And I never seem to catch them at the right time. But after watching them for several weeks I've discovered that if I gas up first thing in the morning then I catch them before their increase takes effect.

Now for the secret. I purchase a Speedway Cash Card from the cashier every payday. I put my entire budgeted gas allocation onto a Cash Card so I only have to deal with a cashier every two weeks on payday. And the Cash Card can be used on any purchase in the store - including gas as the pump. The great thing about the Cash Card is that for every $25 you spend, it actually only costs you $24. So $225 worth of "cash" only costs me $216.

Ok, so a $9 savings every two weeks doesn't sound like much, does it? But wait until you break that savings down into a per-gallon-savings. With gas prices at $3.50 (which is close to where they are in Michigan right now) I'm saving .14 per gallon. So instead of paying $3.50 per gallon, I'm really only paying $3.36. Sounds a bit more significant, doesn't it?

But let's do some more math. I save $9 per pay period on my gas budget, which equals nearly $20 per month. Or $234 per year. I could either spend that $234 on something nice for myself or maybe put it back into maintenance for the car throughout the year. ($234 would pay for all the oil changes I need in a year.) Or I could put that money into savings and let it earn interest - or better yet, stick it into my retirement account and let compound interest do it's magic. No matter what I do with that extra money, it's almost like having free money from the gas station.

Saving .14 per gallon certainly makes buying gas less painful while I'm standing at the pump. And I look around and realize that the other people are paying full price. Saving money makes me happy!