Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Saving Money?
"Lee said she drove her car on empty looking for an elusive deal Monday, bypassing stations at $2.15 or $2.19 until she found just about the best deal around: $2.13."
Here's why people need to take math classes in school. The above is a quote from some article in a Detroit newspaper about someone who was driving around looking for cheap gas. Taking some averages and making some assumptions, see what the person saved. Taking the average high price, Lee saved $0.04 per gallon. Wow! Say Lee bought 20 gallons of gas - which makes the savings $0.80. Ooh! In my head, that works out to a little over 1/3 gallon of gas (actually .38 gallons). Say Lee gets 20 mpg - that means if Lee drove farther than about 6 miles, Lee lost money. And just think if Lee gets worse mileage or bought less gas, it works out even worse.
Why do I feel that Lee is one of those folks who drives up and down the parking lot looking for a nearby parking space. How often do you think the tire pressure was checked? Do you figure Lee idles or shuts the engine off when waiting for a train or while waiting for a kid outside of school. Any of these would probably save more money than driving around looking for gas that is $0.03 cents a gallon cheaper.
2fers: Better Gas Mileage and Sunoco Oil
