Seven Frugal Ways to Save Money During the Current Gas Crisis

Like it or not, gas prices are steadily rising and, once again, American consumers are forced to pay big bucks to fill up their vehicles' gas tanks. Realistically, driving is something we have to do, whether it's for going to and from work, doing necessary household shopping, going on errands or taking our kids to soccer practice. We have little or no choice except to shell out the bucks to keep our cars going, but there are some things we can actively do to at least save on costs.

Fill up your car with regular gasoline.

Most cars are capable of using regular unleaded gas. We've always been told that premium gas is supposed to be "better", that we get better mileage with it, but the fact is that this may not necessarily be the case. Any differences between the way your car operates with regular gas and the way it operates with premium gas are so small as to be insignificant. The people who gain the most advantage from premium gasoline are the oil companies who make a big profit by convincing us we have to spend extra dollars for it. Buy regular unleaded gas for big savings.

Regularly use gas/ fuel additives.

Use gas/ fuel additives, such as products manufactured by Prestone and others, that keep your fuel injectors unclogged and help keep your car's fuel system at its maximum performance level.

Slow down some.

You may have the "need to speed," but you use up more gas that way, increasing your costs. Pushing that pedal to the floor not only can get you pulled over by the cops, but it causes your car's engine to have to use more fuel. Just by easing back on how fast you drive, you could get more miles per gallon, up to 30%, which brings added savings to your gasoline costs.

Drive on cruise control.

Most of us have a tendency to go faster when we're driving on the highway, something about that "freedom of the road" fantasy, I guess. Fortunately, most cars are equipped with cruise control, where we can set our car at a specific speed- say 65 mph, take our foot off the accelerator and just steer. This saves us from being tempted to drive faster and, in the long run, helps increase gas mileage.

Fill up at non-name-brand gas stations