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The Irrationality of Seeking the Lowest Gas Price

July 4, 2022 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Seeking the Lowest Gas Prices

This week, I drove through the Costco parking lot, and I noticed that the usual entrance to the Costco gas station was blocked off. Instead, gas station traffic was diverted to the area by the entrance of Costco so a longer line could form and not block other parking lot traffic. I followed the line for gas and discovered it was at least 10 cars long. What?! What is this irrationality of seeking the lowest gas price? I am a Costco member, and yes, gas there can be up to 25 to 30 cents a gallon cheaper, but I would never wait in such a long line for gas.

Why do Americans obsessively attempt, at any cost, to pay the lowest gas price? Do they not know that their efforts cost them precious time and yes, even money?

One Woman’s Pursuit of the Lowest Gas Prices

I have a relative I will call Judy, who is a low gas price chaser. She will drive 10 miles or more out of her way to save a few pennies per gallon on the price of gas. She has a 10-gallon tank. If she pays $5.04 at her local gas station, filling her empty tank will cost $50.40.

If she cruises to a town 10 miles away, she might pay $4.98 per gallon, meaning a fill-up will cost $49.80. She saved .60 cents, but did she? She also wasted gas to get to the lower-priced station and took 20 to 30 minutes of her time to do so.

Why We Don’t Seek the Lowest Gas Price

I’m frugal in general. My husband and I only take our family out to eat about five times a year. We drive old vehicles. My Toyota Sienna is a 2004 and has 231,000 miles on it. My husband’s car is a 2013 and has 105,000 miles on it. We live in a modest neighborhood, and when we bought our house, we bought one that was on the lower end of what we could afford.

We like to save money, so you might be surprised to learn that I don’t play the lowest-gas-price game. It’s not worth it to me.

My minivan has a 20-gallon tank, and our nearest gas station sells gas for $4.86 a gallon. To fill up my minivan costs a whopping $97.20. Ouch! Gas at our nearest Costco is $4.55 a gallon. Filling up there would cost $91, so I would save $6.20. However, I do not want to wait in line for 30 to 45 minutes to save six bucks.

Seeking the Lowest Gas Prices

Instead, I choose to limit my driving while prices are so high. We stay home a lot more, and when we drive, we combine errands, so we don’t use as much gas. Right now, I’m filling up every two weeks.

Final Thoughts

Americans are obsessed with seeking the lowest gas price, only to save at most a few bucks, or, at worst, a few cents. To do so, they have to spend money and precious time. Rather than chasing the lowest gas price, a more lucrative option may be to find other frugal ways to save money that more significantly impacts their bottom line.

Read More

Why Buying a Toyota Sienna Was One of Our Best Decisions

Don’t Make the Cost of Gas Your Scapegoat

Is a Costco Membership Worth It When Living Alone?

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: budget, Cars, Frugality, Saving Tagged With: frugal, Gas, money mistakes

Don’t Make the Cost of Gas Your Scapegoat

July 22, 2008 By Shane Ede 2 Comments

With all of the discussion about the price of gas that has been going on lately, and rightly so, it’s easy to blame your current financial troubles on the higher cost of gas.  Don’t.  While the higher cost may be hitting you hard, it isn’t the cause of your situation.  But we all like scapegoats and we like to blame things on someone or something other than ourselves.  Something that is out of our control.  As an added bonus, we get to complain about the people behind it and blame them too!

Here’s the dirty truth of it all.  The price of gas is not the reason that you are having trouble financially.  At 17 MPG, the difference between 1.999 a gallon gas and 4.159 a gallon gas is about $1500.00 a year.  A little over $125 a month.  It sounds bad, but when was the last time you remember paying $1.99 a gallon for gas?  It’s been a while.  The recent raises in price took the gas from about $2.499 to 4.159.  The difference there at 17 MPG is just under $1200.00 a year.  Or a little under $100 a month.

And that’s at 17 MPG.  If you are driving a car that gets 25 MPG, the difference is about $800 a year or $66 a month.  At 30 MPG, it drops to about $664 and $55.

$55 a month is nothing to scoff at.  And $125 can be a near catastrophe for some people.  But, if you had your finances in order to begin with it wouldn’t be a disaster.  It’ll still take a dent out of your budget, that’s for sure.  But a person who has control of their money and tells it what to do will be able to quickly rearrange that budget and keep on track with their debt elimination and savings goals.

If you make concessions and shorten trips or consolidate errands, you can cut that gas bill too.  Besides, don’t you feel just a little bit silly about blaming all your financial woes on $50 a month?  I bet you pay more than that on your cable bill…

Wanna see my numbers?  Here’s the spreadsheet I used. http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pKnPEyRsjPSLpIC6wCWdjbg&hl=en

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Financial Truths, ShareMe Tagged With: budget, frugal, Gas

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