How do you keep gasoline use to a minimum?

[Jilian]

I just caught a segment on the news saying that gasoline prices may very well soar up to over $4/gallon in the near future What kind of things do you and your family do to minimize gasoline use? I know I certainly cannot afford to be filling my gas tank more than once every week or two!

I drive a 4 cyl honda accord so my car does get pretty good gas mileage.
I've been trying to carefully plan my trips to minimize driving, but I'd love to hear some other suggestions.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

We share one family car (DH and I), which helps a lot. DC and I use the bike to get around our local neighborhood.

ETA: We moved recently and really only looked at cities and towns with options to not drive all the time. If we move again, it will be only to a place where we can drive even less than we do now.

One big thing that we do is make choices that keep us closer to home ~ where we work, go to school, and get services. It helps that we chose a home that is central because of this issue. We're looking at schools for DC and I've got to decide between the ones I can bike to and homeschooling. There are some great and tempting coops and schools but I can't deal with driving DC to school every day. We have bad traffic here and terrible drivers not to mention the waste and cost.

We've made a huge effort (and sacrifice) to also choose activities for DC that are directly in our neighborhood so she meets local kids. We do have friends who live about 40 minutes-an hour away who I like to visit. We take the bus or train and I try to just stay overnight rather than take frequent trips.

I also try really hard to focus on the positives of using the rather inefficient public transportation in my city. It's easy to get bogged down in the fact that it takes a minimum of 3 times longer to get anywhere, which is a considerable pain when your 15 minute trip becomes a two hour one. But, cool things happen on the train/bus. I meet the coolest people and I think it's a really wonderful learning experience for DC.

Gotta go...good topic!

[SunRise]

Right now one tank last me two weeks which includes going to work everyday and grocery shopping and weekend day trips, etc. If I travel to visit parents or friends, thats another two tanks per trip. That seems ok to me.

All the same, I used to be able to walk my son to daycare then to work. But our office moved locations and although the distance is not far at all - 3 - 5 miles I would certainly be biking, but had a hard time working the bikeride to daycare. I just bought a bike seat carrier for my son and we will start to commute to pre-school then work as soon as my cold goes away. This should decrease gas use for spring/summer months at anyrate.

Other Suggestions:
Group errands together, try to buy more from one stop shopping places, plan meals and buy groceries for the week.

[sapphire_chan]

When I'm in school, I take the bus. When I'm working 50 miles from home and dh is going to school 65 miles from home (drops me off and then goes another 15 miles (curvy roads, huge city) to get to campus) we just don't.

[JustVanessa]

Ummm....gas is over $4/gallon here I think. Its price is $1.07 a liter.
I save gas by just not driving. We only drive to and from work. Anywhere else we walk. We live in a fairly small community and close to shopping so it isn't too hard.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Oh, and we also share rides to the store with a friend.

[Starr]

We live in such a twon that we have to drive to work, no exceptions. I drive about 16 miles one way and DH drives abour 25 miles the opposite direction. We really cut down and driving to see my parents who live 15 minutes away and extra trips to town. Town for us is about 20 minutes away and since DH works there I have him get stuff that we need.

[Alkenny]

I'm fortunate to live in a very small town. Everything is in walking/biking distance. We're homebodies that don't like to run around all the time (read that as "we're getting old" ) so we don't have to go anywhere for entertainment.

When I do have to drive, I plan all of the "running" into one trip that usually revolves around grocery shopping. I've figured up that driving 15 miles away to save $5 on groceries isn't really worth it when you figure in the cost of gas.

I also traded in my SUV recently...I am stunned by the gas savings so far!

[moondiapers]

DD goes to a private school and we carpool . I take the kids to school in the mornings, and the other mom brings Dani home in the afternoon. My son either rides the bus or gets a ride with a friend to school in the mornings and I pick him up in the afternoon. I'm working on carpooling for afternoons too. The grocery store is close enough to walk, BUT I won't walk in the rain because I don't like soggy grocerys, lol. Dh drives to and from work every day. There are people that he works with in our nighborhood, but his job and schedule is specialized so there isn't any way to carpool for him. Luckily he drives a saturn SL2 and only needs to put gas in twice a month.

[MamaBug]

My takes a commuter van to work which saves a TON of $$ on gas, it used to cost him $50 a week in gas now it's $50 a month.

I also try to combine as many errands that are in town as possible. We live about 20 minutes from a big town, our town does not even have a stop light! So I combine, grocery with post office, library, anything else so that I only have to go once a week for those things. Once school is over we will pretty much just stay local and thankfully there is a lake only 2 minutes down the road. We were planning several road trips this summer but I think we are going to cut those down due to the fact that we drive a mini-van and gas is so high

[sunnmama]

Dh sold his car and bought a motorcycle last year, so that helps a lot.

I was filling up my tank today, and thinking how lazy dd and I have gotten since the last time prices were this high. We will get back on our bikes and start pedaling, walking, and busing more.

We also live in a central part of town (by design), and try to use our neighborhood businesses as much as possible.

[sadie_sabot]

We live in a city and don't own a car, so that's a nice thing...however, we do borrow our rommies cars on occasion, because taking the bus when you're buying groceries for a household of six to last for a week just does not cut it.

But, we drive only rarely. My mom, on the other hand, lives off very littlemoney and lives very rurally so she has to drive everywhere and really cannot afford it. It's people like her (poor and rural) who are hurt hardest by this....

[USAmma]

Dh takes the bus downtown to work. He has to drive to a park and ride though. There is no bus service near our home.

I plan my trips to run multiple errands at once if I can. I also try to stay at home as much as possible, or just go to the Y which is about a mile away. The kids love the Y and dd has classes there, so that's our out-of-the-house-time.

If I want to meet a friend that lives on the other side of town we try to meet halfway.

[sevenkids]

I never, ever, EVER turn on the a/c, even if it means peeling the kids off the car seats. Try to do all my errands on the same day, and try to keep every stop close together. Shut off the engine if I'm waiting for someone or at the bank drive through. Walk the kids to school unless it's pouring rain.

Gas prices are getting really scary. Electricity is going up crazy high too.

[AngelBee]

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[mirlee]

I hate the fact that people are trying to scrape together every last cent to put gas in cars so they have them when they need them and the oil companies are reporting record profits. It has to be stopped. Gas varies between $2.89 and $3.05 here. I know things are bad when dh tells me he put $30 in our fuel efficient vehicle. We both have to drive to work. It is physically impossible for me to take the bus while ds has school. Even if I put him on his school bus, I couldn't catch a bus and be at work on time. I live too far from the bus route. I do try to drive as little as possible, but for us that just means not visiting grandparents. I need to go to Trader Joes, but frankly, the gas is too expensive for me to think about going to Cleveland until it calms down. I never thought I would recall the day when it was nice to pay $2.50/gal.

Have you also heard that other industries are now going to raise prices and that items such as food and clothing will see increases as well? Yup, all gas related.

[earthmama369]

Check out www.fueleconomy.gov. I used that and a basic car repair book to figure out what I should be getting in mpg from my car and ways to increase fuel efficiency (properly inflated and balanced tires, good traveling speeds, clean filters, etc.)

[Irishmommy]

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