How To Lose Debt

Assuming you are fortunate enough to own your own vehicle, that is unless you live in New York City, you can probably save some money in gasoline costs.

Now here is another subject that also could consume an entire book. With the fluctuation of gas prices and the control on the market held by the oil-producing states, it is no wonder why gasoline consumes a huge amount of our disposable income.

Think about it this way: the oil-producing states get together to decide how much to charge, how much to supply to the market overall, and how much each country is going to produce, etc., etc. Now while they routinely produce more than they agreed to, the fact remains that they are unfairly manipulating the market.

In this country, we call that anti-trust, and the Sherman Act of July 2, 1890, not only made that illegal, it is actually a felony in the U.S.

So how does the cartel get away with it? Well, for one, they are not bound by the laws of the United States, plain and simple. The second, albeit a more compelling reason, is we need their oil. So you are not going to see the United States Attorney General bringing, for example, the King of Saudi Arabia up in front of the World Court at The Hague for conspiracy. It’s just not going to happen.

So with that foundation out of the way, there are things you can do to limit your spending on gasoline. The first is you can spend money to buy a new car which is more fuel efficient. I own a Honda Civic Hybrid which gets between 42 and 47 miles to the gallon. What is amazing about that is that its gas tank is only 12 gallons, so its total cost to fill is very low, and its range on a tank of gas is about the same as any other vehicle.

There have been studies that say the total cost of ownership of a hybrid, with the need to replace its batteries from time to time, is about the same as a non-hybrid model. Possibly true. However, I really enjoy passing gas station after gas station without having to put a thimble of gas in. I also get personal satisfaction knowing that I am doing my part, however minute, to stem the tide of global warming.

A second possibility, assuming that you don’t have the money to just run out and buy a new car, is to carpool or share rides. There are 27 million websites devoted to “Car Pooling.” While I am frankly not sure exactly what their business models are for making profit, the sites are certainly worthy of a look.

One site, ICarpool, http://www.icarpool.com appears to be free, and will actually track your mileage and your emissions savings through carpooling. Just a standard note of caution: until your carpool is well-established with buddies you trust, like anything else on the internet these people are strangers. So you need to take a certain level of personal caution. Now on iCarpool, they require your e-mail address, name, and phone number, so you are getting somewhat close to a “real” identification.

While I am on the subject of sharing rides, there are companies that are in the business of sharing cars. I’m not talking about purchasing or renting vehicles, I am talking about actually sharing a car among members of a “club.” This is particularly important in large cities where the cost of vehicle ownership is high and the cost of parking is prohibitive. You simply join a plan based on your anticipated usage patterns and “borrow” the car as needed. This cuts down on the cost of owning a vehicle; no depreciation, no insurance bill, no parking, no car payments, just the cost to be a member of the “club.”

For someone who rarely uses private transportation, and only needs it to leave the city life for a day once in a while, it would surely be worthwhile to join one of these clubs rather than full-time ownership. You will need to decide on your own whether a club like this would actually save you money in the long run.

You will also need to recognize that if everyone in the club needed a car on the exact same day and time frame, the car may not be available. Therefore, there is a certain level of risk you take on when you join a club like this, especially if it is absolutely necessary that you be in Albuquerque in the morning! These plans are mostly available in and around large cities. One such website is Zipcar http://www.zipcar.com, however there are many of them so do your homework relative to location, costs, and rules.

Another possibility is to combine your trips and possibly even share them with your neighbors. If you need to go to the market once per week to get milk, do you think your next door neighbor has a similar need? You can bet on it. You can combine the trip with him or her, sharing the cost, or alternating who is going to drive.

You could also combine your own trips. It takes a lot less gas to stop at the post office and the bank in one trip, depending on location, than to start up a cold car and drive to each place individually. You may even be covering the same area twice in separate trips. The lion’s share of gasoline is used when a car is cold, because it takes more gasoline to keep a cold car running than one that is warm. Even the cold oil is hard for the motor to push. My hybrid solves this problem by having 0-20 viscosity oil. Can you believe that? Zero viscosity, functionally no oil drag at all.  Amazing.

Avoiding jackrabbit starts up to cruising speed also helps. Physics will tell you that it takes much less energy to keep an object in motion than to get it moving. So as long as you are moving, you are consuming less energy than bringing a 3,000-pound object from zero to 60 miles per hour cruising speed in five seconds. You can even save money on the way down in speed. It can be done with any vehicle, but my Civic even teaches you how to do that.

You see, there is a gauge on the dashboard that tells you how many miles per gallon you are getting at any given moment. So if you see the light ahead is red, do you really need to keep your foot on the accelerator right up until the point you need to brake? No, you don’t. As a matter of fact, the car behind you will never even know whether you are braking for the stop or simply slowing down. With the Civic, it is actually fun to use the gauge to challenge yourself to see how much mileage you can get. You can go through the motions to use less gasoline even if you do not have the gauge.

Next, while it may seem almost too silly to mention, when it comes to losing debt as soon as possible nothing is too silly. You need to shop around for the lowest gas price. I do not mean drive around looking for the station with the lowest gasoline. Now that would be silly. There are many websites devoted to finding the cheapest gasoline price in your area. There are 19,300,000 websites with the words “Cheap Gas Prices.” One of the larger organizations is GasBuddy, http://www.gasbuddy.com.

GasBuddy will actually link you to local gas monitoring sites for the lowest prices. Now I want to make two comments here. The first is that with gas prices being as volatile as they are, it is possible the prices were raised five minutes before you got there, so you cannot rely on these sites 100 percent. The second comment is if you have to drive 30 miles to a gas station that is 10 cents cheaper per gallon, and you consume one gallon each way to get there, there probably is no bargain. For example, if you have a 20-gallon tank and gas costs $2.10 a gallon, you will save one gallon, or $2.10, per fill-up. But if you spent two gallons or $4.20 getting there and back, what are you doing? Certainly not working towards losing debt permanently.

Finally, many cars recommend high-test gasoline, the middle or premium blends. By looking at the owner’s manual, you will need to determine if the manufacturer recommends or requires the use of premium gasoline. It is a very important distinction. You see, many vehicles that recommend premium gasoline will run just fine on regular. As regular gasoline in some markets costs a full 30 cents less per gallon, why on earth would you use premium unless you had to?

Okay, you could say that your car is destined to be a classic and you want to keep it in absolutely the best shape. But, then I would ask you, why you are driving it in the first place?

Most cars will run on less that 93 octane premium. My wife’s Mercedes requires premium. Use anything less, and not only will the thing run like crap, you will be destined to have the little wrench show up. When that happens, my wife and I have a standard comment; it will cost you $900!! My other car, the Ford SUV, actually prefers regular. Feed it anything else and she will complain.

I’ve provided much food for thought here in the gasoline section. You do not have to do it all. In fact, there are many subjects in this blog you may just dismiss outright. Like, you might be saying I can’t stand my neighbors; I am not riding in a car with them!! So be it.

My goal is to provide you a shopping cart of possibilities, and you decide which ones make sense for your particular situation. You will, however, over time, begin to see money-saving opportunities everywhere. You will be on your way to losing all debt.