First, know that the best days of the week to buy gas is usually Monday and sometimes Tuesday
The worst days are generally Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
During a three decade career as Facilities Management executive for H.E.B. Food/Drugs in Texas, I helped open their very first gas station and was filling car tanks on opening day in Victoria, Texas.
Along the way, I learned a fair amount about the maintenance, marketing, operations and supply chain of gas stations.
At the time of this writing, according to AAA, the national average for regular grade gasoline is $3.218 per gallon.
For mid-grade: $3.684; Pemium: $4.056; Diesel: $3.572; & E85: $2.642.
The highest recorded average for regular gas in the US occurred on June 14, 2022 at $5.16 per gallon.
The highest average for diesel was $5.816 on June 19, 2022.
The average cost for regular in California is $4.715; Texas is $2.783; Nevada is $3.911; New York is $3.233; Oregon is $3.684; Washington is $4.021; Arizona is $3.038; Georgia is $2.959; Michigan is $3.521; and Pennsylvania is $3.343.
Here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon:
1. Know that personal driving habits are the single biggest factor that affects vehicle fuel consumption.
Slow down and drive the speed limit. On the highway, aerodynamic drag causes fuel economy to drop off significantly as speeds increase above 50 mph.
2. Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands. If you are buying in the afternoon or in the evening, your gallon is not exactly a gallon.
In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.
A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
3. When filling up, do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. Notice the trigger has three modes: low, middle, and high.
You should be pumping on low mode to minimize the vapors that are created while pumping.
All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.
4. Fill up when your gas tank is at least HALF FULL. The more gas you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space.
Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks (unlike our vehicles) have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.
5. If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up.
The gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles. While H-E-B has their tanks regularly cleaned, some big name stores and gas stations do so infrequently if at all.
5. Keep tires properly inflated. Underinflation reduces fuel economy, but more importantly, tires low on air degrade handling and braking, wear more rapidly and can overheat and blow out.
6. Avoid “jackrabbit” starts and hard acceleration. These actions greatly increase fuel consumption.
7. Avoid extended idling to warm up the engine, even in winter. It’s unnecessary and wastes fuel.
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Dodie & Jack Dennis are regular customers of Green Pasture. Highly recommended.
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Thank you for these cost saving tips for fuel! My first car was an old 1964 Chevy Nova and it had to be warmed up twenty minutes or it would jack rabbit and stall-but that was when the price of gas was pocket change. 🙂
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Wow, those are great tips thanks a whole lot. I never thought about the gas being affected by temperature, or the expansion of it affecting the actual volume of the gas. Or about not buying it when the storage tanks are being filled. I can say I’ve never let my vehicle run and run to warm up in the winter; just long enough to get the frost off and give the poor thing’s metal time to deal with temperatures like below zero.
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Below ZERO! WOW! Only one day of my entire life it was down to 6 degrees (and only day of single digit temp).
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Mind you, I’m not saying we like it, but in January and February it’s all too likely.
Right now, the leaves are brilliant colors, but we know what’s coming and get ready for it.
Another reason to keep your tank full in those months is the cold the freezing and the thawing cause condensation, and a frozen gas line is no fun at all. Dry gas helps.
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So interesting. Our leaves are just now starting to try to turn. Hints of it coming.
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Years ago when I had a Dakota Dodge Pickup. When filling up I always slow fill not fast fill as I’ve done in the past when in a hurry so I thought. I would get spillage of gas out of the tank another waste of money on the ground. Anyway the gas gage was inaccurate when full. When the lever would click I would rock the truck back and forth. I call it burping. Then I would be able to put more gas in. I would burp my Dodge about 3 times and slow fill it. The gage magically would say full. Burping the truck would add about $5.00 to $8.00 more in gas fill up. I always fill all vehicles in the morning. Never went below the halfway mark on a tank. For several reasons if there is an emergency you may not have enough gas. Fuel pump inside the tank needs to submerged allowing your tank to go empty and or sit on empty will damage the pump inside $$$ to fix it. Also I found out when owning a pickup truck don’t put larger tires then normal such as metric sized I learned. More money in fuel. The smaller the tires the better that goes for cars. Anything with 16 inch rims and higher are costly.
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That is awesome. I traded my Sierra pickup a while back after 313,325 miles. Kept it maintained but finally had to convince myself it was time.
Thanks for commenting! Loved it. We appreciate your readership too.
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