Do you drive, or even worse, do you commute? You are probably spending way more than you have to on gas, potentially several hundred dollars more than you need to each year. The good news is that there are several gas tips and gas apps to save money and spare your wallet at the gas station.

Find the cheapest gas in your area

I know this may seem obvious but sometimes we get complacent and settle for expensive gas that is a little closer to where we live. Maybe it just doesn’t seem worth it to figure out which place has the lowest prices.

I can admit that I’m guilty of paying for probably the most expensive gas in the area on more than one occasion because I didn’t plan ahead and ended up in a rush. If you commute at all, this can really add up, especially now.

So what do we do? Don’t just drive a few blocks down the road for something cheaper than the gas station by the freeway. Be strategic and find the really good deals. The deals that make a road trip seem possible again.

The best way to find the cheapest gas in your area is to use a dedicated gas app. These will help you find which gas stations offer the best prices. With this newfound knowledge in mind, you can then plan ahead and potentially save a lot of money each month on gas.

The question now is, “which gas app should I use?”

3 apps to save you money on gas

1. GasBuddy

There are some really cool things about the GasBuddy app. First of all, it does exactly what you would expect it to do: it tells you all of the gas prices near you in a nice and easy to scan list that you can sort by fuel grade, price, and distance. These results can also be viewed in a map which will take you to your default navigation app for directions when you find your gas station of choice.

The app works by collecting user reported prices in real time. Whether you require diesel, E85, premium, or just regular gas, you can find it for the lowest price in your area and you can favorite your new cheap gas go-tos with GasBuddy.

Another really cool thing about GasBuddy is its GasBack feature. GasBudy’s GasBack feature allows you to search offered deals where you can earn GasBack as a percentage of your purchase or as a fixed amount for purchasing for signing up for specific deals with listed companies. This is great for things that you were planning on purchasing anyway and in these cases basically amounts to free gas.

The app is free to download and use but some additional features require participation in their Pay with GasBuddy Account, like GasBack. Pay with GasBuddy links to your checking account and is used to pay for gas and can qualify you for up to 25 cents per gallon GasBack at various stations.

The GasBuddy app is worth it just for the convenient reported gas prices in your area and various filter options with additional features for those looking for even more savings potential and is definitely worth taking a look at.

2. Upside

How different can two gas apps really be? Technically, Upside isn’t just a gas app. It is a cash back app that helps you earn cash back on purchases from all sorts of places, including gas. But for this post, we’ll focus mostly on how Upside can save you money on gas.

Upside partners with participating gas stations which Upside shows within their app with listed prices. Because this is not just a gas app, the map can be toggled to show restaurants, grocery stores, and other participating stores in your area where you can receive cash back on purchases. This is great if you have some shopping planned since you can pick locations near each other to save gas, claim your offers, and start saving.

When you select a location, whether it’s a gas station, grocery store, or restaurant, you need to select that place and claim your offer. Once you do that you will have four hours to make your purchase. Some offers will require you to take a picture of your receipt and upload it to the app while others will only require you to check in before making your purchase. Either way, it’s fairly simple for a decent amount of savings.

Are you filling up a large tank of gas before going out to dinner for a date night? You could save a lot of money on things you were going to spend money on anyway. Why not use Upside and put more cash in your bank?

3. Google Maps

While not specifically designed for this purpose, Google Maps deserves to be mentioned simply because you probably already have it on your phone and probably use it fairly regularly. If you already use it for directions when driving, why not search for gas deals near you while you’re at it?

Under the search bar at the top where you can select to search for restaurants, coffee, and the like, select the gas option and start your hunt. It won’t list it in descending order by price but you can quickly see what’s nearby and where prices are cheaper. With all of the built in functionality of this app, being able to see available prices near you while out on the road is pretty useful.

Make sure your car is road ready

A car is a car is a car, right? Some get good gas mileage, some not so good, and others are electric. There’s not a whole lot you can do to change these facts, right? Well, not exactly.

In order for your car to be its best self, it needs a little attention. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can just drive your car and neglect it. If you treat your car well, it will treat you well.

Fill up your tires

What if I told you that this simple tool could save you hundreds in gas every year? Believe it or not, you can’t really tell if your tires are low on tire pressure by just looking at them, unless they’re really low.

If you have a car newer than 2007, or a nicer older one, you should have a tire pressure monitoring system of some sort. According to Edmonds.com, these are not required to alert you until pressure has dropped to 25% below the manufacturer’s recommended tire pressure. This is significant and more than enough to affect your gas mileage. The US Department of Energy states that every 1 psi drop in tire pressure will lower your gas mileage by 0.4%. Let’s see what this looks like.

Let’s assume your car gets the average 25.7 miles per gallon for light duty vehicles and your commute is 50 miles per day, five days a week. I don’t think this is too far off since my commute takes around 30 minutes and the average commute time in the United States is just under this at 27.6 minutes. This is 250 miles per week, not including weekend trips, errands, etc.

If we break this down, we have 250 miles divided by 25.7 miles per gallon, bringing us to a nice round 9.73 gallons used per week. The average cost of gas as of the writing of this article is $4.91 per gallon. That comes out to $47.77 per week spent on gas on average. This will, of course, be higher or lower depending on actual miles per gallon, commute, gas prices, etc.

With this in mind, let’s see what the numbers would be if your tires were at 27 psi instead of a recommended 35 psi, representing a 23% drop in psi. Just enough of a drop to not require a warning from your tire pressure monitoring system and easy to miss by just looking. This is a 8 psi drop which, according to the US Department of Energy, will equate to a 1.6% drop in gas mileage.

Instead of 25.7 miles per gallon, we’re down to 25.29, and instead of $47.77 per week, we’re spending $48.54. I realize that $0.77 may not seem like much but think about it in the big picture. This is money that you need to spend to get to work, not a luxury item that you could easily stop buying. Over the course of the year this increase turns into $40.04.

Remember, this isn’t including extra trips for things not related to your commute. This also doesn’t factor in the extra wear on your tires, which will need to be replaced more often, extra gas spent driving to the pump more often, and countless other “hidden” costs.

Keeping a small tire pressure gauge in your glovebox and checking whenever you fill up with gas is a cheap and easy way to save money on gas, tires, and increase the safety of your vehicle while you’re at it.

Keep your car well maintained

Keeping your car well maintained can save you a surprising amount on gas. Getting your oil changed at the recommended regular intervals is a good start but there is more to keeping your car in good running condition.

However, before exploring other maintenance items, did you know that using the correct oil grade for your car can affect fuel mileage? Fuel economy can be decreased by 1-2% just by using an oil grade not recommended by your manufacturer. This is easy to look up in your vehicle’s owner’s manual and most independent shops should be able to find this information for you as well.

Do you follow your car’s recommended regular service intervals? If not, consider bringing it in for a tune up. According to the US Department of Energy, having a car noticeably out of tune can reduce fuel economy by an average of 4% and as much as 40% for serious maintenance problems.

Using our example from earlier, and assuming a 4% drop for an out of tune car and 1.5% drop for a car using the incorrect oil grade, an out of tune car using the wrong oil could drop fuel mileage from 25.7 almost 1.5 miles per gallon and increase yearly fuel costs by over $140.

Change your driving habits

Have you ever seen cars tailgating semi trucks on the freeway? While I absolutely do not recommend tailgating, drafting behind a semi can take advantage of the low pressure area, reducing wind resistance and improving fuel economy. The same effect can be achieved by driving slower, which is arguably a much safer alternative.

I bring this up to illustrate a point, which is that driving habits and techniques can improve fuel economy and save you money on gas.

Drive slower

This one makes a lot of sense. Somehow I always knew that speeding was hurting my gas mileage, I just didn’t realize how much.

The US Department of Energy states that for every 5 mph over 50 mpg that you drive, you are effectively spending an additional $0.34 per gallon on gas. Let’s apply this to the 65 mph speed limit on the freeway where I live and only apply it only above 65 mph, since in most cases, driving on backroads instead of the freeway introduces stoplights and other variables that will decrease gas mileage.

This means that driving 75 mph instead of 65 mph will effectively increase the price of gas from our average figure of $4.91 to $5.59 per gallon. From our ongoing example, this means that our annual fuel costs just increased by over $343.

I’ll admit, there are a lot of variables at play here. However, no matter which way you look at it, driving slower can save you a lot of money each year in gas.

Drive less aggressively

I understand. When you’re low on sleep, low on caffeine, and it just cost you over $50 to fill up a tank of gas before heading to work, anger happens. Unfortunately, driving in anger will only use up that $50 tank of gas quicker. A lot quicker.

Quick acceleration, slamming on your brakes, and speeding (see above) can lower your fuel economy by 15-30% at highway speeds and up to 40% in stop and go traffic. A study done by the Institute of Transportation Studies University of California, Davis found that fuel economy feedback displays improved fuel economy by up to 2.9%.

Why is this important? If your car has one, it can be another tool used in your quest for saving money on gas. If your car doesn’t have one, staying conscious of your driving behavior and what driving habits can improve it toward your goal of better fuel mileage can be a big step in the right direction of saving money on gas.

Removing rooftop cargo

If you’re headed out on a long road trip or camping trip and absolutely need some additional cargo space, by all means go for it. Just keep in mind that these can lower fuel economy by as much as 10-25% at freeway speeds according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

On the low end, assuming a 10% reduction, the yearly fuel cost of our example could increase by $275. Taking these off when not in use is an easy way to save money on gas and if you don’t really use it, selling it can be an easy way to make some extra money too.

Offset your costs

If you’ve exhausted your options for improving fuel economy and are looking to save even more money, there are ways to offset your driving related costs.

Drive Less

While this may not always be an option, if it is, driving less is probably the most straightforward way to spend less on gas.

Do you work with people who live near you or live on your way to work? Are they people you would be willing to spend a little more time with each day? Carpool with them!

Carpooling can take many forms and can mean alternating days driving and riding with the other person. It can mean driving every day but getting some gas money from your new passenger(s).

Have you ever looked longingly at the people speeding past you in the carpool lane while you are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic? Time to join the ranks of the carpoolers and enjoy better gas mileage from avoiding the constant accelerating and braking of stop and go traffic. Some cities even offer incentives for carpooling.

Make money driving

Believe it or not, there are ways to make money driving without driving for Uber or Lyft, although these are also options.

Wrapping your car is a great way, and an easy one at that, to turn your commute into a way to actually make money. What do I mean by wrapping your car? Many companies will pay you to advertise on your car with vinyl wraps through companies like Carvertise and Wrapify. These vinyl wraps are completely safe for your car’s paint and come in various levels of coverage.

Drivers participating in these advertising campaigns can earn hundreds of dollars a month, depending on the advertisement, where, and how much you drive. Even cars with full coverage just look like you are driving a company car and all you have to do is drive and get paid.

Summary

Do you know how much you spend on gas each week, each month, each year? Starting a budget can keep you in the know and help you monitor your spending, and after implementing some of these ways to save money on gas, your savings. Download our Free Budget Toolbox below to get over 15 printable templates for everything from a simple monthly budget to a subscription tracker to keep you on top of your finances.

I really hope these give you some good ideas on how to save money on gas and maybe even make money. Your car and your wallet will thank you for it.

DISCLOSURE: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS AND/OR PAYED PLACEMENT. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.