Learn How to Buy Cheap GasCheap gas is obtainable if you know how and when to buy it. Here are some suggestions to cut your fuel costs all year long. Buy fuel in bulk. Buying cheap gas is easy if you buy in bulk in January or February when it is at its lowest price. I know this option isn’t available to everyone, but it makes sense in many ways and is worth considering.
Until you start making your own fuel, you are stuck with buying it from someone that does. The point being, let’s not just complain about gas prices; let’s do something about them by purchasing cheap gas in the off season. Here is an example. In the winter of 2006 I purchased 1,000 gallons of mid-grade gasoline for $1.95 a gallon. In just a week or so, the price started to rise. After the price had gone about 25 cents a gallon higher than what I paid, I started using my fuel. During that summer, we were seeing gas prices of $2.99 a gallon and higher, while I was using gas at $1 less per gallon. This year will be similar. I saw the bottom of the market at about $2.87 a gallon for regular, so I ordered 250 gallons of mid-grade fuel at $2.91 a gallon. Now, only a few months later we are about $3.41 a gallon, and this summer gas prices promise to be closer to $4 per gallon. While I use my personal supply of cheap gas, I will save about 50 to 75 cents per gallon. Buying in bulk has costs and risks, but I think they are worth it. First, it is a big outlay of cash to buy fuel in bulk. Second, you have to purchase a storage tank (generally 300 to 500 gallon capacity), and a stand for gravity fed fuel delivery to your vehicle. They typically come as a set. Expect to pay $700 to $850 new, and $200 to $300 used. The third consideration is when buying cheap gas in bulk, you might want to stabilize the fuel to have it last those many months sitting in the storage tank. Fourth, you need to put a good pressure/vacuum vent and seal on the tank to prevent loss through evaporation. You can’t save money on gas if you let it evaporate. Fifth, your tank should be painted white to minimize heating from the sun that promotes evaporation. Lastly, there are maintenance issues that add costs. Filters should be replaced every few years, and hoses need to be replaced as the sun tends to rot them out. I purchased two 500 gallon tanks used, so they cost about a third of what they would have cost new. My 300 gallon diesel tank was free for the taking at a local ranch that I was helping clean up. The stand needed repair, but that was simply a little welding and some scrap angle iron. The savings in the cost of fuel during the first year paid for the tanks, new hoses and the filler vent pressure and vacuum seals. Last year and this year are pure savings for me.
There is risk of fire and loss of fuel in the event of a lightning strike or other accident or theft, so you have to consider that before jumping into this. My fuel tanks are each grounded, and they are situated away from the house and trees to minimize damage should they catch fire. So, the main benefits of having bulk fuel is cheap gas during the time of year when gas prices shoot through the roof, and the convenience of never having to stop at a local gas station. You save money on gas and have the ultimate in convenience. If your travels take you far away from home, the cheap gas sitting back home does you no good. You can only take advantage of cheap gas purchased in bulk if your travels are mostly local. Note: There may be restrictions on having bulk fuel stored within city limits. I live in the county, so bulk fuel in above ground tanks is common. One last important note: Don’t think that having hundreds of gallons of fuel in storage is going to help you in the event of a shortage of fuel due to loss of electric power, oil embargo, terrorist attack or natural disaster. You might be able to run your generator longer than others, but that’s about it. Even if you have the fuel to go out and buy things long after others have run out of fuel, those things won’t be on the shelves to buy when you get there. When electricity stops, the fuel pumps stop. When fuel runs out or the pumps stop, the trucks stop running, and when trucks stop running, everything comes to a standstill. Grocery stores are restocked continuously for a reason. If they weren’t, most food on the shelves would disappear within a few days. So, buy cheap gas in bulk to save money on gas over the seasonal rise in gas prices. Don’t talk yourself into lots of cheap gas under the guise of having ample supplies of fuel for transportation to get groceries and other products. If fuel stops in this country for any reason, in less than a week there won’t be anything on the shelves to go get. Cost or difficulty: 8
Buy cheap gas. Find a station with cheap gas and patronize that business. This won’t save much money, but saving some is better than saving none. If using the miles per dollar idea below, you find that buying a different grade of fuel doesn’t make a difference in fuel economy for your car, then buy the least expensive grade that your car is designed to run on. And, find a station that sells for less.
Example: Let’s say you have a 12 gallon tank and it needs 10 gallons of fuel. If you find cheap gas at 5 cents less per gallon, then you save money on gas to the tune of 50 cents. So how much fuel can 50 cents buy? It buys about 19 ounces of fuel at $3.41 a gallon. That’s another 4 miles for a car that gets 28 miles per gallon. How far are you going to drive to get that 19 ounces of fuel? You get it. Unless the cost differential is great, the motivation is just not there to buy cheap gas at another station. The higher the gas prices, the more difference in cost per gallon there has to be before you can really call it cheap gas. It has to be worthwhile to go get that lower priced gas. Otherwise, you are simply consuming your savings by driving elsewhere to get it. Back when I was a kid we had gas wars, and gas prices were 19 to 21 cents a gallon. Almost everyone’s tank held 20 to 24 gallons. At 3 cents difference, you only had to buy 6 gallons to get another gallon “free”. A fill-up meant that you could get three gallons “free” if the price difference was 3 cents. Now, with most tanks holding 12 to 15 gallons, and a 3 cent price difference hard to find, you would have to buy over 110 gallons of fuel before you would get even one “free” gallon. The only time it is worthwhile buying gas somewhere else is if a station is gouging you on the price. Then, the time to buy gas somewhere else is every day from that day forward. Cost or difficulty: 1
Cheap gas is really a matter of miles per dollar. John Silveira, senior editor of Backwoods Home Magazine has an idea how to save money on gas – make certain you are getting more miles per dollar. He has done experiments using regular, mid-grade and premium gasoline. Results suggest that his car gets better fuel economy using, not cheap gas, but more expensive (and higher octane) fuel. This won’t work for every car, but it does for his. Note: Use at least the octane rating recommended for your car. You might void your warranty if you use a lower octane fuel. Check your owners manual for the minimum recommended octane. If you want to try this yourself, you should buy a few tanks of one grade and carefully keep track of the miles driven and cost of the fuel. Then buy a few tanks of another grade and carefully keep track of the miles driven and cost of the fuel. The idea is to identify the number of miles that a few tanks of fuel will provide, and then identify how much was spent on that fuel. If you divide the miles by the cost of fuel, this gives you miles per dollar. Using the grade that gives you the highest number of miles per dollar will be your cheap gas, even if it costs more per gallon. For example, if 30 gallons of a fuel type provides you with 900 miles of travel, then at $3 per gallon, the cost is $90 for 900 miles, or 10 cents a mile. If 33 gallons of another grade of fuel provides you with 1122 miles of travel, then at $3.10 per gallon, the cost is $102.3 for 1122 miles, or 9 cents a mile. You can see in this example that the higher cost fuel is actually cheap gas because you get more miles per dollar. The idea is to save money on gas by understanding which fuel gives you the best performance in terms of distance traveled for the dollar. Gas prices for different grades vary by 10 cents per gallon. Running this experiment answers the question: “Is paying that extra 10 cents really buying me anything in terms of increased distance traveled?” In order to do this with some level of accuracy, you have to keep good track of your mileage and gas consumed. You also have to use three or four tanks of fuel from each grade so you get a good “time average” picture. Only then will you be able to determine whether this approach will help you identify cheap gas so you can save money on gas. Also, if you use the same gas pump and filling technique, it will likely give you more accurate results. To find out how much fuel was used out of each tank, just pump the gas in slowly and let the pump automatically shut off. Stop there and record the cost of fuel. This will be how much it cost you to travel the distance represented by subtracting the odometer reading associated with the last fill up from the odometer reading associated with the current fill up. I haven’t tried this approach to identifying cheap gas, but it is certainly worthwhile if you travel tens of thousands of miles each year. Cost or difficulty: 1 Done with Cheap Gas, take me back to Save Gas
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