Gas Savers Stay Put

Here is a suggestion for people who want to be serious gas savers. The idea is to save gas by not using it.

This sounds like a no-brainer of frugal living, but it can be difficult to do.

The relative difficulty or cost of this tip is rated 1 to 10. A rating of 10 suggests that this tip is the most difficult or most costly. Expected savings are also rated 1 to 10. A rating of 10 suggests that this tip will provide substantial savings in fuel, money or both.

Don’t drive. I can’t think of a better way to be one of the gas savers in America. It is easy to do because to save gas, you do nothing at all.

I know “don’t drive” sounds easy, but there are plenty of people that refuse to consider “not driving” as an option. That’s why it's rated among the hardest to do. Like other costly or difficult things to do, it pays back big rewards.

I not talking about not driving at all, but only driving when you have to. It should be easy to do, but there are plenty of people that drive just to have something to do. It is kind of like going to the mall when you have nothing specific in mind to buy. The frugal minded individual wouldn’t consider it a good use of time or resources.

As an individual focused on frugal living, I am one of the gas savers. I leave my car, truck and motorcycles parked until there is someplace that I need to go.

With fuel prices the way they are, and climbing higher each year, I choose not to afford to drive when driving isn’t necessary. You can too.

If you think it isn’t possible to go without driving, and you live in the city or suburbs, consider my situation:

• I live in the country.
• No streetlights out here.
• We have dirt roads.
• No sidewalks and no pavement.
• There are no corner stores.
• There are no traffic lights.

I am 10 times farther from a gas station and 7 times farther from a grocery store than I ever have been for 90% of my life. This is quite a change for me.

I wouldn’t call it remote, but folks in town think that it is. Some days it is just the coyotes, the wind and yours truly. Since I take advantage of work at home opportunities, it is not uncommon for me to stay at home for a week or two and not use my car. I am definitely one of the frugal gas savers in America.

I find that gas in the car lasts so much longer when you don’t use it. Imagine that!

Twice I have had mice build nests in my car – once in the air intake and once in the blower housing – all because I let my car sit without using it. They thought it was a stationary object. It was for a while anyway!

I have reduced my fuel purchases to one quarter of what they were 3 years ago. I order only 250 gallons of gasoline now. That’s about 25 fill ups for the year for my car. How is that for being frugal and reducing fuel consumption?

Just think of this as the extreme example of “stop idling”. Your car is shut off and you save gas because you aren’t going anywhere. You wait until there is a reason to go before you turn it back on again. This is how to save fuel and be one of the gas savers. It's frugal and it makes sense to me.

I need to add that when I lived in California, I bought my first piece of real estate before I bought my first car. Remarkable as it seems, I was able to look for and purchase a place of my own, and get back and forth to work while not owning a car. My office moved during that time as well, and I still didn’t need a car to get to my office and back home again.

If I can be one of the gas savers, you can too.

Cost or difficulty ranking: 8
Savings on gas ranking: 10



Part of your plan for frugal living will out of necessity address transportation. Staying put is a sure fire way to save gas and be frugal. Can you do it?

Done with Gas Savers, take me back to Save Gas