As the author E.B. White once wrote “Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.” Practically all basic budgeted expenses can be broken down into food, utilities and personal transportation. And unless one is a real petrol-headed car enthusiast, it is rare to find someone spending an inordinate amount of money for their cars.

Yet with the United States being one of the leading manufacturers and consumers of automobiles, the country still incurs a massive oil usage bill. It also means that there is a need for the people of America to stop and take stock of their fuel expenses. The United States Department of Transportation’s statistics for 2006 gave an approximation of 135,400,000 passenger vehicles out on the streets in the United Sates. That translates to a total of about 74,983,000,000 gallons of gasoline consumed, and about 554 gallons of gasoline consumed per car per year. These numbers are down from 2005 by only a small margin of about 2% for fuel used per car.

Despite global market trends showing the demand for cars as being down, it still means people will drive themselves to where they need to be. The demand for such fuel will go up, despite recent progress with the development of high-tech, energy efficient models, such as hybrid cars.

There are perhaps hundreds of other resources that talk about saving gasoline. There are, however, no true, hard and fast rules. Here are some friendly reminders on saving money by saving gas:

1.) Don’t “rev” the engine.
There is that prevalent myth that you need to “rev” the engine, especially right as you park and shut it down. They say it’s what you need to do to keep the engine primed, but that is incredibly untrue. All it does is give the car one more quick cycle of work load, without moving. This wastes fuel, and washes the oil out of the engine cylinders, possibly damaging the engine.

If you know somebody who does this, tell them to stop!

2.) Fly (and fill) by night.
If you buy gas at the coldest times of the day – early morning or late at night – you actually buy more fuel! That’s because gas is denser at cold temperature. That means when you buy one gallon at cold temperatures, you’re getting more density, per gallon, thus more gas! Try this trick and save up on fuel expenses.

3.) Think ahead when you’re on the road.
You must have read these before but here they are again: don’t speed up or break needlessly; if going up a hill, accelerate before you hit the hill and not when you’re on it; don’t drive fast on low gears; keep that sun roof and those windows shut when driving at fast speeds.

4.) Check your wheels.
By inflating tires to their maximum recommended pressure, you are not just trying to give yourself a smoother ride (which you do get, and that helps fuel efficiency also). You are also increasing their size and diameter. This lets the car cover more ground with fewer rotations of the wheels, and saves gasoline in the process. Drag due to soft tires, and thus additional work for the car’s engine, is also avoided.

5.) Stick to a fuel budget – take the bus, carpool, share!
If you’re finding the costs of refueling a car, paying for maintenance, and even parking are taking a strain on your day-to-day expenses, why not try simpler, shared methods of travel? Take the subway or the bus if you can, or if there’s a carpool in the office, take advantage of it. By sharing the car, you are able to save cash on gas, while also making fuel use (whether yours or someone else’s) more efficient.