With the new year quickly approaching, it is time to plan out your new year resolutions. On top of your resolutions, a new year can also be a great time to assess your finances and find ways to save money. What better way to save money than to chop down your gas spending on your driving. Did you know that the average Canadian spends approximately $1500 a year on gas. Chopping this expense down can leave your pockets a bit more full in the new year.

Here are ways to save money on gas un 2019:

Use a Gas Finder App

There are many apps that you can use that basically tells you gas stations around you and what their up-to-date prices are for gas. If you can save yourself $0.05 – $0.10/litre on every fill-up, this can save the average Canadian $75 – $150 a year.

Our favourite app is gas buddy. They have an iPhone and Android app available, but you can also just go straight into their website and plug in your city or postal code to find gas prices near you.

Maximize on Your Points

Every gas station has some sort of points program to take advantage of. Petro Canada has their Petro Points, Esso has their Esso Extra (and also accepts PC Optimum) and Shell utilizes Air Miles. If there is a brand close to your regular commute, try to stick to one in order to maximize your points. As a bonus, double up on your point collecting by using a credit card that gives extra perks at the gas pump. Scotia Momentum as as example offers up 4% cash back on gas purchases.

Adjust Driving Habits

Sometimes a lot of your gas waste comes from certain bad habits that can be adjusted. If you’re going to make some new years resolutions, try to fix these habits to save money on gas:

• Drive Less: the most simple but hardest to accomplish. In 2019, try to car pool more often, consolidate errands or even just whip out the bike or walk during warm weather days. If you can reduce the times you use your car, you reduce your gas spending, it’s that simple!
• Reduce time to warm up your car: I get it, nobody likes jumping into a cold car in the harsh Canadian winters, but this is a big cause to wasted gas. Natural Resources Canada ran an experiment on cars idled for 5 minutes and 10 minutes with the same daily commute. They found that fuel consumption increased 7-14% on the 5 minute idles and 12-19% on the 10 minute idles. Recent test show that 30 seconds is all that is required to warm up a vehicle in cold weather. (source: Washington Post)
• Learn when to accelerate: So conventional wisdom says acceleration burns gas, but the truth is it only burns gas when you go fast then slow again, then fast again. Science says accelerating fast to go on the highway is actually better on gas then getting to the highway speed slowly.  Cars get poorer fuel economy in lower gears, and accelerating too slowly prevents upshifting at an efficient rate. (source: Popular Mechanics)

Ditch the Gas Vehicle and Go Electric

This might seem extreme, but if you really want to get rid your fuel expenses, go green and get an electric vehicle. In the scope of this article, you will obviously incur an immediate expense in purchasing a new vehicle, but if you were in the market for it any way, then this will be the best investment for the future. Get an ev charger installed in your home, map out where you can find public ev chargers on your commute and save that $1500 in gas every year!

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