Filling up more often is less painful
May 16, 2008With gas prices continuing to soar, I thought I’d try an experiment. See normally, I wait until my fuel gauge is below the 1/4 mark before I even think about filling up the tank. But even though I use regular unleaded, filling the tank at that point takes over $40. That’s a painful amount to pay.
So I thought, why not fill up the tank more often? The idea being, if I fill up before the guage hits the 1/2 mark, then I’ll be filling up with just 50 to 60% as much gas as if I wait until it’s between 1/4 and Empty. So I’ll be paying 50 to 60% what I’m paying to fill the tank now.
Turns out that really helps. It sounds stupid, because of course I have to fill up more often. But I felt better about putting only around $20 into the tank, even though I knew I’d be putting in another $20 a few days later.