We answered this question in our personal finance feature today:
Question: I am one of the thousands of people who live in Quezon City but work in Makati City. That means I drive some 20 kilometers to work every day, and that’s just one way. I tried commuting but it’s impossible during rush hour. With the price of gasoline going up, travel to and from work makes a huge dent in my budget. Is there any relief in sight for us? – Josephine P.
We all will have to deal with the rising cost of gas, whether or not we are from Quezon City, Bulacan, Cavite, Cebu or Davao. The most terrible forecast I have heard so far is for a full tank to cost P30,000. That’s almost the take-home pay of senior call center agents.
Full tank at P30,000? Goodbye car, hello MRT for many middle-class families. I see a lot of them in the MRT, even now. You can sense which MRT commuters used to bring a car to work. Pretty soon, Josephine’s “impossible” may turn to “no other choice.”
I like the sneaky tricks to save on gas:
- Lighten up the trunk. More weight in your car trunk will make your car work harder, using up more gas.
- At the gas pump, don’t top off the tank. The excess gas may spill and will amount to waste. Just stop filling at the automatic level.
- When parking, choose a shady spot to prevent gas from evaporating under the heat.
- Fill up your tank in the morning or evening when the air is cooler. At midday, gas may expand due to the heat and you will end up getting a lesser amount of gas.
One oil company has seen an opportunity in this crisis. Seaoil is offering a price lock prepaid card at P1,070 for 20 liters, or P53.30 per liter. They are selling the card only from June 10 to 16.
Good or bad deal?
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My article entitled “Inflation, your nest egg’s silent assassin” came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (print version) yesterday. It has a link where you can download the retirement worksheet from Augustus J.V. Ferreria.
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For those who are interested in learning about investing in the stock market, the Philippine Stock Exchange has a seminar called “Demystifying the Stock Market” on June 19, 2008, 6:00 to 10:00 PM, at the Trading Floor of the PSE Centre, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For more information please call the PSE Senior Specialist/Project Head at 6887537 or 9130054.
22 Responses to “Sneaky gas-saving tips”
Pages: « 5 4 [3] 2 1 » Show All
Pages: « 5 4 [3] 2 1 » Show All
June 12th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Time to expedite the extension of train routes further north and south… it is the most efficient and cheapest transport system , less polution, no traffic…it is really a mistake our previous and current leaders took the trains for granted in place of more cars, jeeps, buses on the roads…there must be somekind of “payola” from gas companies vs mass transport system that is why our trains did not developed as a better transportation alternative.
Manila is already congested, people now live north, east , south of the Metro but work in Manila..I work in Ortigas but live in Calamba, I spend almost 20-22% of my take home pay in gas and toll alone esp. the gas prices goes up every week…if there is an efficient train system I will just park my car in the nearest station and ride the train to work…those with office fuel allowance are really lucky!
June 11th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
you forgot to add another simple way to save gas - keeping your tires inflated.
To everyone who wants to save gas/money (and as an added bonus, Mother Earth), check this website.
http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/tire_pressure.htm
Says you could be wasting as much as 340 liters per year if you drive on soft tires (assuming 12,000 kms/year). That’s 18,000 pesos on today’s gas prices!!!! Crazy!
June 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Karen, I noticed that too. perhaps we can make some wort of an “online” monitoring of gas prices at various gas stations.
carlo, yup. it’s too deep, burns additional gas, but at least my company’s paying for it
regarding the mrt/lrt, that MRT north avenue station’s choking edsa in the morning with people occupying half of edsa (when mrt use crowd control instead of deploying more trains). I will again encounter that tomorrow when i take the mrt since my car’s banned due to number coding…free rides in MRT tomorrow, btw, during rush hours
June 11th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
“If the current MRT/LRT fare is not enough to upgrade the trains, maybe they should see other sources of income, like advertisements onboard trains.”
Well, if you notice, MRT and LRT already have advertisements as a form of additional income. Even their tickets have some advertisement in it.
Maintenance and operation of trains are quite expensive. Nevertheless, more frequent trains during rush hours would be good. Trains are usually full during rush hours only and this is true even in other big cities like Paris, HK and NY.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
People can also propose a work-from-home agreement with their employer. Some people I know have done this with success - even if it’s only working from home two days out of a week. The savings in gas, food, and clothes alone might be worth it.