6/10/2008

Who's Your GasBuddy?

One of my new favorite web sites is GasBuddy.com. In addition to a really depressing National Gas Price 'Temperature' Map, it provides data on gas prices for your area, as reported by local drivers. Depending upon how active your local GasBuddy site is (mine is MilwaukeeGasPrices.com), people may be reporting on all the gas stations in your metropolitan area, multiple times per day. You can search for the cheapest gas in your area, and avoid the stations that gouge you. Whenever my tank is about halfway empty (or halfway full, for you optimists out there), I hop online and figure out where I can get the best deal on gas.

I pass 7 gas stations on my way to and from work each day -- just a four-mile commute. None of them happen to be the cheapest gas in Milwaukee, but I often run errands in areas where gas is cheaper. Like West Allis!

Actually, on our way home from breakfast on Sunday we drove past a gas station in a quasi-ghetto area that had gas at the bargain basement price of $3.94 per gallon. (Note to blog historians from the future, visitors from another dimension, and people living in Gillette, Wyoming - one of the nation's cheapest gas destinations: $3.94 for a gallon of unleaded gasoline is a deal around here lately.) We considered the pros and cons of stopping...the Mister advised against it, due to the number of shifty-looking dudes standing around. I didn't think it would be such a bad idea, considering there was already a police car there, blue and red lights ablaze, helping some other gas station customer. In the end, we decided to skip it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you really save anything on gas, ultimately? I mean, with the detours, the waiting in lines at the popular stations. How much could it amount to in a month? I suppose my case is different from yours as I don't drive as much. I will check out the website and calculate. Thanks, Mom

TILNEYandRYAN said...

I suppose it depends on how many gas stations are between you and your destination. I pass 7 gas stations on my way to work...if I need to fill my 20-gallon tank and the price swing is 20 cents per gallon between the cheapest and gougiest gas station, that's $4 per fill-up that I can save, without even driving out of my way. Which is just about the price of a large skim latte at my local caffeine emporium. See -- it all works out!