The Busy Life of a Single Mom

Everytime I feel up with gas (which is frequently during softball season), I just feel sick!  I really can’t stand how much it costs me to fill up my car. I don’t really consider myself “old,” but when I think about the fact that I paid $0.85 a gallon for gas while I was in high school and compare it to today’s prices, I do in fact feel “old.” I have a Pontiac Grand Prix so it does get pretty good gas mileage, but I’ve been really wishing I could afford something that does even better. However, a new car is simply not in the budget so I’ve been researching ways to make the most of every gallon of gas I do have to pay for.  Here are the tips I’ve found. I’m not sure about some of the technical/science stuff, but I figure it can’t hurt.

• Buy or fill up your car in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. All service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline. When it gets warmer, gasoline expands. So if you are buying in the afternoon or in the evening, your gallon is not exactly a gallon.
• When you’re filling up, do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look, you will see that the trigger has three stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode, you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.
• One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is the more gas you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.
• If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

These are the tips I found. If you have anymore, please share so we can all get the most gas for our hard-earned dollars.