My relative petrol bill reduced by 25%

dnme

life is too short

colm_mcm

Misleading thread title :-(

keithclancy

dnme wrote: »

I achieved that reduction this week. Here's how.

1. I use a good tyre gauge once or twice a week to check my tyre pressure. I keep the tyres about 1psi above recommended.

2. I emptied out all the crap in my car. Any excess weight has got to go.

3. I drive at a maximum speed to 55mph but try and hold it at 50mph.

4. Close all windows, use the car's heater for air.

Over the past few weeks I have done the brimmed tank measurement and compared my normal driving habits with the above new driving regime. Here are the figures....

Normal driving: 30-34mpg (avg)
====================
This is normally 60-70mph, don't care about weight, carry coal/briquettes around (forgetting stuff is in the boot). Tyre pressures unchecked(one rear tyre had a slow puncture and was at 15psi:eek:)

New Regime Driving: 42mpg avg
=====================
The main problem is the cars behind you. I use the hard shoulder to pull in whenever I can to let cars by but it's not always possible. It's also psychologically tricky to keep a car at 50mph but you do get used to it and it has an overall calming effect.

My mpg saving equates to 31% but being realistic, lets call it 25% to allow for some inefficient driving. So effectively I am paying €1.50 -25% per litre which equals €1.13.

Another tip is Park and Ride.
You burn a shed load of Fuel when in traffic.

TwoShedsJackson

Someone post the link to that article that shows that all that stuff actually makes bugger-all difference in practice.

Ardennes1944

dnme wrote: »

I achieved that reduction this week. Here's how.

My mpg saving equates to 31% but being realistic, lets call it 25% to allow for some inefficient driving. So effectively I am paying €1.50 -25% per litre which equals €1.13.

yes...but how happy are you...really?

Vertakill

Fair play to you for that and that's a decent write-up too.

You mention psychologically it's difficult to stay @ 50, which I would completely agree with.

Personally, if I was forcing myself to do 50mph on a motorway, I would genuinely prefer to open the drivers door and roll out of the car into oncoming traffic.

I value my mental health a lot more than saving a few euros a week.

Stevie Dakota

People may snigger at the OP but it is an enlightened move that more and more people are going to be making, and prices are only going to go one way from now on.

keithclancy

http://www.hypermiling.com/

OP Must have been reading it

AugustusMinimus

OP, your petrol price has likely gone up a few percent while your consumption has dropped. Very misleading thread title.

I hope you are leaving the convoys behind you past on national routes ?

Kashkai

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

People may snigger at the OP but it is an enlightened move that more and more people are going to be making, and prices are only going to go one way from now on.

Agree 100%. I emptied most of the unused crap out of my car a few months back and I needed a wheelbarrow (literally) to cart it round to the shed for storage. All that extra weight does add up and costs fuel. Why else do you think manufacturers provide "space saving" tyres to some vehicles - its not to save space, its to cut down on weight before the wise guys chime in:rolleyes:

Of course seeing as how this is the "motoring" forum, stand aside for the petrol heads who will bemoan slow drivers clogging up the roads. By slow I mean us guys who actually keep within speed limits (and they are limits as opposed to targets all you baseball cap, Toyota Starlet with the bean can exhaust, drivers out there).

Trampas

Keep the waistline done helps also.

I found getting a fred flintstone car was a help also

mickdw

If I do 500 miles per week at 30 mpg paying €1.50 per litre, thats €113.50 per week.

If I do the same at €1.30 per litre (which most people were happy enough with), thats €98 per week.
So doing all those miles in a not very fuel efficient petrol car, costs €15 per week extra compared to €1.30/litre. Its expensive but its not an amount of money that cannot be saved somewhere else for most people. I mean one pointless trip to the shop for a snack would cover it. I would go that route instead of driving with overinflated tyres in granny mode.

Ardennes1944

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

By slow I mean us guys who actually keep within speed limits (and they are limits as opposed to targets all you baseball cap, Toyota Starlet with the bean can exhaust, drivers out there).

thats probably a Glanza there man i have very good eyesight and jano...i never see these starlets with huge exhausts most people go on about? but then, me being 19 means my opinions is void because, i kill people everyday:D

Zubeneschamali

dnme wrote: »

3. I drive at a maximum speed to 55mph but try and hold it at 50mph.

I do 800 km/week on the motorway, and get 7 l/100km = 56 litres. If I dropped to 80 kph, say I'd get 5 l/100km, = 40 litres. Saving: 16 litres, what, €22?

But 800 km at 80 kph would take 10 hours, I currently do it in 6.5, so that's an extra 3.5 hours, so I'm "earning" €6 an hour, less than the minimum wage.

Everyone's time is worth more than that by law: this is codology.

Stevie Dakota

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I do 800 km/week on the motorway, and get 7 l/100km = 56 litres. If I dropped to 80 kph, say I'd get 5 l/100km, = 40 litres. Saving: 16 litres, what, €22?

But 800 km at 80 kph would take 10 hours, I currently do it in 6.5, so that's an extra 3.5 hours, so I'm "earning" €6 an hour, less than the minimum wage.

Everyone's time is worth more than that by law: this is codology.

Well €22 equates to €1144, or one months mortgage (if you are lucky!). I don't know many people who would say no to one free mortgage payment each year.

I know this fuel saving malarky is not sexy, but it adds up.

ronkmonster

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Well €22 equates to €1144, or one months mortgage (if you are lucky!). I don't know many people who would say no to one free mortgage payment each year.

I know this fuel saving malarky is not sexy, but it adds up.

You also lose 3.5 hours x 52 = 182 hours that you could be working because of driving slower.

Guy:Incognito

Vertakill wrote: »

Personally, if I was forcing myself to do 50mph on a motorway,
.

I really hope people dont start doing this. It creates much more overtaking for those of us that use the proper lane on a motorway and gives more excuses to all the eejits sitting in the middle lsne who think the driving lane is a "slow" lane.

Vertakill wrote: »

, I would genuinely prefer to open the drivers door and roll out of the car into oncoming traffic.
.

If theres oncoming traffic your on the worng side and your better off staying where you are, you'll get killed everntually

dnme

......

Guy:Incognito

dnme wrote: »

Two people have accused me of a misleading thread title. Th etitle of this thread is "My Petrol prices down by 25%". Note the word "My"..

Your price hasnt come down, your still paying the same as everyone else. Your consumption has dropped.

dnme

......

Guy:Incognito

dnme wrote: »

Sigh! God save us all from semantics and pedantics. My fuel purchase is a measure of my distance traveled versus the amount I spend on fuel. My fuel bill is down 25%.

Its fair from pedantic to be fair. When the thread titel says "price down by 25%" people autmatically think it's 25% cheaper. Thats why theres seperate words for things, because they mean different things.

"my fuel bill is down 25%" is even different to "price is down 25%" and more in the right direction.

cjt156

dnme wrote: »

Two people have accused me of a misleading thread title. The title of this thread is "My Petrol prices down by 25%".

Exactly; which is where you went wrong. The price has not come down.

Your petrol costs may have. Price is set by someone else, cost you can mitigate.


</pedant>

Zubeneschamali

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Well €22 equates to €1144, or one months mortgage (if you are lucky!).

Suppose your boss comes in and says "Who wants to work an extra half-day a week? I'll pay!". How much would she have to offer you?

A hell of a lot more than €6 an hour.

Yet people sacrifice their time on the road for less.

pete4130

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Your price hasnt come down, your still paying the same as everyone else. Your consumption has dropped.

The OP is doing the same mileage as he was previously and using 25% less fuel, so he has reduced his fuel bill by 25%.

testicle

dnme wrote: »

I achieved that reduction this week. Here's how.

1. I use a good tyre gauge once or twice a week to check my tyre pressure. I keep the tyres about 1psi above recommended.

2. I emptied out all the crap in my car. Any excess weight has got to go.

3. I drive at a maximum speed to 55mph but try and hold it at 50mph.

4. Close all windows, use the car's heater for air.

Over the past few weeks I have done the brimmed tank measurement and compared my normal driving habits with the above new driving regime. Here are the figures....

Normal driving: 30-34mpg (avg)
====================
This is normally 60-70mph, don't care about weight, carry coal/briquettes around (forgetting stuff is in the boot). Tyre pressures unchecked(one rear tyre had a slow puncture and was at 15psi:eek:)

New Regime Driving: 42mpg avg
=====================
The main problem is the cars behind you. I use the hard shoulder to pull in whenever I can to let cars by but it's not always possible. It's also psychologically tricky to keep a car at 50mph but you do get used to it and it has an overall calming effect.

My mpg saving equates to 31% but being realistic, lets call it 25% to allow for some inefficient driving. So effectively I am paying €1.50 -25% per litre which equals €1.13.

Walk the next time, you'll save shed loads!

Stevie Dakota

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Suppose your boss comes in and says "Who wants to work an extra half-day a week? I'll pay!". How much would she have to offer you?

A hell of a lot more than €6 an hour.

Yet people sacrifice their time on the road for less.

No-one is offering the OP more work or money so that's not really relevant. But he is able to reduce his outgoings in a meaningful way (€1K a year) and why not?

It's not for everyone and I would struggle with it, but I can see where he is coming from.

Vertakill

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

If theres oncoming traffic your on the worng side and your better off staying where you are, you'll get killed everntually

Haha - woops! :pac: I'll remember that the next time I'm planning to leap out of the car. :P

Guy:Incognito

pete4130 wrote: »

The OP is doing the same mileage as he was previously and using 25% less fuel, so he has reduced his fuel bill by 25%.

The price hasnt changed though. The price is the price. How much of it you use x the price = your fuel bill.

You can reduce your bill, you cant reduce the price. They are completely different things.

Wolverine_1999

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

The price hasnt changed though. The price is the price. How much of it you use x the price = your fuel bill.

You can reduce your bill, you cant reduce the price. They are completely different things.

He said bill

HarryPotter41

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I do 800 km/week on the motorway, and get 7 l/100km = 56 litres. If I dropped to 80 kph, say I'd get 5 l/100km, = 40 litres. Saving: 16 litres, what, €22?

But 800 km at 80 kph would take 10 hours, I currently do it in 6.5, so that's an extra 3.5 hours, so I'm "earning" €6 an hour, less than the minimum wage.

Everyone's time is worth more than that by law: this is codology.

Not everyone drives on motorways. I have started conciously driving at 50 to 55mph on the ay to work, have found absolutely no difference in the time it takes me ( most likely due to not catching up with as many slower drivers and therefore getting stuck and stressed out behind them ) but have noticed a change in mpg. Actually made work 5 minutes faster a lot of days.

dnme

......

Guy:Incognito

Wolverine_1999 wrote: »

He said bill

Not before he edited it he didnt.

dnme

......

Guy:Incognito

dnme wrote: »

Jesus give us patience. Talk about going on and on and on. Leave my thread alone now will ya pal. Ive changed the dam title.

My appologies, I ddnt know you owned the internet.

I was replying to someones post.Much like I'm doing to yours now. should I have sent a PM and asked permission first? May I please have access to your thread, mister?

dnme

......

Guy:Incognito

dnme wrote: »

Ya! Bye now

Think I'll stick around just a bit, you know, just in case.

dnme

......

my "km until petrol required" is larger at 100-110 kph than 80-100
Then 110-130 it goes down again :pac:

Zubeneschamali

dnme wrote: »

Jesus give us patience.

I'd need a lot more than I have to pootle about at 80 kph all the time.

pete4130

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

The price hasnt changed though. The price is the price. How much of it you use x the price = your fuel bill.

You can reduce your bill, you cant reduce the price. They are completely different things.

Yes. You are 100% correct. It is also 100% correct to say that his 25% saving is reciprocal on the increase at the pumps. If his fuel bill had have been €100 last week then the OP saved €25 on it and his fuel bill should have been €110 this week but the OP saved €27.50 he still saved 25% on his fuel bill.

If he's using 25% less fuel at the cost he bought it for, then he's saving 25% on buying fuel at that price.

25% is 25% is 25%. What is SO hard to understand. I can explain fractions to you again if you like?

Stevie Dakota

Now that you've changed the title post can you let us know which one of your relatives it was?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Don't mind Guy, he's only stressed from tearing around the place trying to save time!

Guy:Incognito

pete4130 wrote: »

Yes. You are 100% correct. It is also 100% correct to say that his 25% saving is reciprocal on the increase at the pumps. If his fuel bill had have been €100 last week then the OP saved €25 on it and his fuel bill should have been €110 this week but the OP saved €27.50 he still saved 25% on his fuel bill.

If he's using 25% less fuel at the cost he bought it for, then he's saving 25% on buying fuel at that price.

25% is 25% is 25%. What is SO hard to understand. I can explain fractions to you again if you like?

The whole first page of the thread is largley irrelevant now and seems disjointed because the title of the thread has changed.


Just so we can avoid anyone else diving in, the thread title used to say that the price was reduced by 25%,

dnme

......

shedweller

All this talk of time wasted is interesting. On my commute i am on exactly 15km of motorway. At 120kph this takes 7.5 minutes. At 90kph it takes 10 minutes.:eek: I'm wasting away in my car dammit!!!:rolleyes:
I treat it as my quiet time, before work, where i get paid the same every week, no matter how early i go in.
But if i were on a much longer commute, or self employed, then i can see why a person would want to get on with it. The irony there is that going faster on a longer commute consumes so much more fuel. Fine if you can afford it but for those of us that have been hit repeatedly with tax increases and wage cuts, it is VERY necessary to slow down a little.

Finally, i know how pedantic this place is when it comes to the law (rightly so). Yet there are frequent posts about how fast someone thinks they can safely drive on a motorway. Is there some kind of speed exemption here? I'm only half joking.

Zubeneschamali

shedweller wrote: »

Fine if you can afford it but for those of us that have been hit repeatedly with tax increases and wage cuts, it is VERY necessary to slow down a little.

I did the sums earlier, and no, slowing down isn't worth it even if your time is worth only the legal minimum wage.

shedweller

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I did the sums earlier, and no, slowing down isn't worth it even if your time is worth only the legal minimum wage.

Care to show us the numbers?:)

Zubeneschamali

shedweller wrote: »

Care to show us the numbers?:)

It's upthread, causing the OP to tell us that he doesn't value his time, or something like that.

dnme

......

shedweller

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I did the sums earlier, and no, slowing down isn't worth it even if your time is worth only the legal minimum wage.

Ok, i read your numbers, thanks. By saving 22 euro per week you would save 1144 per year, is that correct? Hmmm....thats a lotta money in my opinion but if you are a high earner then i can see how it may be small change.
Different strokes eh?

-Corkie-

dnme wrote: »

I think you misinterpreted shedweller's question, and you certainly misinterpreted my earlier post. I very much value my time, just not in monetary terms.

Fair play to you for trying it and being savvy. Did you see the episode of top gear where Clarkson drove a Audi A8 from London to Edinbrugh and back to London again on one tank of diesel???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIHdpmTIrFw

shedweller

I recall it was a fairly large tank and he got something in the order of 40 to 50 mpg.

edit: 38.7 when he got to Edinburgh, as far as his trip computer said in any case.