Boat, train, plane or automobile; whichever way you choose, somehow you are getting to the convention, in or out of style. No matter which way you travel initially, most will find themselves driving somehow during their Con stay. So, keeping that in mind, how do you find the little ways to save up a fuel fund for the Con and while you are there? Well, that's what I'm hoping to help with here.
Saving up:
When looking at traveling by automobile to the convention, there are a few things that need to be thought out way in advance. Such as, what type of vehicle are you taking? Be it personally owned, rented, or borrowed. Next thing to decide is how much you feel, in advance, you will need to save towards the gas fund needed to get to the Con, while at the Con, and to get home from the Con. Now, unless you have completed this same trek in years past, with the same vehicle and passengers, in which case you may have a roundabout idea of how much you spent in gas money. For those that this is their first time, or may be using a different vehicle, then I have a few tips. First off, I despise Math, always have and always will, but in this case it is unfortunately unavoidable. But remembering High School Algebra class enough to remember the formula to figuring out gas mileage, is impossible to say the least. So I have found a FREE site to help with some of that.
AAA offers a fuel calculator that is so simple to use, it's ridiculous! You simply enter your year, make, and model with your start point (as close as you are able, if you don't live in a big city) and your destination, hit "calculate" and away you go. The site keeps track of the current gas averages by region and the site will give you the exact amount of how much your vehicle will use one way getting to your Con and a round trip. Pretty cool, huh? So how does this help you with a budget? Well, its simple. By having a basic idea of how much your vehicle will be using you can begin adding in some educated guesses on how much you will need for the entirety of the trip.
Let's stop here and use my own planned trip as an example to illustrate this idea. According to the AAA site, our Con trip, one way, should take about 120 miles to get there, resulting in about 6 gallons of gas at a current cost of about $20.00. Our round trip then will cost approximately $40.00. But what about the duration of the trip? The traveling back and forth between the Con and the hotel? Heading somewhere to get a bite to eat? Shopping? Well, figuring out the price of going from the hotel to the Con should be pretty simple, it's just an estimation, but based on the figures we received from AAA, and knowing how far our hotel is from the convention center, (if you are unsure of this, just use a map site such as Google Maps to enter the address of your hotel and the address of the convention center, viola!) we can take a stab at roughly how much we will use in gas. Our hotel is approximately 7 miles from the convention center and the routes will be traveled by using intercity bypasses, so keeping that in mind, after four days of two trips a day, we are looking at approximately 56 miles of just traveling to and from the convention center. With the current gas prices, this may cost us approximately, a round about number, of $10.00 in gas. So figure in then if we travel to a nearby town or exit to grab a bite to eat or do some running around, or had to make several trips back to the hotel add in another $20.00 just to be safe. Makes a grand total of about $70.00 in gas money, (I usually add another $10.00 or so just to be on the safe side so we will say, $80.00).
Now that we have an idea of how the fuel budget looks, we can focus on saving a few dollars to put back into our pockets. Because hey, whatever we don't use in gas, can go towards swag in the Dealer's Room!
Money Savers:
Now, that we have an idea of how much we should budget in for the gas, how do we go about pulling some leftover funds out of it? Well, one way that I have found is to find the best price. Websites such as GasBuddy allow you to search for all the nearby gas stations and their prices. How that helps? Well when you can save ten cents a gallon by going two streets over, it adds up quickly. The neat thing about GasBuddy is they also have a mobile app for Smartphone owners for checking on the go. Another saver is, filling up in the mornings. Believe it or not, many gas stations change their prices for the next day, closer to the rush hour block of the day, catching many motorists filling up before heading home. By filling up in the mornings, you have a better chance of catching it a few cents cheaper compared to later in the day.
Also, keep in mind that the heavier the vehicle, the more gas you are going to burn while traveling. So, keep that in mind when packing your suitcases for the trip. Less luggage equals more gas in the tank. I recommend, even though it's a pain, once you get to your hotel take out everything, that is not necessary, from the vehicle and stash it in your room until you check out.
Turn off that engine! Idling is another gas sucker that is easily avoided. If you are stuck in traffic, at a drive-thru, waiting to unload the vehicle, picking up a passenger, anything of the sort, just go ahead and turn the vehicle off! Not only is it better for the environment, it will save you in gas usage too. I know during the summer months, it is way too hot to be sitting in the vehicle for long periods of time without AC. If something does come up that forces you to be stuck in your car for that long, then turn the AC/car on in spurts of approximately 5 minutes, after being off about 20 minutes, long enough to get a mini cool down, but you aren't using huge amounts of gas.
Check for discounts! Many gas stations offer FREE reward and discount cards that could save you some serious change. Speedway has a great reward program that will save you 3 cents off at the pump just by swiping it, but there are some ways to make that discount even better. On the Speedway website they have a listing of "Fuel discount partners" (link is on the right side of their website) that just by shopping at some well known locations could lead you to some major fuel savings. Another simpler, yet little known way to save is by "purchasing" a FREE Speedy Fuel Card. It is simply a prepaid, re-loadable gift card that can only be used on fuel at Speedway. By heading inside and putting the money you would be putting in your tank, on the Fuel Card first, then using the Fuel Card AND the rewards card to prepay for your gas, you could save as much as 6 cents off your gas. Even if you stumble upon one of the few Speedways that are not currently offering the 3 cent discount for the Rewards Card holders, you will still get the discount for using the Fuel Card. Either way it's a win win situation. And the Fuel Card can be "loaded" using your Credit/Debit card or cash, but has to be loaded inside the station. A good way to find out if a local gas station offers a fuel discount is to simply check out their website. If they offer it, it should be posted on the site and explain how to take advantage of them.
Now that you are rolling in all that extra money we have just saved, what are you going to do? I'm thinking go buy any ice cream cone. Seriously, these tips may indeed lead you to saving a little cash on your fuel budget, but by no means can I guarantee that it will be a vast amount! But it's as I have continually said, every little bit helps! So rev up those engines and hop on the Road to the Con!
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