Should consumers be researching Cheap Gas Prices online before leaving the house?

Right now in the United States, not to mention in Canada, consumers are see the raising costs of just about everything that helps us live from the raising prices in food (cost to fuel our bodies), the raising cost of energy for heating and cooling our homes, but the biggest hit has to come from the record high gas prices and diesel prices at the pumps and with no end in sight, what are we all to do.

I’ve been looking up gas prices online for months now, just seeing what the differences are from day to day and month to month, with the help of my father who has given up the use of his Jeep Liberty for my more fuel friendly Nissan Altima to go to work, he wrote a piece back on April 11th about one station here in Massachusetts that he had to fill up at, back on April 10th, for regular gas at a station, the price was $3.11, the next day, the gas price jumped 8 cents to $3.19 a gallon for the same gas. Now when you fast forward to yesterday (April 29th) at that very same gas station, the new price was $3.54 for a gallon of gas. What a jump, that’s 43 cent jump in 19 days, like I said, what are consumers to do?

Well besides buying a more fuel friendly vehicle, the normal maintenance, checking your tire pressures, removing junk from your car’s trunk, the only thing consumers can do is shop around for cheap gas prices. Before you leave the house, chances are you know exactly where you are going, work comes to mind and whether your commute is 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour or more one way from your house, you are going to pass several gas stations along the way to your destination. Now it’s your job to find that next price just like you do when you shop for food with weekly circulars, if you know that you are going to have to fill up, checking the gas prices online can save you money, (just be aware they change not only daily, but change from area to area) it could save or cost you 8 cents a gallon, 10 cents a gallon if you are not careful. So where do you go:

First try Gas Price on MapQuest, they have prices all over the United States for all 3 grades of Gasoline, Diesel, E85, Bio-Diesel and more, just type in you city, state or zip code and find the best price, chances are they have it. This is the site I used to find yesterday’s gas price for the station listed above. Another one to try is GasBuddy.com (since it is broken up by area, mine is WorcesterGasPrices.com), keep in mind this is done by Gasbuddy and spotters which in my area includes my father.

Do keep in mind that not only gas prices change daily, but they are also different from area to area, for example, gas prices in the center of my town is $3.56 a gallon, chances are it is higher than the stations a quarter mile away, taken one station as the next town over which is $3.54 a gallon, each different towns, so check that out, you’ll be surprised.

Promotion: Check out the Kevin Harvick Shell Bobblehead at your local Shell Stations now. Comments.

- Racedriven