Saving Tip #3:Vehicle

Lift clubs

• Set up a lift club if possible, it could even be just for dropping kids at school, E.g.: You drop and collect the neighbours kids on Monday and Thursday and they drop and collect yours on Tuesday and Friday. Every other Wednesday you swap. Save the extra 3 kilometres to the school 3 times a week. If you save 3 km’s 3 times a week you save 36km’s in a month which equates to 3 – 4 litres of fuel, not to mention wear and tear.
• Plan your trips so you don’t end up going twice in the same direction.

Vehicle Maintenance

• Service your car regularly, an unserviced car uses more petrol.
• Check your tyre pressure, under or over inflated tyres use more fuel.

Driving Tactics

• Drive with your windows closed. A slightly open window causes drag and increases your fuel usage.
• Stick to the speed limit – this is usually the most efficient energy saving speed for most cars (speed limits were after all introduced to help save petrol during the fuel crisis)
• Don’t accelerate fast or brake too hard. Both these practises increase fuel consumption. Rather try to stick to a constant speed.
• Only put petrol in your vehicle in the morning. Petrol expands with heat and thus when warmer, the pump will read 1 litre even though it has pumped just less than 1 litre of fuel.
• Never let your fuel level fall below half, evaporation increases when the tank is less than half full.
• When filling with fuel always ask the attendant (or take care for yourself) to fill the tank to the automatic stop only. Many people overfill the tank and when driving around corners suffer fuel loss. Look under your fuel cap, you will see the leak if you have overfilled. Not only that, much of that fuel stays in the pipe but has been charged for giving the next customer free fuel.

Walking

• If you need to go to the shop on the corner, take a family walk, not only is it good for money saving on fuel and wear and tear, but good for your health, weight, fitness and it gives you that hard to find quality family time. Last week we counted how many steps it took to walk to the shop, my little one learnt to count to 100 on the trip too! You can talk about colours, rainbows, clouds, road rules, road signs, shapes, anything, it becomes a learning excursion and the kids thrive on the attention paid to them, not to mention how great you feel for taking the walk and the saving on the environment!

Insurance

• Re-evaluate your insurance every year. Insurance companies never tell you that they are paying out less every year, but they put up your premium every year. Call your local car dealer, if you drive a Mazda call them, Toyota call them etc. ask for the book value of your vehicle (have the make, model etc with you) then call your insurance company and ask them to adjust you insurance policy to pay out the greater of the book value or the amount owed to the bank under finance. Your premium will most likely decrease, giving you a free saving. Remember to do this annually, close to the beginning of the year as this is when book values are established.
• Top up insurance is one of those great necessities in life. However, they only have to pay out if something happens and there is a shortfall on your normal insurance. Check with your insurance, there comes point where your ordinary insurance will be sufficient to cover what you owe to the bank. Remember you need top up insurance as long as the value of the car is less than the amount owed under finance. After that it is an unnecessary cost and you can cancel it without the loss of benefit.
• Check the price of insurance if you increase your excess amount…this sounds scary to some people but you can save up to 50% of the premium by increasing your excess. If you have a savings pocket or emergency saving fund, the extra excess with be no problem and you will save substantially on your premiums per month.
• Shop around, your insurance premium can vary considerably from company to company.