Petrol prices -how I got my costs down

heppleam

Dont know if its already on here ,but I use forever living reward card ,cost me £ 29.28 to buy and they gave me toiletries(which I gave away as presents )as part of the pack ,but I bought it because the reward card is really good .Its a countdown card ( they are on line and usually charge £45) it gives me 4% off petrol and food at asda and sainsburys.(I can still swipe my nectar card too) This brings unleaded petrol down to £1.34 from £1.39 ie 5pence, without having to do the supermarket trick of a 50-60 quid spend. it also gave me 25% off odeon cinema every time I use it .I didnt want a credit card, like santander 123 which wasnt as good with only 1%.
Got the pack at a fete from a forever living rep , but have noticed a whole load of the reps are on line ,I've worked out I am spending£200-£250 a month on petrol so if thats £3000 a year my saving on petrol alone let alone food and the other stuff I use the card for ,I am saving £120

Growurown

Thanks for the info will definitely look into this one

Standingtall

I have absolutely no understanding of how my car works so please don't laugh if what I am doing is absurd, but...

I now freewheel down all hills in neutral in order to save petrol:j. Is this actually likely to be working or am I just being silly:o

redpete

Standingtall wrote: »

I now freewheel down all hills in neutral in order to save petrol:j. Is this actually likely to be working or am I just being silly:o

This says it probably isn't working.

Growurown

Standingtall wrote: »

I now freewheel down all hills in neutral in order to save petrol:j. Is this actually likely to be working or am I just being silly:o

I think Jeremy Clarkson said this was the case on Top Gear so it must be true :rotfl:

WRINKLES

Standingtall wrote: »

I have absolutely no understanding of how my car works so please don't laugh if what I am doing is absurd, but...

I now freewheel down all hills in neutral in order to save petrol:j. Is this actually likely to be working or am I just being silly:o

If you freewheel down a hill you are not in control of your car / if you have to apply your brakes in an emergency you wil slew sideways as you would driving on ice your car may roll over / dont do it / to save petrol you should adopt good driving habits ...eg....look ahead if you see the trafic three or four cars ahead applying their brakes then allow your car to reduce speed by easing off the throttle gently accelerate if the cars ahead speed up / keep your distance from the car ahead if you drive too close you will have to apply your brakes suddenly wasting all the energy built up by accelerating / in the morning put your seat belt on before starting the car .

piglet39

Standingtall wrote: »

I have absolutely no understanding of how my car works so please don't laugh if what I am doing is absurd, but...

I now freewheel down all hills in neutral in order to save petrol:j. Is this actually likely to be working or am I just being silly:o

OMG i do this too (when it's 'safe' to do so ) and if Jeremy Clarkson says it's true....!

I have a very old (but very lovely to me) car that has cruise control. I use this religiously - even in the 30mph zones - and the fuel savings have been huge.

x

david39

Rolling downhill with the gears in neutral is asking for trouble.

My wife and I both drive our car, which has an mpg calculator built in and I reset it occasionally so that I can see the consumption used by each of us on similar journeys.

I practice defensive driving ( that outlined in an earlier post by wrinkles ) making sure that I keep the car moving to avoid lowest gear usage as far as possible and watching what is happening further up the traffic line than just the car in front. I do note that this way of driving is becoming more common on our roads today.

My wife does not do this and just drives sensibly, but not conciously trying to keep her mpg down.

The difference is that she achieves around 37 mpg whereas I average around 43 mpg - that's a saving of around 16% or 22p per litre at current prices.

rising_from_the_ashes

Standingtall wrote: »

I have absolutely no understanding of how my car works so please don't laugh if what I am doing is absurd, but...

I now freewheel down all hills in neutral in order to save petrol:j. Is this actually likely to be working or am I just being silly:o

It's apparently not good for your engine either ...... (sorry) - OK, if rolling to a stop when approaching traffic lights etc (if safe!) but not good to take the engine out of gear at speed.

Standingtall

Crikey, I have never had so many responses to a post:rotfl:

Kind of sad though isn't really as it shows how much the price of petrol is affecting us all.

Feel a little guilty though as it wasn't my thread. All points have been noted though and thank you to all the answers to my query:)

watson267

Walk whenever you can-->Save petrol!