With the 2010 Budget heralding a hike in fuel prices, filling up your tank can quickly empty your pockets. To help those facing the problem of mounting debt, Debtsolver have compiled this list of tips to help you reduce your fuel consumption, spending less time and money at the pump.

1. Over half of the power that your engine produces goes to beating aerodynamic drag. With this in mind, the faster you drive, the more aerodynamic resistance you encounter and the more fuel you burn to compensate. So, staying under the speed limit can save you fuel and save you from getting speeding tickets.
2. Tyre pressure has a big effect on your car’s fuel consumption. If your tyres are a bit flat, not only will you wear them out faster but you’ll also increase the rolling resistance. Properly inflated tyres will lower the resistance and decrease your engines power usage, saving you fuel. You’ve got to be careful not to over-inflate though. As deflated tyres have a greater surface area on the road, increasing the resistance, over-inflated tyres have too little surface area on the road and this can dangerously lower your level of grip. Check them regularly and keep them within the manufacturers parameters.
3. Research has shown that the average engine will run most efficiently somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 rpm. Keeping the revs low, by changing gear before your engine hits 2,500 rpm, will burn less fuel and save you money. If your car is an automatic, avoid stamping down on the accelerator to change down a gear.
4. Carrying around extra weight significantly increases your fuel consumption. The rough figure is thought to be an increase of 2% for a 50kg load increase. Think of all of that extra weight that you’re carrying around in the boot because you don’t know where else to put the stuff. It’s costing you money so have a clear out.
5. Pulling away from a stationary position uses a lot more fuel than from a rolling start. If you try to smooth out your driving, anticipate what’s to come and adjust your driving accordingly, you’ll burn less fuel and save more money. Don’t follow the car in front too closely and you’ll have more time to make these gradual adjustments to your speed that let you avoid unnecessary breaking or acceleration.
6. Although there is an argument for most fuel being used when you start your engine, if you allow your engine to idle for more than a minute, you’re actually using more fuel that you would if you’d just switched it off and re-started. There’s an environmental argument too, so rather than sit with your engine running, burning petrol unnecessarily, just turn it off.

Admittedly, these changes alone will not be enough to solve a substantial debt problem but better money management is crucial to freeing yourself from the burden of bad debt. Cutting back on your spending can take many forms and you’ll find that it is as much about your mindset as it is about those individual changes. Talking to a debt management specialist at Debtsolver is a great place to start.

Related posts:

1. The Top Ten Ways to Waste Money on Your Car
2. Reducing Your Bills and Carbon Footprint

This entry was posted on Friday, May 28th, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under Advice about Debt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.