Money Blue Book

Updated List Of Citi Thank You Codes For Free ThankYou Network Points Below

Back in the day, cash back credit cards were all the rage as their rebate offers provided the highest purchase incentives for cardholders. But as the U.S. economy has soured in recent years and the mortgage backed credit crisis has worsened, credit card companies have joined the legions of credit-related industries hurt by the downturn. Despite the need to make changes in the new economical climate, credit card issuers still continue to offer lucrative incentive rewards and rebates to attract new customers and encourage continuous credit activity. However, such riskier times have compelled them to modify and scale back their credit card purchase incentives to greatly favor point reward programs over straight cash back. By offering purchase reward points redeemable for free merchandise, free airline tickets, or free gift cards, credit card companies are at least able to lessen their promotional losses by plowing some rebate money back to merchants that they have special partnership agreements with instead of just giving money back to the customer. This shift towards promoting reward points instead of cash back has lead to a rise in rebate earning percentages for reward programs offering points, and a gradual decrease in earning percentages for credit card programs offering cash back.

However, over the years, Citibank has consistently remained one of my better credit card reward issuers. When they came out and started promoting the Thank You Points Network for their banks and credit cards, I did my research and ultimately embraced its usage. While the point-based program will never beat the versatility and convenience of good ole cash back rewards, the Citi Thank You rewards program is still a good silver medal, second place choice. Just for your reference, here are a few of the prominent Citi Thank You credit cards that I have in my wallet. Each of them earns points when you use them to make qualified purchases.

1. Citi Premier Pass Master Card - The Premier Pass is one of the best travel reward credit card options out there. With the card you’ll also get 10,000 bonus points after $300 in purchases made within 3 months of account opening.
2. Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card - Earn 5 Thank You points for every dollar spent on purchases at gas stations, supermarkets, and drug stores for a year.

For those who want to know my strategy to maximizing the amount of Citibank Thank You Network reward points that I earn over the course of a year, here are the steps and things that I recommend. Some are basic credit card usage philosophies while others are tips on ways to make the most of what you earn out of everything you do.

1) Be A Loyal User Of Citi Credit Cards That Offer Thank You Network Purchase Reward Incentives

First of all, before you even think of using a Citibank credit card that offers rebate rewards or airline miles (or any credit card for that matter), you must promise yourself to always pay off your credit card balance in full every month. Remember, the more you spend on credit card late fees and interest, the less your reward miles or reward redemptions are worth. The goal is to maximize your savings and get the most bang for your bank. The fewer purchase fees and the fewer interest charges you pay, the better.

- Focus On Reward Network Points That Can Be Pooled

In the credit card rewards money making, rebate earning business, loyalty pays dividends. While I’m a holder of a large number of credit cards, I don’t necessarily use them all. Some like my expired 0% balance transfer credit cards - I don’t even use anymore since their introductory interest rate benefits have since long expired. To maximize my money, I try to focus my efforts on 1-2 credit card reward programs that offer me the best earning and redemption results. As a general background matter, the more credit cards you use the fewer points you’ll ultimately earn on each. Especially for cards that require a certain level of point accumulation before reward redemption, using too many reward cards may spread your usage out too thin. The greatest exception to the rule is participation in a credit card reward program like the Citibank Thank You Network that allows you to combine points from several different cards into one shared rewards account.

- Save Up Your Credit Card Purchase Points For Higher Value Rewards That Offer More Bang For Your Buck

To maximize your Citi Thank You rewards, you should resist the urge to spend your reward points right away. Remember, the reward redemption options are offered based on a tier system. The best point to rewards ratio will obviously occur at the higher value, more expensive to redeem reward choices. As I note in my analysis of redeeming Citibank Thank You gift cards, the highest value redemptions will offer you the best conversion rates - essentially fewer points needed for the same equivalent reward. The lower the redemption cost, the more points you’ll have left over to redeem for other rewards. So save up your points for the bigger prizes. After all, why would you want to swap your points incrementally through out the year for 10 gift cards worth $20 each for a total value of $200, when you can save up until you have the same total number of points, and then redeem them for a higher value $250 or $300 gift card? They require the same number of points, except the difference is that by waiting and saving, you can potentially walk away with a much sweeter reward.

Another great Thank You reward redemption option is to redeem points for free Citi airline flights through Citibank’s fixed flight option. The Thank You Network fixed flight option offers one of the best redemption ratios for free airline tickets around for any credit card and banking reward program.

You can also earn bonus Thank you points for shopping with partner merchants through the network’s website, but personally, I think you can get better reward and rebate savings through other online shopping sites instead.

2) Earn Extra Free Thank You Network Points By Registering With and Using Expedia

If you’re like many people who rely on special online travel search engines to locate and book their travel reservations for airlines, cruises, car rentals, or hotel stays, you’ll definitely want to take your Thank You Network account and register it with Expedia. All you have to do is enroll your Citi Thank You account with Expedia to earn 1 bonus point for every $1 spent on hotels, vacation packages, activities totaling $50 or more, and cruises. To earn points on flights, you need to add an activity of $50 or more, or a hotel stay to your travel itinerary. The nice part is that you don’t even need to necessarily use a Citibank Thank You Network credit card to make your purchases. Once you’ve enrolled and linked up your Expedia account with the Thank You network, you are free to use any credit card or other valid form of payment to make your purchase. If you’re smart and savvy, you might consider using an airline credit card to book your flight travel plans to earn additional rewards. Not only will you earn bonus frequent flyer travel miles by using your airline credit card, you’ll also receive Thank You reward purchase points through your Expedia-Thank You Network linked account. Not a bad deal.

3) Enroll Your Citibank Checking and Savings Accounts (If Any) Into The Thank You Network

Other than through the usage of Citibank credit cards that offer ThankYou rewards, each month you can also earn bonus Thank You points for having and using certain other Citibank products and services (view Thank You points chart according to Citibank account package). Such options include opening and enrolling your qualified Citibank savings or checking accounts with the Thank You network program or simply by enrolling your Citibank ATM/debit card with the program to earn points everytime you use it. By enrolling your debit card with the rewards program, it’s like having a reward credit card at your disposal without any of the downsides of credit card usage that you may otherwise fear (the whole credit card debt thing). Thus the more Citibank relationship accounts you have and use, the more points you may receive, up to the annual cap limit that applies. For your reference, other Citibank branded products and services that may help you get more points include online bill payments, direct deposits, savings accounts and money markets, home equity lines and loans, mortgages, personal loans, and CDs.

If you’re interested in opening a new Citibank checking or savings account, you may want to review some of the promotional Citibank sign-up bonuses currently available. If you qualify, you might be able to get some free money as a new customer.

4) Manually Purchase Your Citi Thank You Network Points Directly

The Thank You Network actually allows customers to purchase Thank You points directly if they so choose, which is a helpful option for those who are close to having enough points to qualify for the reward redemption of their choice. Under the purchase option, for $25 charged to your credit card, you can purchase 1,000 Thank You points, limited to a purchase cap of 30,000 points a year. If you don’t mind paying money for points instead of earning them through ordinary credit card earning usage, then this may be a nice option to consider. The points purchase option offers an exceptionally awesome dollar to points ratio. With most of the Citi Thank You credit cards, you get at most - 3 points for each $1 spent. With the purchase option you get 40 points per $1 spent. Plus, you have the potential to earn the usual extra Thank You Network purchase rewards if you charge the $25 acquisition cost to your Citi credit card.

5) Take Advantage Of Promo Offer Codes For Free Citi Thank You Network Points

This short list of free Citi thank you reward point offers are subject to change at any time as such free promotions come and go as people become aware of them. Most of them can be discovered and found through popular online discussion boards from sites such as Fat Wallet that discuss online bargains and deals.

Qualifying for these instant free Thank You points is easy. All you have to do is visit the promotional page for Citi Thank You points, log into your account, and enter your desired promotional code. I recommend typing in each of the following promotional codes as you may get lucky and qualify for them all - it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. After entering in the free Thank You promo code, you should be able to verify the receipt of extra reward points in your account of 100 additional points or whatever the code was worth. If someone or some company is giving away free reward points, why not jump at the chance - particularly when there is no extra contract to sign or obligation to commit to.

Updated List Of Free Citibank Thank You Network Promo Codes

Yes they are only technically worth $1.00 each, but like loose coins that surprise you at the bottom of your sofa cushions, they are points you didn’t have before but now do! Are you feeling lucky yet?

• CITICCI508IN (100 Free Points)

• DPR1CDW408WK (100 Free Points)

I love using eBay. I’ve been a busy eBayer since the online auction service opened for business in the late 1990’s, and over the years I’ve gotten my bargain grubby hands on quite a few deal finds. However, back in the beginning there was less competition among buyers and sellers vying for a piece of the lucrative eBay pie. With less auction and savvy awareness on the part of the general public during eBay’s infancy, deals were easier to be had.

Back in the good old eBay days, one of my best past success stories was bidding and winning online auction sales for D.C. Metro SmarTrip cards. People in the Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia metro area use prepaid magnetic debit cards to ride the subway train to work in our nation’s capital. When the SmarTrip cards were first implemented on the subway system in 2004, I think I was one of the early few to immediately turn to eBay to buy subway cards in bulk denomination for maximum arbitrage savings. At the time, the whole concept of buying subway cards was still in its infancy so there was less competition for them online. Most of the SmarTrip sellers were federal government workers looking to unload their government issued cards to eBay buyers and make some money in the process (they probably weren’t authorized or permitted to do that of course). But regardless of the legality or morality on their part, I was happy to buy them. Since I worked in D.C. at the time and commuted downtown on a daily basis, I needed a huge supply of them at all times. Due to the lack of bidding competition, I frequently won for 40-60% off the face value, although I had to bid on higher value cards to maximize my cost savings. For example, for cards valued at $300, I usually only paid $140 for them. My auction bidding success lasted a few brief years, but as the years went by and the number of worldwide eBay users grew, many of the inherent market efficiencies were ultimately plugged up, causing bid prices to soar and eBay savings to become less and less. Nowadays, it’s hard to get any type of significant savings anymore as eBay auction prices usually get bid up to or close to the fair market value, negating the awesome bargains I use to enjoy.

By Bidding For Misspelled eBay Phrases and Keyword Typos, It Is Still Possible To Get Great Deals and Bargains

Over the years, eBay has continuously modified its search algorithm and implemented system changes to weed out arbitrage type opportunities that some suggest hurt the integrity of the eBay search engine and business model. However, while eBay may try to take measures to ensure bidding fairness and listing accuracy, it can really only do so much. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. There will always be absent minded people out there, and there’s little that big brother eBay can do to stem their perpetual cluelessness. Which brings me to the purpose of this article - One very interesting area of eBay that is still prone to arbitrage profit and bargains is the area of eBay typos and eBay auction spelling mistakes. While there are many factors that influence how an eBay product listing ends such as auction title, description, timing, number of eBay reviews, and the type of photos displayed, one critical human element that is often overlooked by sellers is spelling accuracy.

The power of eBay is that it is currently the most popular and dominating online auction service in the world and has the capability to bring in a significant number of buyers and sellers together into one open marketplace where products can be exchanged for maximum gain and efficiency. Because of the sheer number of potential buyers and sellers, as well as eyes and ears so to speak, there is little room for inefficiencies to flourish. Even expensive laptop computers valued at $3,000 for example that start the bidding process at $1.00 will absolutely bid up to its fair market value by the close of the bidding period. Even the concept of eBay auction sniping is already known by most people. Sniping, or the process of using special software to fire in your online auction bid at the very last second to keep bidding war competition to a minimum used to work well in the past, but nowadays it seems like everyone uses it on every auction as well. Thus the notion that one can somehow catch an arbitrage or significantly underpriced deal now as a buyer is difficult due to the inherent scale and efficiency of today’s eBay market place.

But this all changes drastically when the market place is altered in significant fashion. When the auction seller places an auction advertisement and fails to ensure correct spelling in the auction title or description, particularly for key phrases that denote what he or she is selling, this creates an inefficiency that is just begging to be exploited. This is a critical mistake because such typos prevent prospective bidders and buyers from being able to find your auction at all. Misspelled keywords in the auction title essentially eliminate the buyer and seller equilibrium usually inherent in eBay. Because the vast majority of prospective eBay buyers find their item by typing in keywords into the eBay search form, such spellings errors have the potential to make or break the final sale. However, due to the sheer size of the eBay marketplace, even such spelling error bargains are bound to be snapped up eventually, but there are simply more spelling mistake and eBay typo deals to be had than that with correctly spelled and properly placed auctions ads.

It’s clear eBay has at least recognized that spelling mistakes and typos are causing a portion of sellers to wind up with much fewer bids and lower bid values than they ought to have. While they have permitted a substantial number of eBay buyers and bidders such as myself to take walk away with nice bargains we would otherwise not have gotten, eBay doesn’t seem entirely committed to stamp out this little shopping loophole. While eBay has installed spell checkers and automated keyword suggestion tools into their online auction software, there is only so much the company can really do to force absent minded sellers to comply. Many grammatically-challenged eBay merchants simply continue to disregard the importance of spelling accuracy. Auction listings containing multiple spelling errors and typos continue to litter the eBay marketplace, to the delight of many potential bidders who can find them. I’ve been on both sides of the eBay auction, as both a seller and as a buyer. While there’s nothing quite like being the seller and experiencing the excitement of registering that first successful auction sale for the first time, I mostly prefer to be the auction bidder and buyer. I love stumbling onto great deals that others have overlooked. These days, my best eBay finds and bargains come from the spelling error misfortunes of others.

A Few Examples Of Critical eBay Spelling Errors and Auction Typos That Will Cause The Seller To Lose A Lot Of Money But May Allow The Buyer To Profit

The unfortunate part of this is that there are thousands of eBay sellers that are going to lose a lot of money due to lost profits caused by lower final bids as a result of less bidding competition brought about by fewer people being able to locate the auction through misspelled keywords. With less bidding competition is the creation of an inefficient marketplace where bidders can purposely keep bid prices low, resulting in anemic final bid prices. However, the reality is that one man’s loss is another man’s gain. It’s not our fault that others fail to properly title or write their ads to maximize their own business revenue. As buyers, we shouldn’t feel guilty when we can take advantage of a great bargain or deal find. After all, we don’t feel guilty when we haggle at a bazaar, flea market, or any type of barter exchange, so why should any of us feel guilty about being able to snap up savings due to someone else’s incompetence?

One of the best, most common, and perhaps most expensive example of critical eBay auction spelling errors is the keyword - “diamonds”. Strangely enough, many people still incorrectly spell it as “dimond“, without the letter “A”. Despite the existence of free eBay provided spell checkers and a myriad of warnings and alerts, many sellers continue to list incorrectly spelled diamond related products for sale. For the sneaky bargain hunter, this is a lucrative gold mine, or a diamond mine for that matter, of great deals. Of course, there’s always the problem of discerning fake diamond products from the real gems. eBay and other auction sites are filled with lots of internet scams and online frauds.

As for myself, I’m currently in the market for a new GPS system for my car. My old handheld global positioning map system is currently being loaned to a friend of mine so I’ve decided to search eBay for any special GPS deals. As you may or may not know, GPS systems are rather expensive and can range anywhere from $200-$500 depending on brand and model. One popular GPS brand is Garmin. A quick search for the incorrectly spelled “Gamin“, “Garmen”, or “Garnin” yields a few nice results, in the eyes of mighty bargain hunters like myself. I’ll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for any good GPS misspelling deals in the near future.

Another common spelling mistake is for the word “monitor” as in LCD or computer monitor. A couple of common spelling errors can be created with the simple juxtaposition of a few letters to come up with “montoir“, “montor”, and “moniter”. I suppose it’s a common mistake, but it can be a costly one for the seller, especially if he or she is forced to uphold the sale. Computer monitors aren’t cheap! For fun, you can also try entering things like “Playstatoin” or “Playstaton” for the Sony Playstation - you’re bound to get a few intriguing bargains.

Instead of manually coming up with common typos and eBay spelling errors, you can also try using online software programs like Fat Fingers to help you come up with misspelling ideas for your target keyword. There are a whole slew of other similar eBay-minded programs online that can help you take advantage of common spelling mistakes. If you’re lucky, you might score a great deal too! The scecret has been out for some time but as long as there are absent minded poor spellers out there, there will be great deals for us buyours, I mean buyers.

There seems to be a trend among online finance and frugality commentators to share their personal frugal meal solutions. Some have gone so far as to post step by step instructional guides on how to put together simple peanut butter sandwiches, or compiled detailed cost analyses of the ham and cheese brown bag lunch making process. I think these simple and frugal lunch plans are excellent how-to’s for people like myself who are clumsy clowns in the kitchen. Single guys such as I are notoriously bad cooks. I think my lack of any real cooking ability simply is a byproduct of my single man laziness prowess, lack of hand skills when it comes to culinary creations, and overall personal opinion that cooking for one is too inefficient to even bother with. Thus far I’ve tried supermarket salad bars, Chinese carry out, Thai food take out, prepackaged frozen meals, microwave TV dinners, and the occasional home made steak, but my options always seem to boil down to eating ready made food or dining out (a particularly expensive habit). While I do try to find ways to save money by utilizing restaurant credit cards to earn cash back and rebate discount rewards when I dine out, the reality is that eating out is almost always more expensive and usually less healthy than preparing your own food at home.

Cooking and Preparing a Meal At Home Isn’t Easy For Busy Single Guys (Or Gals) On The Go Who Lack Speedy Cooking Skills

While I’m sure most amateur Iron Chefs out there may simply suggest that I take the effort to go buy groceries regularly and learn to cook home meals for myself, I’m also fairly sure most of the individuals that would suggest that are either married, or have jobs that allow them to spend time grocery shopping and cooking actual complete meals. Much of my life is on the go and oftentimes I simply don’t have the time to buy the ingredients needed to cook proper meals on a regular basis. If I had a family, a wife, and kids, I might be more motivated to do so, but when it’s just one person, it just doesn’t seem as cost or time efficient to do so. I did try cooking for a while, but each meal took too much time and oftentimes the vegetables that I purchased for use later expired by the time I got around to using them all. I have been told by friends and family that I’m very much the stereotypical single bachelor in his late 20’s - adequately knowledgeable about financial and technological matters, but absolute butterfingers in the kitchen. While my long term food strategy is to marry a girl who knows how to cook like a pro and keep me well fed with hot meals, my short term meal solution is to continue to find shortcut ways to assemble a reasonable balance between speed, taste, and nutrition.

I’ve tried the sandwich route, eating cheap ramen, frozen pizza, Chinese dumplings, and even cooking steak in the oven, but the truth of the matter is that none of these meal choices are remotely healthy. All they do is increase my sodium and saturated fat intake, thereby increasing my blood pressure count and making me feel sluggish, as well as causing me to grow a very slight belly pooch. Most instant food products contain high fat, high sodium, lots of calories, and offer little nutritional value in return. Even the common lunch meats that many commentators seem to speak so glowingly about are actually very unhealthy as they are quite high in sodium, fat content, and artificial preservatives.

Eating Vegetarian Meatless Burgers and Food Products Is My New Quick and Healthy Food Solution

However, recently I discovered a culinary lifesaver for single guys like myself - Boca burgers, from Kraft Foods! Actually, the terminology should probably be - vegetarian prepackaged frozen foods. As a little side clarification, I’m no anti-meat PETA fanatic. I’m a hearty beef, pork, and fish eater, who enjoys a nice juicy medium well done steak or hamburger patty off the barbecue grill as much as the next guy. While I do love the taste of genuine meat, I can still appreciate the overall health benefits of vegetarian food products that are often vegetable, grain, and soy protein based. While I’m not a health nut, I do try my best to focus on healthier foods when I can by increasing protein and fiber intake while limiting saturated fat, processed sugar, and sodium consumption.

One particular ingredient that is frequently found in vegetarian imitation meat products like the Boca food line is soy protein. Soy is a very healthy ingredient most commonly found in tofu, and is usually more nutritious and high in fiber than most meat products. While I love burgers, cutting down on red meat has been said to have appreciable health benefits, as over-consumptions has been tentatively linked to higher risk levels of colon cancer. Since I’m a pretty thin guy with a high metabolism, I don’t usually pay attention to caloric nutritional content, but I do pay extra notice to sodium, fat, and nutritional fiber percentages. The last time I had my physical exam and complete blood work done, my doctor advised me to consume more fiber. While I was otherwise very healthy, she suggested that I could benefit from an increased consumption of certain grains and vegetables high in dietary fiber. My purpose of eating vegetarian inspired burgers and sandwich products is to cut down on saturated fat and unhealthy ingredients of most other forms of prepackaged food, but do so in a way that is speedy and efficient. Even so-called healthier meat products like extra lean ground beef can only cut down the saturated fat content by so much. Veggie patties tend to contain less fat and much fewer calories - perfect for those who are weight and health conscious.

Boca and Other Vegetarian Food Products Require A Taste Compromise, But I think It’s Worth The Nutritional Benefits

While I’ll probably never quite give up the decadence of meat, I’ve grown to enjoy the taste of most vegetarian dishes. I’ve dined and eaten at very good vegetarian restaurants and cafes before. Many of the best vegetarian places are uniquely skilled at creating dishes that closely mimic the distinctive flavor of meat products but with all the nutritional benefits of soy and veggie ingredients. In downtown Washington D.C. near the Farragut North metro station where I work, there is a Korean, Asian fusion vegetarian cafe called Java Green that I often frequent. They serve the best vegetarian sandwiches and even die hard meat lovers enjoy them.

However, you don’t have to dine out to get vegetarian food. Easily found in your common supermarket are extensive lines of Boca and vegetarian food products in the frozen foods section near the ice cream, tater tots and frozen pizzas. The great thing about these meatless Boca products is that they come in a wide selection of concoctions, from organic meatless burger patties, to meatless sausages, meatless lasagnas, to even meatless tacos. The company really tries to disguise the vegetarian nature by creating imitation flavor. While the meatless products will never truly fool meat connoisseurs into believing they are really biting into a hunk of meat, for some of the burger products, they actually do a pretty good job of substitution.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell you’re really eating a vegetarian burger patty. When you stick the Boca veggie pattie between two slices of whole wheat burger buns, insert a layer of iceberg lettuce, add an extra tomato slice, slab on some wasabi horseradish, and squirt on a dab of low sodium ketchup, if you’re not paying attention, you could easily get fooled - not quite, but almost. The burgers even come in a variety of purportedly different flavors - including flame grilled, and roasted onion (although they all tasted the same to me). For those who like hot dogs, Boca even offers a nice line of meatless sausages and hot dog products.

While Boca from Kraft is probably the most well known vegetarian frozen food brand, there are also several competitors as well, such as Dr. Praeger, Morning Star Farms, and Gardenburger. However, I personally like Boca brands the best since I think they do the best job of re-creating the meaty flavor of real meat in their vegetarian products. The others, particularly Gardenburger seem to be geared towards the hardcore vegetarians as they are much more “vegetably flavored”. Gardenburger products contain more grains and vegetables - hence the more veggie, and less meaty taste. Gardenburger is not the best when it comes to recreating imitation meat flavor. Their vegetarian buffalo wings are terrible - I’m convinced they simply slapped some tofu soy concentrate together and compressed it together to give it the denser consistency of buffalo chicken meat (tastes nothing like real chicken however). I’m only a soft core, part time vegetarian so I’m not as into the pure vegetarian burger experience - I prefer vegetarian products that do a better job of imitating meat dishes, like Boca. Brands like Dr. Praeger, Morning Star Farms, and Gardenburger would probably be better suited for real vegetarians or vegans who want the true vegetarian experience without the imitation meat flavoring.

Nutrition Comparison Between Boca Vegetarian Meatless Burger and The Common Meat Patty

Below I’ve provided the Nutrition Facts for both your standard Boca burger patty (on the left) and your standard McDonald’s Big Mac Burger (on the right). Keep in mind that the Big Mac is not even the fast food chain’s least healthy meal option. Compare the caloric count, total fat content, as well as the sodium and sugar numbers. Scary isn’t it?

Boca Burger (Roasted Onion)	McDonald’s Big Mac Burger

Comparing the nutritional facts of Boca vegetarian burgers to that of your ordinary McDonald burger, the healthier choice is pretty clear. While Boca’ll never be perfect substitutes for meat products, once you get accustomed to the taste, they can serve as quick and easy healthy food choices. It’s just a matter of heating them up in the microwave at home and pairing up with some bread.

Because I rely on public transportation for the vast majority of my work related commute, I don’t track gas and oil price fluctuations as closely as someone who drives regularly. While I do notice the indirect correlative effects of pricier gas in the way of higher food prices (and wow are food prices getting more expensive these days), I don’t usually realize how high gas prices have spiked until I find myself pumping my own gas. While returning home from a cross country drive to visit a friend in another state this weekend, I noticed I was running low on gas. I scanned the interstate highway horizon for the cheapest regular gas price I could find, and was stunned at how far up gas prices had risen. Only a few weeks and months ago, gas prices were still holding steady at $3.00 a gallon. Now they’ve climbed to within the $4.00 striking range. I filled up my Honda Accord and looked at the final tally - $44.50. Nearby I could hear the profanity-laden mutterings of other disgruntled drivers as they filled up their vehicles with pricey gasoline. Next to me a big pick-up truck pulled up - definitely a $125.00 filler-upper.

Until the fuel scientists and federal government decide to seriously combat the problem of high gas prices and fuel shortages with subsidies and research grants for the development of alternative energy, all we can do as consumers is to try to find common-sensical ways to reduce our fuel consumption and minimize what we pay at the pump. Public transportation options through car pooling, riding public buses, and taking the subway are some of the frugal ways to save money on gas by ditching the car altogether, but for some people those aren’t feasible solutions - and for others, they simply love their cars too much. Buying a hybrid gas and electric powered vehicle is another way to save gas money. However, buying a hybrid requires a sizable upfront investment that is not suitable for many at this time. Thus, I want to turn my attention primarily to helping drivers like myself who own plain old fossil fuel gas guzzlers. Even for regular drivers like us who jet around in our old fashioned gas powered vehicles, it doesn’t mean we have to give up an arm or a leg at the gas station.

Here Are A Few Simple And Easy Ways To Save Money On Gas:

1) Lighten Your Car and Keep Your Vehicle Engine Well Maintained and Tires Properly Inflated - The heavier your vehicle, the more gas is required to power it. For example, if you drive one of those large Good Humor ice cream trucks as your primary vehicle, you are most definitely going to consume much more fuel than if you drove a tiny compact Honda Civic. Thus the lighter you can make your car, truck, or van, the more fuel efficiently your vehicle will run and the less gas it will consume, thereby saving you more money on gas.

For the longest time I use to store stacks of water bottle pallets in my car. Whenever I bought 24-packs from the grocery store, rather than lugging them up to my apartment, I usually left the 4 or 5 large pallets in the trunk until I needed one. Little did I realize at the time how much unnecessary weight I was adding to my vehicle - forcing it to consume more fuel to power it. Any excess weight you can eliminate from your vehicle will help you save money on gas in the long run, and this includes from both personal cargo and passengers.

Other than reducing your vehicle’s weight, you can also ensure optimum fuel performance by keeping your tires properly inflated, as air has a natural tendency to seep out. By keeping your tires well inflated, you minimize the surface contact area they have with the road, thereby ensuring that less friction is created when you drive, which results in better gas mileage. Keep in mind that in cold weather, tires tend to be a little saggy as air compresses in cold temperatures. In warmer weather, tires puff up as air expands. I always make it a point to check my car tire pressure at the start of every new season to keep them in line with developing weather and changing temperatures. Your proper tire pressure number can be obtained from that little sticker in your driver side door jam or from your vehicle owner’s manual. I always keep my car manual in the glove compartment with a little yellow tab on the tire pressure page just in case I need to reference it.

You should always keep an eye on your engine light as well, to make sure the engine is running at peak efficient performance. If it’s making strange gurgling noises or running a bit sluggish, it may be time to take it to the car repair shop. Proper and regular oil changes help to keep your car running smooth and well lubricated, however be sure not to spend unnecessary money performing oil changes too frequently. Follow your vehicle’s manual for oil change guidance to avoid falling into the oil change trap.

2) Adjust Your Driving Habits To Maximize Fuel Efficiency and Reduce Drag - For those of you fortunate enough to have a fuel efficiency gauge on your dashboard, you may have noticed that certain driving activities cause fuel consumption to drop and other activities cause fuel consumption to increase.

The two actions that requires the most fuel to perform are those that demand rapid performance such as quick stops and quick accelerations. Forcing your car to suddenly stop by hitting the gas pedal requires more fuel than letting your vehicle roll to a natural halt. Similarly, when you jam the gas pedal to accelerate quickly, a lot more gas power is needed to bring your vehicle into sudden rapid motion than a slow, gradual building of speed.

If you want to save money on gas by maximizing your car’s fuel efficiency, learn to become a driver of moderation. Don’t accelerate or brake suddenly. Look and scan ahead to anticipate your next movement so that you can cruise to stops and allow gentle accelerations. By adopting a more temperate driving approach, you can easily boost your fuel performance and gas mileage by 10-20% or more. Obviously highway driving is best because you are able to maintain a consistent speed, thereby ensuring peak fuel performance. The stop and go driving style of rush hour traffic is the worst when it comes to fuel efficiency.

As for reducing wind drag, the key to remember is that drag is most pronounced when you are traveling fast. For most vehicles, peak fuel efficiency usually occurs at the highest transmission gear at lower speeds. At higher speeds in excess of 50 miles per hour, wind resistance increases exponentially, forcing your car to work harder to maintain the same speed. If you are a fast driver like me or spend most of your time on the highways, you should drive with your windows up to improve gas performance and save money. On slower local roads, driving with the windows down isn’t as big of a wind resistance issue.

3) Use Regular Gas and Avoid Premium Gas Unless Recommended By the Manufacturer - Other than the oil change myth, the premium fuel myth is one that many drivers unwittingly buy into. These days, cars don’t need more expensive premium fuel to run smoothly and resist engine wear. Other than price, the thing that separates regular fuel from premium fuel is octane content. Regular gas has an octane rating of 87, mid grade gas is 89, and premium gas is usually about 91 or 92. Octane has nothing to due with fuel power or the cleanliness, but rather refers to the ability of the fuel to resist engine knocking or pinging, which occurs when the fuel air mixture ignites abnormally or prematurely in your engine, causing inefficient explosions. Improperly timed firings can potentially inhibit proper performance and may ultimately hurt your engine hardware. However, modern cars contain engine sensors that regulate knocks and pings that work just as well with regular fuel as with premium. Most cars derive no appreciable benefit from using premium fuel, and usually only high performance vehicles, particular ones equipped with superchargers or turbochargers require higher octane fuel.

As always, the best advice is to follow what your car manufacturer advises on the matter. If you car owner’s manual calls for only regular fuel, then there is no reason to use higher grade fuel. Some manuals will indicate that premium fuel is either recommended or suggested for best performance, however regular fuel will usually work just as well. Only when premium is actually indicated to be necessary and required should you spend extra money on premium gas.

4) Seek Out Generic Gas Stations That Offer The Cheapest Gas Prices - When I buy gas, I scout for the gas station that offers me the lowest price for regular grade gas. I pay absolutely no attention to the brand - acknowledging no distinction between Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Sunoco, Citgo, or Cletus’ Gas Shack. In my opinion, the fuel they offer are all substantially the same. The only difference between one gasoline brand from another is the type of additives mixed in with the fuel. Supposedly as the marketing hype goes, the additives keep your engine running cleaner. However, current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations already mandate detergent additives for all fuel mixtures. Thus you shouldn’t buy into clever advertising buzzwords or catchy additive names that pricier oil companies use to make their fuel brands seem more impressive than they actually are. All you will be doing is throwing good money away.

Of course, there will always be suckers out there who will insist that one fuel is better than the other for whatever brand loyalty or placebo reasons. If it’ll make you feel better to use a brand of fuel like Exxon as opposed to a lower priced one like Citgo, then be my guest. Personally, the only reason why I would avoid a particular low priced gas station would be if they only took cash payment and not credit cards.

5) Use Gas Credit Cards To Earn Cash Back Rewards and Gas Rebates - I use credit cards for everything, and using a gas credit card to earn cash back rewards on fuel purchases is no exception. Gas credit card rewards vary but the best offers are currently floating in the 5% cash back range. Take a look at my list of gas credit card rewards for the best ones. If you fuel up often, saving 5% cash back rebate on every gas station purchase can help you save a lot of money over the course of a year. Of course, if you have trouble handling the use of reward credit cards, you may want to stick with cash.