words Al Woods
It is a thing you know, commuting can be quite pricey and tiresome, and if you need to travel a long distance to reach your destination every day, then you can count on the high expenses. Have you ever asked yourself how much money you actually need for your commuting costs?
You have probably tried to answer this question, but you find it impossible to calculate the exact number, since you usually include some other costs. Informally speaking, by cutting your commuting costs, you will be able to save enough money for going on some nice and long vacation. There is a case of a couple that had to commute every day, and they replaced their cars with light rail, and the outcome was that they saved up from gas and parking fees, had no need to take their car for maintenance as often, saved on the car insurance and got the commuting discount from their employees. To have similar results and make your savings spike long-term, here are some useful tips on how to save more money while commuting.
Split Tickets
This is simple mathematics. You can make huge savings by simply splitting your train ticket into multiple tickets for the different routes. How does this function? Instead of taking the direct ticket to the final destination, you can split the cost of your ticket, and make huge savings this way. For example, instead of paying £59.9 to go from Manchester to Edingborough, you may pay £42.9 by purchasing split train tickets that travel the same route without stopping once, from Manchester to Chorley, and then from Chorley to Edinborough. SplitMyFare can make you huge savings. Besides, SplitMyFare is entirely legal. Moreover, the train needs to stop at all the destinations marked on the tickets, so you will not have to worry about missing your transport.
Maintain Your Car
If you are commuting with your car, then you need to consider the best options before even getting one. If you are traveling long distances, then you should choose a fuel-efficient car that will help you stretch the gas mileage further than you expected. There are some methods you can apply that will help. To begin, you should avoid left turns since they will cause you to consume more gasoline than you expected, and if you set up your navigation to avoid them, you will see a favorable impact on your fuel budget. Second, you must lower the weight of your vehicle; if you estimate, you will notice that the heavier the vehicle, the more gasoline it will consume. So, if you reduce the car weight, then you will lower the amount of fuel you spend.
Good car maintenance is crucial when it comes to reducing fuel usage. Some simple check-ups such as the amount of air in tires can positively influence gas mileage. The key point is to avoid rush hour. If you are stuck in a traffic jam, then you will just end up spending loads of fuel by slowly idling in it. If your partner uses a separate car to commute, then you need to consider fuel-efficient or even hybrid cars to reduce fuel spending.
Skip Warm-Up
Modern cars do not need extra long warm-ups on those cold days, so you can just skip them and save some fuel. It is a great feeling to come into a toasty car, but the warm-ups preceding them spend more gas than you can imagine and release some harmful particles in the air, contributing to pollution. A thing to bear in mind is that some states have proclaimed a regulation against these so that if you get caught while warming up your car, then you will have a fine to pay. This is something you should definitely avoid if you want to save some money while commuting.
Minimize AC Use
It would be great if you could reduce the use of your AC. Air conditioning system in your car will completely suck up the entire tank in no time and if you are cruising on the road with an average speed of 60mph with opened windows, you will have your car nice and chilly. You need to know that any speed over 60mph can create excessive wind drag and if you are speeding up or in a rush, then it is better to use air conditioning at these points.
Public Transportation
You do not need to use your car for commuting every single day, you can switch to public transportation when the weather is fine. Of course, there are some prices you will have to pay when using public transport, but you can save up a great deal of money on gas since public transportation tickets are not as expensive as the fuel prices. The best part of public transportation rides is that you can use this time for yourself. You can listen to music, read a book, or even catch up with emails and business calls.
Traffic Patterns
If you want to be a good driver, commute easier, and get to spend less fuel, then you need to learn the traffic patterns and be ready to take them if you know that some roads are busy and there is a traffic jam. So, if you are idling on the road, you will end up burning more fuel. Getting to learn these routes that will help you avoid heavy traffic and accidents will not only help you reduce your costs, but cut the commuting time as well.
Ride a Bike
If your job or school is not too far away, and there is necessary infrastructure and if the weather allows, you can use your bike to get to your destination. This way, you will not only save loads of money, but will have some incredible fitness results.
You need to be smart when commuting, since you are going to spend money that you do not even anticipate to be spent. So, just by calculating a couple of simple gateways, you will find it very beneficial for your budget.
