Saving Gas by Hypermiling

I'm all about getting good gas mileage these days. I drive a van, so there's a limit to how much I can save, but I've stumbled across a cool way to improve gas mileage, no matter what you happen to be driving. Hypermiling mimics your vehicle's cruise control by applying gas as needed to go uphill and coasting downhill. Basically you're taking advantage of gravity. There are several websites devoted to hypermiling, but beware of those that advise unsafe practices such as drafting or driving while in neutral.

Speeding, and sudden starts and stops will lower your gas mileage, sometimes dramatically. Most of us already know that, but I'm learning to gauge hills to see how much gas I'll really need to crest it, then I let gravity take over. It's a good idea to keep your brake covered. I've been surprised at how often I've been applying gas when I could actually let my van's weight pull itself down a hill. I've seen a difference in my gas mileage. Normally when I'm running the A/C, it goes down quite a bit, but I've not seen a big difference at all this year! I still wish gas prices would go down, but at least I can squeeze a few more miles out of each gallon.

All the advice telling you to walk when you can, or ride a bike, and take public transportation when possible is great, but what about when you live in a rural area where there are no sidewalks, no public transportation, and the roads aren't safe at all for biking? Some people have no choice but to drive, like the area I live in. I would walk or take public transportation if I could, but it's not an option for my area.

What do you do to save money on transportation?

 Conserving Water

There are so many parts of our country and our world that suffer from drought that we should all conserve water as much as possible. In some areas, water is a precious resource, the people there would give a lot just to have the water we waste in one day.


Repairing leaky faucets and toilets is a no-brainer but how much further can we go?

Do you remember to turn off the water when you aren't really using it? Do you turn off the water when you brush your teeth, or scrub dishes?

I'm pricing low-flow shower heads. We already try to limit our time in the shower but this will help reduce our water waste even more. There are also low-flow adapters for faucets.


I'd love to have a grey-water tank for watering the garden and plants but that might push my husband over the edge!


One thing I do is keep an old plastic pitcher on the counter for "old" water. All glasses of water not drunk up are poured into the pitcher. I water the houseplants with this, and haven't had to "run" water for my plants in some time!


I got this idea from a friend: Use dishtubs for washing your dishes. When you are finished, pour the water on your garden or plants outside.


We adjusted our toilets until they use just enough water to flush. I added water bottles filled with sand to the tanks, and we set the floaters to the right level (not too low and not too high!)

When we save water we save money, but we are also helping ourselves and our "neighbors" on the earth.