By Russ and Tiña De Maris
 While it’s not always possible to pick a specific day of the week to fill up the old motorhome, if you can, you just may save yourself a few bucks. This bit of advice comes from the fuel-price watcher, GasBuddy.com.
The company took three years of price data, crunched it, and came up with a rule-of-thumb for buyers across the U.S.: Fill up your tank on Monday. If you really want to spend the most money, then put off your fill-up until Thursday, as on average, across the country the highest prices occur then.
Actual “best” days depend partly on where you are in the nation, but as a rule, Monday is the best. In essence, though, no matter where you are, the earlier in the work week, the better the prices will be. What accounts for the fluctuation in fuel prices? GasBuddy officials think it has much to do with the federal Energy Information Administration report that’s released every Wednesday. Fuel prices may swing up, depending on what information the report shows, and Thursday is the knee-jerk reaction day if prices will climb. Come the weekend, when commodity traders are “off work,” then prices tend to stay where they are.
Essentially, Monday is the least expensive day to fill up, followed by Sunday. Other days are good when “topping off” the tank — those are Tuesdays and Fridays. And the best days to avoid at the fuel pump altogether are Thursdays and Saturdays.
If the entire country flooded to gas stations to fill up on Thursday, each week for a year, by the end of the year the collective purchases would amount to $1.1 billion dollars more in fuel costs than if everyone tanked up on Monday.
GasBuddy.com produces a free app for both Apple and Android devices that allows users to price shop for fuel (both gasoline and diesel) anywhere in the country. By their reckoning, app users can save an average of $325 per year by shopping around. And with fuel prices expected to rise over summer, punching a few buttons on your tablet before punching your credit card in the slot at the fuel station may just save you a bit of change.
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GB helps, but I fill up when I either need it, or am going to be going into a touristy area, where gouging is front and center. Also, many states drain their residents of money, by taxing fuel at much higher rates than other states, so you might consider that and leap frog those over taxing states.
We use GB almost every fill up.
Won’t go out of our way for tiny savings but will definitely adjust fuel stop locations and brands. Occasionally will adjust route to pick up a great deal off the beaten path, but won’t backtrack for it.
Sometimes save .40/gal and most often .20 to .25
Even do it on my passenger cars around town.
Do some searches regarding fill-ups in the morning. You’ll find it doesn’t save you anything. The tip about Monday is good to know though.
We always use Gas Buddy. Here’s another tip…fill up early in the morning when it’s cool. Gasoline expands in heat and if it’s cool, you’ll get a little bit more out of that gallon.
I think that is an urban legend, Mark. The gas is deep in the ground in tanks that stay pretty cold. The ambient temps. at the pump make no difference at all.
That’s an internet myth. True, the gas does expand when it is heated, but it’s stored in underground tanks where the temperature barely changes at all. It does not have time to warm as it comes up from the tank to the meter in the pump.
You could go around with a gas can and drain all the hoses, that might give you a pint or so!
We use Gas Buddy all the time, although sometimes out here in the west (Like Nevada where we live), nobody will have updated prices in small towns in quite some time. And, I won’t drive way out my way to save a few pennies because that drive may just burn off all the savings.
I totally agree, my wife and I discuss this often. One station will have fuel 5 cents cheaper than another, and lets say you need to fill up 30 gallons, that’s a whopping $1.50 difference, not even a gallons worth difference! OK, so fill up 10 times and save $15.00. It would take 50 fillups to have saved enough for one “free tank” of fuel if we could save that nickel per gallon (if fuel being $2.50/gal with a 30 gal. tank). Ain’t worth the headache to us, we shop for fuel by convenience.
It’s a cup of coffee!