A cool $4.38 is the average price you can now expect to pay for gas in Utah County. While this new figure is part of a slight downward trend, it’s still painfully more than the $2.50 we were paying just a couple of years ago.

What can you do to make your gas bill a little less painful? Choose your living arrangements strategically, use a gas app, drive patiently, consider new payment methods and spend less time idling. Following these tips is easy and can make a small but helpful difference in your monthly budget.

Choose your living arrangements strategically

“While working from home is now a reality for many of us, we’ve still got to leave the house sometimes,” said Rebecca Nagel, the marketing director of ICO Multifamily Property Management, which has 17 apartment communities throughout Utah, Salt Lake and Davis counties. “If there is a move in your near future, consider places that are walkable, bikeable or near public transit options. That way, you can cut down on gas money and still get to where you need to go.“

For example, a few ICO properties in Orem are ideally located for life without a car. The Devon, The Aston and The Exton are each within walking distance of Costco, University Place Mall and the Cinemark Theatres. The TRAX also runs nearby for easy access to BYU and UVU. Depending on your lifestyle and needs, you may not need a car at all when you live in locations like these.

According to GoBankingRates.com, if you got rid of your car altogether, you’d save $130.67 per month on gas and motor oil alone. Not bad!

Find the best price with a gas app

There are plenty of apps that make saving money on gas easy! Give one of these a try:

• GasBuddy tells you the lowest local price for gas and gives you discounts with their gas card.
• Google Maps and Waze are good options to use on a road trip. They both tell you the gas prices in a particular area of the map you are looking at. Additionally, Waze uses crowdsourced info to tell you things like where there are traffic jams so you can avoid idling and save that way, too!
• Upside gives you cash back just for paying for gas, groceries and restaurant meals, and you can use your current preferred credit or debit card.
• Checkout 51 also gives you cash back on gas and grocery purchases.
• Drivvo is a comprehensive tool for managing expenses related to your car. It helps you stay on top of your maintenance schedule, track your vehicle’s performance and track expenses (including gas).

Drive patiently and use cruise control strategically

“Speeding increases fuel consumption and decreases fuel economy as a result of tire rolling resistance and air resistance,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy. “Vehicles use the most energy when accelerating. Obeying the speed limit, accelerating and braking gently and gradually, and reading the road ahead can improve the fuel economy of your vehicle by 15%-30% at highway speeds and 10%-40% in stop-and-go traffic.”

What about cruise control? When you’re cruising on the freeway, cruise control is a great way to stop yourself from accelerating unnecessarily. But that changes when you’re driving on hilly roads. 

“Engines on cruise control … start to work harder to maintain their speed by accelerating automatically. As vehicles reach the peak and start to descend, the brakes will engage to prevent their speed from rising above the current setting,” according to hsoil.com. “The best way to handle multiple hills is to turn off cruise control and manually speed up and slow down as needed.”

Pay with cash instead of a card

Did you know that some gas stations charge a lower price if you pay with cash rather than credit? It’s a way for them to avoid card-processing fees — and a way for you to save a little money! Some stations charge the cash price when you use a debit card, but others don’t, so it’s worth checking with your favorite gas station before you fill up next time.

Consider using a gas rewards card

Many credit card companies offer cash back for gas purchases. This can save you a few dollars per tank, but be sure to read the fine print. 

“Gas card discounts are modest. Say you buy 35 gallons of regular gas a month, paying $4.06 a gallon, for a total of $142.10. Assuming your card gives you a 5-cent reward rate, you’d get back $1.75, which works out to a cash-back rate of 1.23%,” according to Penelope Wang at consumerreports.org. “You may also bump up against caps on the number of gallons that qualify for the discount. And your discounts are typically limited to the gas company’s brand.”

Spend less time idling

School is back in session, and for many of us, that means the chilly winter carpool lines are just around the corner. As you’re hopping in your car to make it to the school on time, how long do you really need to let your car idle so the engine will heat up? If the weather is below 40 degrees, 30 seconds should be plenty. Anything more than that is probably a waste of gas. 

How much of a waste? If you drive a compact sedan with no load, you’ll use 0.16 gallons of non-diesel fuel per hour of idling. If you spend a lot of time waiting in your car, that can add up!

Gas isn’t cheap these days, so it’s important to be proactive and find ways to save. By choosing your living arrangements strategically, using a gas app, driving patiently, considering new payment methods and spending less time idling, you can cut down your gas bill and sleep a little better at night.

Isabella Markert is a project manager at Stage Marketing, a full-service content marketing agency based in Provo.