by Luke Rasmussen

Created on: May 08, 2008

I suppose a better way to address this issue would be how to save money on gas. There are ways to find cheap gas...if you know where to look.

First, allow me to make a plug for a terrific website, gasprices.com. Many of you have probably heard of gasprices.com. Sometimes euphemistically referred to as "gasbuddy," these regional sites post the ten lowest and ten highest prices in a region. Most of your major cities also have specific sites within the gasprices.com group, as well as entire states.

Live in Miami but road tripping up to Pensacola? www.floridagasprices.com will show you the lowest prices along the way. Live in Cincinnati and want to find out the lowest price closer to your office? www.cincygasprices.com.

Or, if you'd like to find them on your own: http://www.gasbuddy.com will get you there.

You can also check on Yahoo or msn.com also for lowest gas prices in your area.

Hunt around, as the deals are out there.

Now, let's talk about saving on gas. I can give you some good tips, which you have probably heard before, and some things that sound good, but not really. Let me talk first about credit cards. You know those ones that promise you a certain savings per gallon when you use the card. Discover has one.

Problem: did you know that gas stations have to pay an extra nine cents (or so I've heard) per EACH GALLON for a credit card transaction. Ergo, would not that station have to raise prices somewhere to make up the difference? Seemingly, you're not saving a lot. In essence, it seems to me you'd be paying more. Pay cash. Sometimes, you might even be lucky enough to find a station that will cut you a break if you do pay cash.

Here in the Twin Cities, both major grocery retailers, Roundy's and Cub Foods, have done their part to help consumers. At Cub, for every ten dollars you spend, you get 1 cent off per gallon of gas. Comes in handy when you spend $200 on groceries. I believe there is a cut-off; but it's relatively high.

The only problem with the Cub program is that the promotion or deal or whatever you want to call it is only for Holiday stations. So, Cub specifically has set it up with Holiday. The coupons are also only good up to 14 gallons. So, on a $10 grocery bill, and you fill up 14 gallons, you save a whopping 14 cents.

The more groceries you buy, the better your savings of course. This year, unlike last year, the program changed a little bit. Last year, only one coupon was good for redemption. Now you can use up to three. Say you have a one-cent-off

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