I can't believe the price of gas is again creeping up to $3.25 a gallon in my area. I wish the current government would begin to take a more rigorous approach to finding alternate fuel sources and develop legislation that demands automobiles run on other substances besides ongoing oil dependency for the, not so distant, future. But I imagine that is hard for them to do considering current leading government officials make money through their oil business.

What can we do..... Well driving less or participating in a car pool are certainly options. Ride a bike, walk...that's great exercise.

However, if you need to get to work and there is no mass transit, as is the case in Southern California, then taking a more strategic approach to filling your tank is an absolute necessity.

I have a navigator in my car that has the MSN Direct service. It is supposed to allow the user to search for gas prices whenever the user is on the road. The service is free for the first year. However, I find the gas prices it provides are often three days old. I would find no reason to renew the MSN Direct feature after my one year is up.

Alternatively, there are many websites that provide what is supposed to be current gas price information that is search-able in a database. In checking one of the sites, gasprices.mapquest.com, I see that the cheapest gas is currently located in Las Vegas Nevada. There a gallon of gas can be had at the SpeeDee Mart. How can this be? Are they getting their gas from right under their gas station? Alternatively, the highest priced gas in the USA is currently at $4.00 a gallon. How can such a disparity exist?

OK, life's not fair.

I want to pass on these websites that I found that track current gas prices and allow you to search their database. Most of them tell you the time frame that the price was found. As I mentioned the MSN Direct feature in my car reports prices that are three days old. But I think it is worth investigating this resources for our specific areas to see if there is a way to save some money.

Here they are:

MapQuest Gas Prices

GasBuddy: This site does show the day and time the price was found.

Gas Price Watch: This site provides information from motorists informers. It let you know if the price is less than 12 hours old, less than 24 hours, or more than 24 hours.

In my area Coscto has consistently had the best prices around. The only glitch is that it is not so convenient to always get there. I have had to get better with planning my gas trips and when choosing between two local Costcos for shopping, I always go to the one that also has gas.

Learn more about this author, Karen Stevens.
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