The slow down, waste time experiment?

I've been trying to save gas, really, I have.

I've been trying to do my little part in decreasing our dependency on oil. I've been trying to do my little part in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. And because my parts in these matters are so very miniscule (but, I believe, worthwhile), I've been most interested in the effect that decreasing my auto fuel consumption might have on my bank account.

I admit, I didn't think gas prices would get this high this year. The cheap stuff is $4.29 in my neighborhood, but last night when I was in the city, it was $4.74. Yes, the cheap stuff. That's Chicago: the frequent leader in gas prices and sales tax (which is now 10.25%, but that's another topic for another day). Luckily, I had filled up "cheaply" earlier in the day.

Now, there are many ways to use less gas (drive less, use your temperature control wisely, keep your tires properly inflated, keep your car tuned up, etc.), but the only significant way I can try to use less gas is to slow down. I can't drive any less, I already use public transportation or ride my bike whenever possible, and I keep my car in pretty good condition. So, since May 6, I have been experimenting with capping my highway speeds at 60mph. That's down from my usual comfort zone of 80-85mph. I've documented each fill up, noting the number of gallons pumped and the distance traveled since my last fill up. And I've done the math, here and there. (Honestly, I still have a partial stack of receipts to finish crunching.) But time and time again when I compare my latest mileage with my pre-experiment mileage, I'm not seeing any mind-blowing results.

No matter what I do, no matter how fast or how slow or on what kind of road, I still get between 30 and 40 miles to the gallon, which ain't half bad.

But the reason I haven't posted any numbers yet is because my driving habits just aren't regular. For instance, I think the initial tank of gas that I'm comparing results to, the tank in which I drove balls-out at 85mph every chance I got, was driven almost entirely on the highway. Whereas recent tanks have seen, for instance, three highway round trips to the far west suburbs and one round trip into the city on side streets. So comparing these numbers isn't quite like comparing apples to apples. I want more data before posting any comprehensive results.

Meanwhile, today over at one of my favorite web sites, Ask MetaFilter, Sanka had this to say:

As my anecdote: I recently rented an 08 Hyundai Elantra to drive from Houston to San Antonio. I set the cruise at 75mph and used the A/C the entire way. After refilling up I calculated the mileage out to 37.5 mpg, 0.5 mpg better than advertised.

I'm feeling a lot like that. My good intentions are in place, but my equipment is all wrong. Like I'm preaching to the choir, the choir being my all too fuel efficient car. (A Toyota Matrix, for those keeping score.) Why didn't I try this experiment when I drove my last car, an SUV? That old Ford Explorer was a good car, but a proper gas guzzler, too. Well...had I done the experiment back then, I expect my blog entries might have looked something like this:

Ran the numbers again today, and no matter what I do, my gas mileage still sucks!!!

How to save $500 per month: I wish!

My favorite personal finance blog, Get Rich Slowly, posted today about ways to cut your spending by $500/month. My brain immediately perked up when I read that headline, because I pay down my credit card debt by $500 each month, and it would be great to either: 1) pay them $500 more per month, or 2) have $500 to spend on other things, because most of my disposable income goes to my credit card debt.

So let's look at the excerpt:

Cut your spending by $500 per month
The Consumer Reports Money Lab looked for easy ways for the average American to save money. They came up with six suggestions and estimated potential savings for the average consumer. Here are their suggestions....

1. Find cheaper auto insurance. By shopping around, the average person can save $65 per month.
2. Optimize your life insurance. Premiums have dropped in the past ten years, the article notes. It may be worth replacing an existing policy. Also, by adopting a healthier lifestyle, you can cut costs. Average savings? $110.
3. Shop smart for food. CR cites U.S. Department of Agriculture data indicating the average family of four can drop its grocery bill by nearly $200 per month though smarter shopping.
4. Stop paying bank fees. The average U.S. household pays more than $25 per month in bank fees. There’s no reason to do so.
5. Call up cell phone savings. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average family spends $90 on phone-related expenses. Consumer Reports suggests checking to be sure you’re not paying for too many minutes.
6. Pay off your credit card. If you can get out of debt, you’ll not only save on finance charges, but you’ll also free up the cash that was going to pay the principal. Estimated monthly savings: $65.

SIGH. I can not comply. That sigh is all I can do. Allow me to explain, point by point:

1. I only pay $65 per month for auto insurance.
2. I have no life insurance (therefore I pay no premium).
3. Look, I bitch about how much fresh produce costs, but I barely spend $200/month at the grocery store on food.
4. I pay maybe a couple bucks a month in bank fees. Too much, but certainly not $25.
5. My cell phone costs $55/month. I could check in to see if I could opt for fewer minutes since I'm not much of a phone gabber, but I wouldn't be able to save more than about $10.
6. DUH. That's what I need to save this $500/month for.

The thing is, I make a decent living. Really. I always blow away the figures for average household income. And day to day, I don't live extravagantly. (I keep my cars for many years, I've never bought a diamond, etc.) There are certainly things I do that cost money (like, I have 4-5 trips planned between now and the end of September, but they're all domestic, and they're short and relatively cheap for vacations).

But the main thing that kills my budget is the cost of living where I do. So over the next few days I'm going to start talking about budgets, linking to other blogs that are doing the same, and analyzing any and every possible place I might start looking to save money that doesn't involve moving or not enjoying life.

Slow down. Save gas. Save earth. Spread the word.

As a follow-up from yesterday's post, The slow down, save gas experiment, I am offering you a way to help spread the word about this simple thing that we can all do to help save gas.

Remember, by using less gas, you will:
1) Save money
2) Use less of a finite resource
3) Stem global warming

So without further ado, I am offering three bumper stickers that you can proudly display to let others know what you're doing to help lessen our use of oil:



A portion of proceeds will be donated to Environmental Defense Fund (see also their Charity Navigator rating).

The slow down, save gas experiment

I am a lead foot.

I like to drive fast, and by that I mean, I always drive fast. I pick the fastest lane and keep up with the fastest car in it (except for those guys who zigzag through traffic at 100mph; they're just nuts), passing cars on the right that have no business being in the fast lane. Friends call my car "Tardis" because when we drive somewhere in it, we always reach our destination faster than anybody previously thought possible. I was pulled over seven times before even graduating high school, so early in life I knew what I was and that there was little use in fighting it. [Sidebar: although one time it was for blowing through a stop sign (a tree branch was hanging in front of it, I swear; I couldn't have possibly seen it in time to stop at the speed I was driving) and another time it was for changing lanes without using a turn signal and cutting off a cop. But I am anal retentive about using my turn signal and there is no way I wouldn't have seen that cop, as my convertible's top was down so there were no obstructions. I fought the cop on that one and won, which is a good thing, because I didn't have my driver's license due to a recent speeding incident. But I digress.]

Driving fast is how I behave naturally, anyway. That's the way my genes expressed themselves. Left to my own devices my favorite speed is 85mph, and I have been overheard asking slower folks if they are actually interested in reaching their destination.

Before you jump down my throat, understand that on the highways around where I live, I am not alone. Not only am I not alone, but it actually does feel a little dangerous to travel the speed limit, which is 55mph. (On I-294, 75 is about average.) And there is nothing worse than the traffic buildup that occurs when a cop pulls onto the highway and everyone slows down to the speed limit. People do not know what to do with themselves when they can't pass that cop. Their right feet twitch. Their blood pressures rise. All you see is a visual cacophony of flashing brake lights ahead of you because each driver is chomping at the bit to get out of the cop-traffic-buildup.

But as I age into an older, gentler person, I find myself becoming wiser as well. And there is simply no denying the fact that, if nothing else, lead foot driving wastes gas. With Earth's finite amount of oil and with our political barriers to obtaining all that our little American hearts desire, gas is something that we really should be proactively trying to conserve. In addition, gas is expensive already and the faster we drive, the more we use and therefore spend. With today's gas prices, the current factoid you'll hear is that for every 10mph you travel over 60mph, you're spending at least $0.50 more per gallon.

So in my current gung-ho mission of conservation, sustainable living, saving the environment and all that jazz, I decided to try changing my ways. I decided to find out just how much gas I am wasting by driving the way I do. So I've begun an experiment wherein I am tracking my driving and the gas I use, calculating both how much money and how much gas I can save by slowing down to 60mph. (I still ain't messing with 55mph, sorry.)

Of course this has been done before, but not by me. Nobody knows how much gas and money I am wasting by driving the way I do. And I suspect nobody really cares how much I am wasting, but maybe by making this contribution to the blogosphere, I'll help inspire somebody else to try the same thing, and in the end we'll be using a little less gas than we were before.

The experiment will be slow going, as my driving needs are erratic. Some weeks I drive only a few miles through town, and other weeks I drive 95 miles on the highway each day. So I need to compare comparable driving situations when doing the math. I will, of course, post my progress here.

Meanwhile, here are some related links for your educational pleasure:
Slow Down a Little, Save a Lot of Gas
Drive 55, save gas -- get flipped off - This one is great because it's from three years ago, when gas prices were hovering around the $3 mark (which was appalling at the time)
Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel
20 Tips to Save Money on Gas
How to Save Money on Gas - 29 Tips
Ask MetaFilter: Tricks to getting better MPG
Hey lead foot, if you want to save gas, slow down
How to save $0.54 per gallon on gas
Save More Gas by Safely Following Trucks
Gas May Finally Cost Too Much

Strawberries vs. chicken fingers: the cost of calories

The cost of healthy food is a pretty hot topic lately. Even ignoring current economic issues (which is hard to do: it's tough to pick up a newspaper without reading about how the cost of ingredients and gas are making food prices skyrocket), fresh foods are simply more expensive than processed foods. If you stick to buying the healthiest stuff at your supermarket: fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs, cheese, meats, that is, the stuff that the store displays on its outside walls, your grocery bill will be higher than if you select your items from within the aisles.

This is a much more involved issue than most people realize. Much of it goes back to the farm bill and subsidization to corn farmers. If you google for a moment you'll find articles in sources ranging from random bloggers like myself to the New York Times that focus on how Americans are so obese because a bag of chips (whose ingredients are heavy on corn) is so much less expensive, dollar-per-calorie, than healthier foods like fresh produce.

On a shallow level, I absolutely agree with that argument. People like my dad will say that chips are expensive. "$4 for a bag of snack food! How is that cheap?" But compare the number of calories in that $4 bag of chips (often over 1000) to the number of calories you'll get if you spend $4 on pears (200-400, depending on the season) and it's really obvious that the argument is valid.

But on a deeper level we should see that the argument, presented as I did above, isn't comparing apples to apples. The choice that lower-income families face isn't (or shouldn't be) pears vs. chips. There are numerous other aisles in the supermarket containing cheap pastas, beans, and other more convenient foods. People trying to save their earnings while staying healthy sure aren't taking a bunch of asparagus in one hand and a box of Oreos in the other hand and thinking, "Well, asparagus is far more nutritious, but dollar-per-calorie, I'm gonna have to go with the Oreos...." The contents of prepared pastas and boxed rice dishes aren't as pure as those in fresh produce, but there really is enough good stuff available to raise any growing boy without making him one of America's obese children.

And with that in mind, I am going to begin a series of articles comparing the cost of calories in different foods. My recent healthy eating kick has really opened my eyes to how expensive it is to live on foods like spinach, and I find myself looking back fondly at the days when I came closer to living on Banquet frozen foods, perpetually available at Jewel for $1 each. (Recently the discount went even deeper, to $0.88 each. Convenience food nirvana, let me tell you.)

This idea recently hit me hard when I was surprised by the nutritional information I entered for a couple of my meals (on fitday.com). Those two meals were: One pound of fresh strawberries (more like a big snack than a meal) and Banquet Chicken Fingers.

VS

Strawberries:
I buy strawberries when they are on sale. The sale is usually two pounds for the price of one (or, when the season is really high, four pounds for the price of two). Regardless, a half-price strawberry is a good find, if you can eat them fast enough. So one day I brought a pound-sized carton of strawberries with me to work. I ate the whole thing in one sitting. A pound of strawberries is more filling than I thought it would be. Fruits and vegetables are not very filling for me as a rule, which is one reason I've avoided them over the years. But strawberries did not disappoint. After being positive I screwed the pooch by eating the whole thing at once, I looked up the nutritional content of strawberries on nutritiondata.com and was surprised and somewhat alarmed to learn that one pound of strawberries contains only 144 calories. That pound of strawberries effectively cost me $2.50, so this large snack cost me $0.0174 per calorie. That's about one and three-fourths pennies.

Banquet Chicken Fingers:
Even during my current health food kick, I still consume a frozen meal about every other day. I prepare almost all of my food one way or another (as opposed to picking up food at a deli or McDonald's) so in order to eat all day long I have to resort to convenience foods at least once a day. For me, convenience foods mostly mean frozen meals, boxed pastas, and nutrition bars. Healthy Choice is my favorite frozen food brand but Banquet is the cheapest, so I stock both. (I should note that both brands are owned by ConAgra, so there is no violence in my freezer between the two related, not strictly competing, brands.) And when I grab a frozen meal out of the freezer, my mental calculator dishes up a caloric content between 300 and 400 calories, because that's what they tend to be. So you can imagine how shocked I was when I looked at the nutritional information on the package and learned that Banquet's Chicken Fingers boast a whopping 550 calories per serving. 550 calories! For $1! (I don't remember if I got this particular box for 88 cents, but that was a once-in-a-lifetime event so I'm going with the $1 figure.) The math tells me that this meal cost $0.002 per calorie. That's two-tenths of one cent. That is one cheap calorie.

The calorie deathmatch data:

Strawberries, one pound Calories: 144 Price: $2.50 Dollars-per-calorie: $0.0174 (1.74 cents)

Banquet Chicken Fingers meal Calories: 550 Price: $1 Dollars-per-calorie: $0.002 (1/5 of one cent)

To summarize: Banquet Chicken Fingers calories are so much cheaper than strawberry calories that you can buy 8.7 times the number of Chicken Finger calories as strawberry calories for the same amount of money.

Want it even more simply?

Spending the same amount of money*, you could live on strawberries for about one day, while you could live on Banquet Chicken Fingers for nearly nine days.
*In this case, that amount would be about $35, based on a 2,000-calorie diet.

Get it? Talking about fractions of pennies might not be as clear, but the above statement should hit you. The strawberry calorie, she is an expensive one.

This, my first article in the calorie deathmatch series, isn't necessarily comparing apples to apples either. But I think it's at least a little bit more relevant than comparing fresh produce to corn chips.