Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Let Me Jot That Down...

Ok all you GGWB's (there has GOT to be a better acronym for this little journey - someone leave one in the comments, please!) I've got another pre-task for you. This is a really easy one, I promise!

Grab a pencil and a notebook and put them in your car.

Seriously.

That's it.

I told you this would be easy.

Curious? I was too, but outside of this one time I got really drunk in college, I never really... Oh, you mean about the notebook. Ahem. yeah. The pencil and notebook are for recording your gas consumption. Every time you fill 'er up, be sure to write 'er down.

This will make it so much easier to track your usage. When I first started tracking my numbers for the Riot, I just took the dollar amount from my monthly budget and divided it by the average price of gas for the month. My how things change! With the constant increases in the price of gas, it's hard to calculate an accurate weekly average!

So we'll do things the old fashioned way instead. Every time you put gas in the car, write down the number of gallons (or litres or whatever) you guzzled. If you're a commuter, (yeah for you!) then write down the number of miles commuted and the type of transport used. And if you're a biker and/or walker, well, you're already ahead of the curve! Three points for you. :-)

Got other suggestions for tracking your gasoline consumption? Join the discussion at the Yahoo Group!

6 comments:

Green Bean said...

Hmm. I'm lazy (shocker, no?). We charge all of our gas and then, at the end of the month, I go back through the statement and divide it by the gas price. Yours is, I'm sure, easier but for slackers like me . . .

Anonymous said...

How about...
Going Green Generation...the 3G's

Anonymous said...

Going Green Group...that's still The 3G's.
(Worked for Barry, Robin and Maurice)

Anonymous said...

Woohoo - I like starting with an easy one! We already do this and note gallons pumped, mpg per the car computer, mpg per our own calculations, and anything unusual about the driving we did while we used that tank (long road trip, lots of short hops, etc.) We'll also write down when we change oil, when we fill the tires up, and other such stuff. Is it necessary to write all this down? Nope. But with all that info we can start to see how our specific behaviors affect our mileage.

Looking forward to going green with you all...

ruchi said...

If you wait until the tank gets empty, you'll be filling up about the same amount of gas every time. Like, I always know that I'm filling up about 12 gallons in my tank. So if my credit card bill says I went to the gas station twice in a month, I filled 24 gallons. Again it's the slacker option, but it works for me....

Tina Cardone said...

I used my notebook today, and I'm a fan. Maybe its the math teacher in me, but I really enjoyed filling out all my neatly written columns (date, gallons, miles since last fill up, miles per gallon and odometer reading). Plus, it makes it super easy to update my carbon diet (www.carbondiet.org).