Frugal Fergal

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that petrol is getting more and more expensive it'll keep going up, especially when VAT returns to 17.5% (or possibly higher with future governments). And with the government facing an ever-growing budget deficit, taxing motorists is easy cash.

So how can you cut your petrol costs? Well, there's the obvious expensive means: buy a smaller engined car. Convert to LPG. Buy a G-Wiz, Tesla (ooooo) or other electric car. I'm not interested in those. I'm interested in saving cash by not spending loads, so here's how I save a fortune on petrol short of walking or reverting to public transport.

Shop Around For Petrol

I bet you shop around for your car insurance, electrical appliances and utilities, so why not petrol? Thankfully petrolprices.com is just the site you need. Register for free, enter your postcode or town name and find the cheapest petrol in your area.

I use this site as soon as I start to feel the petrol light is about to come on. There are however a couple of things to keep in mind when checking petrol prices

1. It doesn't make sense to drive 15 miles out of your way to save a couple of pence a litre, unless you're filling a tanker
2. petrolprices.com doesn't show ALL the petrol stations. You may have a smaller retailer who is cheaper.
3. Don't forget your 5p discount coupons from the likes of Sainsburys and Tescos.

Streamline

Got an empty roof rack or empty roof box on your car? Lose them. Got junk in the junk? Lose it. Got flat tires? Pump them up. Low on oil? Top it up.

These are all simple little things that people often overlook and forget that they actually have quite a dramatic impact on the efficiency of your vehicle. Remember how good your fuel consumption was the day you drove your car out of the showroom? Well, I bet it didn't have flat tires, a boot full of junk and bits stuck on the roof.

Drive Smarter

This is the biggest contributor to your fuel bill - the driving part. If you don't drive, you don't use fuel and thus you don't spend money, however you're not going to get anywhere with the engine turned off.

That said, you may want to consider turning off the engine when stopped at traffic lights and other times where you're not moving for anything more than about 30 seconds. An idling car can use 15-25ml of fuel per minute. If you're left idling on average for a minute at 15 sets of traffic lights in one journey, you've just lost nearly three quarters of a litre of petrol doing nothing. Oh, and don't worry about using more fuel when starting; modern cars use very little fuel when starting, unless of course you over rev when you start the car.

When it comes to driving itself, drive as James May does - "like a Christian" and keep these tips in mind...

• Keep off the brakes: unless you absolutely have to. On familiar roads, the only reason you should be braking is for other vehicles and traffic lights. You know where the junctions and bends are, you know where the 30- and 40-mph zones are, so lift your foot, drop a gear, and drive properly.
• Coast: at every opportunity. Just lift your foot and let gravity and momentum do their bit. This is free energy, so you may as well use it. Be sure to leave the car in gear though. This will keep the fuel usage to almost nothing, which is less than idling which you'd be doing if you dropped to neutral.
• Be gentle: this means no tailgating, over revving or burning off the lights at breakneck speeds. All of these waste petrol with unnecessary braking and excessive accelerating. Pull off from stops slowly and gently and change gears early. When you're going, leave plenty of room between you and the car in front: you'll be amazed at how often you won't need to use your brakes.
• No speeding: it wastes petrol and can get your fined.
• Use your gears: learn the right gear for the right speed for your car. Modern cars will use more fuel when labouring under the pressure of using the wrong gear. They'll also burn loads of petrol if you change too late.

These driving tips regularly see me getting around 50mpg in my Golf GT 170, despite the occasional quick burn on a quiet dark road, and when combined with the earlier tips, you could be spending a lot less time at the pump and enjoy a much fuller wallet for longer.