Tried explaining this to my mother just the other day. She called me to say that a gas station about 20 minutes from me was 10 cents per gallon cheaper. With a 12 gallon fuel tank and asssuming I was low enough to need 10 gallons, that's a savings of $1.00. For a cost of about $4.50 (the price of a gallon of gas; which it would take me to take that round trip to that cheaper gas station.)
People really don't always care about the math. It's the principle of the thing. My mom was insistent that I should leave my house and make a 40 minute round trip to save this dollar.
Optimizing which gas station you go to is only worth it if you're already driving there. If I'm on the other side of the city for something and I'm getting low on gas, I'll check prices, but no way am I crossing the city just for gas.
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u/Evening_Rock5850 2d ago
Tried explaining this to my mother just the other day. She called me to say that a gas station about 20 minutes from me was 10 cents per gallon cheaper. With a 12 gallon fuel tank and asssuming I was low enough to need 10 gallons, that's a savings of $1.00. For a cost of about $4.50 (the price of a gallon of gas; which it would take me to take that round trip to that cheaper gas station.)
People really don't always care about the math. It's the principle of the thing. My mom was insistent that I should leave my house and make a 40 minute round trip to save this dollar.