Do we have them on the run?

OK, does anyone want to hazard a guess as to why the price of fuel has been going down? Gas is now under $2 per gallon in some places, from a high above $3.60. OK, Americans, let us assume that the natural factors of us driving less is pushing the price down. If this is the case, now is NOT the time to let off and retern to "normal."

Now is the time to try and take it a notch further. Are you planning your daily trips carefully, cutting out one or two per week? Have you managed to carpool to work one day per week?

I suppose the average car mileage is about 12,000 per year in America. If you start watching the ol' odometer, and aim at 900 miles per month instead of 1000, you can begin to add up the difference.

If everybody aimed at one day per week of carpool, not specifically to save money, but to "save some gas for later," it will put even more pressure on the oil supply chain, as stockpiles grow and leftover inventories build. The suppliers are eager to buy oil when they know it can be sold, but oil is an amazingly expensive thing to keep around if you can't sell it, and frugal driving can help to push it down even further.

Now that you are saving some cash for Christmas, now is no time to blow it all on a road trip to the relatives. Look into train and bus travel on the eastern seabord and in other regions - they are supposed to use less fuel per person-mile. Who knows? Without driving, you might have a holiday that feels more like a holiday..