As everyone knows, gas prices seem to be going up and down every week now a day. Gas prices also vary from gas station to gas station which causes us to look for the gas station with the lowest prices. The question is: Is it really worth driving around to the gas station with the lowest price per gallon? Like most I am a working student who does not have time to find other means of transportation other than my car because I can not be late to school and I most definitely can not be late to work. Having a vehicle for transportation is becoming more expensive as the days go by. No one can ever expect to know what the gas prices will be like tomorrow. One day they go way up high to about $2.64 per gallon and the next day they are back down to about $2.41, of course that's just an estimation of what I have seen. It is very frustrating since the price is always changing managing money becomes a little more complicated because you never know what to expect.
Everyone thinks that because gas is about $0.03 cents less at the gas station down the street that they are going to save a lot more money. For example, I live in the northeast side of town, and sometimes I drive to the east side to do run errands, gas always seems to be lower on the east side of town. It is not too much lower approximately $0.06 cents my argument though is that of course it is not worth trying to find the gas station with the lowest price because it wastes time, along the way after pumping gas there will be a gas station with a lower price, and it also wastes gas driving to the gas station out of the way and a little further down the street.
Finding the gas station with the lower price per gallon wastes time looking for it, driving there, and waiting in the line of cars that think a lot of money is being saved. In the time it took to look for that gas station with the "magical" price you could have already been finding a free pump. In the time it took to drive to that gas station with the "magical" price you could have already paid. Also in the time it took waiting in line for your turn at the gas station with the "magical" price you could have been putting the pump away and putting the cap back on the gas tank. By the time that it is time to pump gas at the one with the "magical" price you could have been on your way to where you were going to go in the first place. After being done pumping gas at the gas station with again, the "magical" price you finally drive off about 5 minutes later only to find that the gas station up the street and around the corner would have saved you about one to two more cents than you already "saved". So either way two more cents are paid and now the frustration comes thinking, "why didn't I drive up the street?" Now not only did you waste time but money also! Finally, now that time and money were already wasted, its time to think about the gas you wasted which also means money that you wasted. If a gallon of gas is about $2.50 at the highest and $2.47 at the next gas station and the transportation takes about 15 gallons only $0.45 cents are being saved. Maybe $0.45 cents is a lot to someone else but personally I think it is a waste of time to drive around looking for the best price when all I'm going to save is $0.45 cents. Those who want to save time and now wait in time will pay those extra few cents but those who have time to frustrate themselves looking for the best price will save a few cents each time, but money can not buy time.