With the surge in gasoline prices lately, self employed people are wondering how these higher prices will effect their bottom line. Certainly you’ll pay more at the pump, and if you do a lot of road travel as part of your business, this can really add up. In addition, the cost of your supplies may increase as trucking companies and shippers also get hit with higher fuel costs.
One thing you can do is shop around for the least expensive gasoline in your area. GasPriceWatch.com and GasBuddy.com allow you to check out the prices in your area, and save up to 40 cents per gallon by just going to a different gas station. For instance, in my area, I can get gasoline in a nearby town for 30 cents less per gallon than a town just 10 minutes away. Sometimes it’s easy as going to a different gas station on a different street in the same town.
As always, try to economize by running all your errands at the same time. Better yet, try to order as much over the Internet, like office supplies and equipment, and save the trip to the store. Many online stores have free shipping, so you’ll save the cost of gas PLUS the cost of your time running around to stores.
Great article. Are biofuels available where you are? My fuel bill was getting too high for me to even visit clients, so I have switched to biofuel. It’s not only cheaper, but my car runs better on it. It is still taxed highly by the Government, though, which is crazy as they could be encouraging the use of bio fuels!
We’re lucky, Michelle, in that we work from home and work with clients/students over the phone. I only fill up the car every 2 weeks. 🙂