This morning, petrol prices have hit their highest ever prices as the fuel crisis deepens. The 5p reduction in fuel duty, recently implemented by Rishi Sunak to help take the pressure off the price of fuel for drivers, has been swallowed up already THIS MONTH, even though we are just seven days in!
The average litre of petrol now costs 175.5p, up from 168.8p last week - the previous record high. At the same time, figures show a litre of diesel is setting drivers back 185.3p, compared to 181.5p a week ago, and looking at my local petrol stations, this figure is on the low side, with diesel at 189.9p at petrol at 188.9p!
Petrol has risen in price 21% since the start of the year, and diesel 24%, and it's a distinct possibility that we are only weeks away from a £2 per litre price point becoming a sad reality.
The RAC has suggested a few days to save fuel to help with the costs, including:
Drive light - Don't overload your vehicle; every extra kilo costs you more in fuel costs.
Don't use your air-con or heating unless essential, as these all use additional fuel.
If you have roof boxes or rails, remove them as they create drag, which lowers the vehicle's efficiency.
Only use your cruise control on flat roads such as motorways, as it's less economical if the cruise control is being used on higher incline road surfaces.
Don't drive at excessive speeds, even if under the speed limit; the faster you go, the more fuel you will burn, so although you might arrive quicker, your journey will cost you more.
Make sure you are using the highest gear possible all the time, as this is the most economical way to drive, as the lower the gear, the more fuel that gets used.
It's worth remembering to use the www.petrolprices.com site and app to find the lowest price locally and save you cash. Even travelling a couple of miles further than normal may save you a fair amount of money, over time, rather than using your most local petrol station!
Where you can use a credit/debit card with a cashback facility. Cards such as Chase give you 1% cashback on your purchases, which will soon add up, especially if we start seeing £2 per litre pricing!
If you don't have a cashback card, then you can still use cashback sites such as Karma Cashback and Topcashback to purchase gift cards for your local supermarket's petrol station, as you can often earn around 3% cashback by buying a gift card, which based on what is going to likely be £100 to fill a tank with fuel, (mines already at £110!), then that's a £3 ish saving each time, and for the motorist using a lot of fuel, that's going to add up quickly!
Also, ensure you are subscribed to all the petrol station loyalty schemes and scan your card each time you purchase, as generally, the more you scan, the more deals you will likely be offered. The deals can offer some decent savings, if not on fuel, then on other goods and services you might normally pay full price for...
Realistically fuel prices aren't expected to decrease over the rest of this year, so do all you can to save what you can, and as the weather gets better, using the bicycle or walking may become an excellent way to decrease costs or try and car share with someone else if possible, and split the fuel costs. cutting your journey costs dramatically, especially if several people get involved!
It's worth remembering that the increasing fuel costs also affect the price of items in the shops, after all, it's safe to say that every single item in every single shop has had to be moved by road at some point, and as haulier prices increase, as will the cost of the goods, as the retailers, can only subsidise these costs for so long. So budget for even higher prices in the shops as the year progresses, and add in the price cap on our electricity and gas likely to rise significantly in the Autumn, so every penny saved now will count now and in the not so distant future...