Calculate your vacation gas budget

If you will be driving the family car to Disney World you will, now more than ever with fluctuating gas prices, want to include the cost of gas in your budget. AAA has a handy calculator that will help you determine what gas for your trip will cost. Go to: www.fuelcostcalculator.com.

In the Select Your Criteria box, enter your city or the closest major city listed, enter Orlando in the Destination box, and then supply information about the make and model of your vehicle. Press Calculate to see the Results. The number of miles, gallons used, and fuel cost, based on regional averages, will be given for both one-way and round-trip.

But, it is also a good idea to know how many miles per gallon your particular vehicle gets. Many new vehicles calculate miles per gallon of gas for you and displays this information in the instrument panel. If yours does not you can calculate it the old fashioned way; just follow the steps listed below. Depending on how much you drive, it may take several weeks to get a good average figure.

1. Put paper, pen, and a small calculator in your car to record number of gallons of gas and miles driven each time you fill up.
2. Fill your tank completely each time you get gas.
3. While your tank is filling, reset your trip meter or write down your car’s mileage.
4. Try not to fill up again until your tank is almost empty.
5. The next time you fill up, check your trip meter for the number of miles driven since you last filled up, or calculate the difference between the current mileage on your odometer and the mileage that you wrote down the last time you filled up.
6. Next, write down the number of gallons of gas it took to refill your tank. The number of gallons should be shown on the gas pump.
7. Divide the number of miles driven (the number you got in step 5) by the number of gallons of gas (from step 6). The result is your gas mileage.

Because your driving habits may vary, you will get a more accurate picture of the gas mileage your particular vehicle gets by figuring your mileage over a period of days or weeks, depending on how often you have to fill up, and then averaging those results.

Once you know your vehicle’s gas mileage and you have mapped out your route, you can go to:
www.gasbuddy.com, to see average gas prices along your route. Using this method, as well as AAA’s fuel cost calculator, you should be able to get a reasonable idea of how much to budget for your trip.