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I was driving from Kansas to Colorado and stopped for gas. Regular Unleaded was 3.19 and Premium Unleaded was 3.09. I meant to take a picture to prove it but I forgot. #ADD. So instead I stole this picture of an interesting gas pump from my friend Adam Norwest. What an interesting picture. So many choices. Anyway, back to my story. #ADD. When is premium cheaper than regular? That never happens. You run out of excuses at that point. So I put premium gas in my car. My car has 53 THOUSAND miles on it since November 2010. This is the first time I’ve ever put anything other than the lowest quality gasoline in it. Do cars get spoiled? How do I tell my car not to get used to that warm feeling in it’s engine? My car has known regular quality gasoline it’s entire life. Now all of a sudden he’s gonna find out I’ve been short changing him this whole time. Look. If I can’t afford to eat healthy, I’m damn sure not giving my car something better for it. Unless it’s less expensive. I don’t know why it’s less expensive, but I don’t ask questions. You want to give me Patron for the price of well tequila? Let’s do it!

An interesting question I’ve been getting is if I’m making any money. I blogged about it already, not much. but I thought I’d talk about how I save money. I use an app on my phone called GasBuddy which provides the cheapest gas stations anywhere in the country as well as average gas prices by state and county. I try to plan out the trip and if I know I’m entering a state with expensive gas prices, I will fill up as much as I can. I will spend an extra 5 minutes topping off. Holding the gas handle ever so slightly until it’s literally overflowing. When you fill up at full speed. The bubbles of the gas fill up your tank way faster. Like beer foam from the tap. I don’t know why I’m using alcohol examples. I’m thirsty? I don’t even drink beer. I just perform in lots of bars. So I know these things.

If you fill it as a slower speed. The gas doesn’t “foam up” and you can get much more liquid in. Sometimes an extra gallon or two. Then you hope it lasts you long enough to get to a cheaper state. Or you find the cheap county. in your state. One time I was in California, gas buddy found a station that was like 30 or 40 cents cheaper per gallon in some suburb of sacramento. It was only a few minutes off the freeway. Was it worth it? 30 cents a gallon. 13ish gallons is almost 4 bucks in savings on a full tank. If you save 4 bucks every time you fill up on a 5 week trip, let’s do the math.

If you’re driving almost 10,000 miles. Your car averages 350 miles between fill ups. You fill up about 28.5 times. 4 dollars each time is 114 dollars back in your pocket on this trip. Who knew math would come in handy once day? I don’t need gasbuddy in washington or on I-5 really because I know it so much. There’s one station at fife right off the freeway cheaper then the rest of the state by 10-15 cents. I’ll fill up to the top and try to get back there. I’ve driven I-5 so much, I know if I fill up in fife. I can make it to exit 99 in oregon where they have really cheap gas also on one tank. Then I can make it to the gas station in sacramento on one tank and then take my chances through the rest of California. Luckily for my wallet (not for my career) I don’t perform in CA much.

Check out this map from Gasbuddy.com. The red areas signal blood on the ground from rapey high gas prices. Now you know where the term “Midwest Road Comic” comes from. Lots of comics move to the midwest (because cities are much closer together than us sheltered NWesterners.) and drive from gig to gig, staying busy and earning XP points while keeping cost of living really low. Something to consider one day but I really like Seattle for now.