Today, with the price of oil skyrocketing into the stratosphere and taking everything else with it, most of us complain about prices at gas stations. Unfortunately, many of us treat the cost of filling up the tank like we treat the weather: we complain, but we don’t really do anything about it. Fortunately, unlike the weather, there are several things we can do to help ourselves that won’t cost us a dime.

Tip number 1: don’t mistake your car for a dragster.

We share the road with many people walking away from a red light, treating the light change as the beginning of a race to get away from the intersection.

From time to time, we may have a good reason to charge down the road away from a permanent stop. We may have to turn a short distance, for example, and our inattention has left us in the wrong lane. Or our lane may be ending, we’ll have to merge, and we don’t want to get caught behind a “sloth”. But every time we do, we waste gas: speeding sucks up fuel like a dry sponge sucks up water, and doing it as a habit or routine will cause our mileage to plummet as our gas bill soars to new highs. Gently stepping on the gas (starting gently and smoothly after a stop, instead of showing off our car’s muscles) will do wonders for our budget.

Tip number 2: save the brakes and spoil the emir’s earnings.

Just like pulling off the starting blocks at a stoplight will use gas, squealing braking not only wears out your brakes, it also wastes fuel. There’s a good reason city mileage is worse than highway mileage: It’s easier to maintain a given speed than it is to accelerate to it. And so a driver who constantly speeds away from one traffic light and stops abruptly at the next uses more fuel than one who can maintain a constant speed and avoid braking altogether. And the driver following out the back door will slam on the brakes with every flash of the brake lights in front of him, not only making everyone nervous, but also lowering your mileage.

The best drivers in the city will try to maintain a speed that allows them to navigate smoothly through one light after another while seeing as little red as possible. And they’ll let off the throttle long before they have to stop. Doing so not only prevents brake wear; It also greatly increases gas mileage. Taken together, using a “light foot” on the gas, rather than switching between a “heavy foot” on the gas and another on the brake, can increase your mileage by up to a third.

Tip number 3: Your car gets better mileage going forward than stopped.

Hybrid cars achieve much of their phenomenal gas mileage by turning off their engines whenever possible and running on batteries whenever they can.

A conventional car doesn’t really have that option – turning off the engine in most cars means the car can’t move. Of course, this is less of an issue when the car isn’t moving in the first place.

Turning off your car at every traffic light and stop sign is really not good for the car. And one day, you may even find yourself on the wrong side of an argument with a disgruntled trucker. But when you’re stuck at a railroad crossing, watching a train, or waiting for someone to show up at a store to buy something, you’re not going anywhere. And despite what your grandfather may have told you, restarting a car with a modern fuel injection system isn’t really wasteful: in fact, it’s one of the most efficient things you can do.

No matter how efficient the engine, a car that isn’t moving gets zero miles per gallon and uses gas at a rate of about half a mile per minute. Even the worst gas guzzler can do better than that. So if you’re going to be stuck in the same spot for longer than the time it takes for the traffic light to change, you’d better turn off the engine.

Tip 4: Consolidate your trips as well as your wallet.

It’s no secret that a warmed-up engine gets better gas mileage than one that’s still cranking itself.

Planning your trips to consolidate your wanderings, making several stops to do all your shopping in one outing, instead of spreading it out throughout the day, has a lot to commend. And among the main benefits you’ll notice is the effect on your weekly fuel bill.

Tip 5: Don’t pretend the freeway is the Indy race track.

Lastly, it’s no secret that speeding on the highway carries risks. It also sends more of your money into the pockets of the oil companies.

It takes energy to move a car. The faster you go, the more is needed, not only to propel the engine, but also to supply the extra force needed to overcome air resistance that a car traveling at higher speeds will encounter. Estimates vary, and savings will vary, too, depending on road and conditions, but slowing down by ten miles per hour can probably increase your mileage by 10 percent.

Every car is different, and some cars are more aerodynamically efficient than others. But each car will have its own optimum road speed, based on air resistance and engine efficiency. Keeping track of your own mileage between fill-ups will let you know what your car’s maximum cruising speed is. Once you find it, you will have the option to save your money or arrive at your destination a few minutes earlier. For most of us, the choice should be a no-brainer.