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By Samntha Lee, Pro Money Secrets. 18 September 2026 – 11: 24 AM
I filled up last week and genuinely did a double take at the pump. Not because I didn’t know prices were up — I’ve been writing about why they’re up — but because knowing something and watching the number tick past what you expected are two very different experiences.
There’s a lot of advice floating around about saving fuel. Some of it is useful. A fair bit is nonsense dressed up as wisdom. So I’ve narrowed it to five things that genuinely move the needle, based on what actually works rather than what sounds clever at a barbecue.
Fair warning: none of these are exciting. The boring ones are the ones that work.
1. Slow down a bit — this is the big one
If you do nothing else, do this.
Fuel efficiency drops off noticeably above about 90km/h. The car has to push more air out of the way, and the energy cost of that climbs steeply the faster you go. Sitting on 110 instead of 100 on a long run burns meaningfully more fuel for a few minutes saved.
I tested this on a Brisbane–Gold Coast run once, purely out of curiosity. Same car, same route, a week apart. The slower trip used clearly less fuel and arrived about six minutes later. Six minutes.
It’s not just speed, it’s smoothness
Hard acceleration and late braking are where fuel disappears without you noticing.
The habit that helped me most was simple: look further ahead. If you can see the lights turning red four hundred metres away, easing off early costs you nothing and saves the fuel you’d have spent accelerating toward a stop.
Sounds obvious. Almost nobody does it consistently.
2. Check your tyre pressure properly
Underinflated tyres make the engine work harder for every single kilometre. It’s a small, constant tax on your fuel bill.
Most people check tyres when something feels wrong. By then you’ve been driving on soft tyres for months.
A few things I’d suggest:
- Check monthly. Set a phone reminder if you’re forgetful. I am, so I did.
- Check when the tyres are cold. Driving heats the air inside and gives you a falsely high reading.
- Use the number on the door jamb, not the one on the tyre wall. The tyre number is a maximum, not a recommendation.
- Don’t forget the spare. A flat spare is useless at exactly the wrong moment.
Bonus: correctly inflated tyres also last longer and handle better. This is one of those rare jobs where every outcome is positive.
3. Stop carrying things you don’t need
Extra weight costs fuel. So does anything that ruins the car’s airflow.
The roof rack is the main offender. An empty roof rack or roof box left on year-round quietly costs you fuel every day, and most people leave them up because taking them off is a twenty-minute hassle.
I know someone who drove around for most of a year with a roof box holding camping gear he used twice. When I pointed out what that was likely costing him, he removed it that weekend. Whether he ever put it back on, I don’t know.
Inside the car, be realistic. A few things in the boot won’t ruin your economy. But if you’re hauling around tools, sports equipment or the mystery box you’ve been meaning to take to the tip since autumn, clear it out.
Air conditioning: the eternal argument
Here’s where the advice gets slightly annoying, because the answer depends.
Around town at low speed, air conditioning uses noticeably more fuel than open windows. On the highway, open windows create enough drag that the air conditioning is usually the better option.
In practice? In a Queensland summer, use the aircon and stop feeling guilty. Arriving somewhere drenched in sweat to save a tiny amount of fuel is a poor trade.
4. Plan your trips — this saves more than people expect
Short trips from cold are the most expensive kilometres you drive. The engine hasn’t warmed up, everything is running inefficiently, and the distance is too short for it to sort itself out.
Three separate ten-minute errands cost far more fuel than one thirty-minute loop covering all three.
So:
- Batch your errands. Post office, groceries, hardware — one trip, one warm engine.
- Think about the order. Furthest first, then work your way back, tends to be more efficient than zigzagging.
- Avoid peak hour where you can. Stop-start traffic is brutal on consumption. Leaving twenty minutes earlier sometimes saves both time and fuel.
- Use traffic apps properly. The shortest route isn’t always the cheapest one. A slightly longer route with free-flowing traffic often wins.
One more thing that sounds trivial but isn’t. If you’re waiting somewhere for more than a minute or two, switch the engine off. Idling burns fuel to go precisely nowhere.
5. Be smarter about where and when you buy
You can’t control the global oil price. You can control which servo you pull into.
Learn your local price cycle
Fuel prices in most Australian capital cities move in rough cycles — a steady decline over a period, then a sharp jump back up. Filling up near the bottom of that cycle rather than the top makes a real difference over a year.
The free fuel price apps do this reasonably well now. They’ll show you what’s cheap nearby and whether prices are trending up or down. It takes about fifteen seconds to check before you leave the house.
A few habits worth having
- Don’t fill up at the first convenient place. Highway servos and CBD sites are consistently dearer.
- Use your discount dockets, but check the base price first. A four-cent discount on an expensive site is still expensive.
- Don’t drive across town to save two cents a litre. I’ve watched people do this. The maths does not work, and neither does the logic.
- Consider paying attention to fuel type. If your car genuinely runs fine on standard unleaded, premium is often an expensive habit rather than a necessity. Check your manual — some cars do require it.
The one that isn’t a tip, but matters most
Here’s the thing I’d say if we were having a coffee rather than reading an article.
Every tip above shaves a percentage. Useful, and they add up. But the single largest saving available to most households is driving less — combining trips, working from home one more day, walking the short distances, or occasionally leaving the car at home.
I’m aware that’s easy to say and harder to do. Not everyone has public transport that works, or a job that allows flexibility, or a suburb where walking to the shops is realistic. In many outer suburbs the car isn’t a choice.
So take what applies and ignore what doesn’t. There’s no single answer here, and anyone who tells you there is probably isn’t paying for their own fuel.
Quick recap
If you want the short version:
- Ease off the accelerator — smooth driving beats fast driving, every time
- Check tyre pressure monthly — cheapest fix available
- Lose the roof rack and the boot clutter — weight and drag both cost you
- Batch your trips — cold starts are the expensive ones
- Use a fuel app and learn the price cycle — fifteen seconds, real savings
Start with the tyres. It takes five minutes at any servo, costs nothing, and you’ll feel mildly smug about it for the rest of the week.
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