Save gas money in the morning?

Do you pump gas in the morning to save money? You may consider sleeping in.

According to a Consumer Reports article, you won't save money by pumping gas early in the morning. The advice is to pump gas in the early morning before the heat of the day causes the oil to increase in volume. The early morning gasoline will be denser, meaning you'll get more energy per gallon than later in the day. As gasoline goes from 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit, it increases in volume by 1%, while the energy content remains the same.

The facts are true, but the advice is not. Gasoline is stored underground where the temperature variation is little or none at all throughout the day. Craig Eerkes, former chairman of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America talks of an expansion of gas with a change in the day's temperature. Eerkes calls the change, "Just so, so minuscule as to be almost nonexistent." The first few gallons at the pump may be slightly warmer than the gallons to follow, due to the gas sitting in the pump dispenser which was warmed by the sun. Aside from that, the time of day will not make a difference in the weight of your wallet.

Judy Dugan, Research Director for the California advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, says, "If fuel is warm when it’s delivered to a station, it’ll still be warm when it’s sold a few hours later." So the real advice? Go to the pump whenever you would like. The gasoline temperature will not increase with the afternoon sun.

SAVINGS 101: Turn $5 into $12,000

High gas prices and stagnant wages are making it harder than ever to save money, but Marie Franklin of the Boston Globe has one trick that allowed her to save $12,000 in under three years.

Every single time a cashier hands you a five dollar bill, tuck it into a separate pocket of your purse or wallet and no longer think of it as money you can spend. Open a special bank account—one that you won’t withdraw from – just for this money.

Franklin suggests that each time you’ve accumulated $50 worth of fives, make a deposit. Without easy access to the money, it will be much less tempting to get off track.

The key to this strategy is to stop thinking about five dollar bills in the same way as the rest of the cash in your wallet. Instead, fives should be considered valid only at the bank — where you can put them into your account, but you can’t take them out.

Another saving tip inherent in the five dollar bill strategy is that in order to be able to stash away any sizable amount of money, you have to make most of your purchases in cash.

This allows you to set self-imposed limits because you can only spend as much as you’re carrying at any given time. In addition, studies have shown that people spend less when they physically have to hand over their money instead of just swiping a card.

Following the five dollar bill strategy, you could find $4,000 a year hidden in the money you already make. What would you do with so much extra savings? In her article, Franklin says people often ask her the same question. Her response: “I have no idea. I'm having too much fun watching it grow to want to spend it.”

--Bridget O'Sullivan