No sooner had we returned from our relaxing holiday, than it was back to the grind.
For me, that means getting back behind the wheel of our trusty ol' car, which I affectionately call my office. I am, after all, the chief chauffeur of the household, amongst other things.
I wish I could say that I've always been very diligent about managing my fuel usage and maximising my fuel efficiency, but that wouldn't be true. My husband and I do monitor our fuel usage, though this doesn't go much beyond resetting our trip odometer every time we fill up. We'd take note of the mileage we rack up on each tank and complain about the "lousy fuel" if the numbers fall short of our usual 300+km per tank.
I guess it's timely therefore that we (the husband and I) will be embarking on the Shell FuelSave Blogger Challenge, and challenging ourselves to stretch our dollar and improve our fuel efficiency while using Shell FuelSave Unleaded petrol.
I'm actually quite excited about this as I've always felt that we could do more to make our tank of petrol last longer. We drive an MPV (read: big and heavy car) and I do a lot of what I call "super urban driving". I make plenty of short trips throughout the week to nearby destinations, bringing the kids to school, to classes, on outings and back again. I rarely use the expressway. Instead, there are lots of traffic lights and plenty of stopping. It probably is the least fuel-saving way to use a car but that's the way it is in this household. As such, you can imagine that any improvement at all to our fuel-efficiency would be a big plus.
To help us on this journey, the first thing we did was to arm ourselves with a Shell FuelSave Log Card, which is available at all Shell stations. Before you can improve your fuel efficiency, you first have to be aware of your fuel efficiency level, and that is what this handy little card helps you to keep track of. All you have to do is to remember to log down the number of litres of petrol pumped and your odometer reading every time you fill up. From there you do some simple calculations to find out the distance you travelled on a tank of petrol and your fuel efficiency level.
We were then given some help in the form of a workshop conducted by a Shell FuelSave Scientist with lots of helpful tips on how to improve our fuel efficiency. There are actually a lot of small things that you can do which can add up to have a big impact on your fuel efficiency. Even before driving, making sure that your car is in good condition by having a well-tuned engine and ensuring that your types are inflated at the right pressure will help improve fuel economy. And driving tips like avoiding over revving as well as shutting off the engine to avoid excess idling had me looking at the husband knowingly.
I'm about a week into putting the Shell FuelSave Tips into practice at the moment, and you know what? I've already learnt so much about my driving and my car. I've also turned this into a mini-competition between my husband and I, which I'll tell you more about in my next post, together with some of my own tips (as well as those I learnt from friends!) for stretching your fuel further.
If you're feeling like you spend too much on fuel (like we always do), then you might want to consider taking up this challenge yourself. Grab a Log Card and try out these Shell FuelSave Tips and see if it makes a difference.
This is also a great time to try out Shell FuelSave Unleaded petrol as from 19 May to 13 July 2014, Shell is running a promotion where you stand to win the equivalent of your fuel purchase when you spend a minimum of $50 on Shell fuels! Just spot the winning message at the back of your Shell receipt. What's more, Shell Escape members with these winning receipts stand a chance of winning an additional $100 by sharing a photo of their winning moment on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #WinWith Shell. More details can be found here.
Some of the other bloggers who will be joining us on this Shell FuelSave Challenge are our friends and fellow bloggers from Princess Dana Diaries, In The Wee Hours, Cherieladie and Sengkang Babies. Do check out their blogs to read about their fuel saving experience and tips as well!
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