If petrol costs are hurting you, there are ways to help yourself. OK, I’m retired, but it doesn’t take me long to save hugely on petrol costs – by using a website that displays petrol prices. The one I use is petrolspy (with a .com.au after it). Different cities work differently, but a site like this lets you know which servo is still low after everybody else has bumped their price.
And in Queensland, we are served rather well – a recent law was passed, meaning that petrol stations MUST update their prices several times per day (or is it hourly?). Thus, one can be relatively sure that a price you see is still valid. One really good feature of petrolspy is that it shows the lowest price for the map area displayed in RED. And, as you shift the map, that feature remains valid for the new view.
I find that most places show a cycle of about 3 weeks and, not all servos jump together. In Brisbane, the first servos jumped from around $1.30 to $1.75 on Friday just gone. Today is Tuesday, and it is still possible to “top up” at $1.30 from a few servos in my area. I have two 20litre jerrycans that I fill whenever I find petrol at or near its lowest price. That amount keeps me going for further 7 – 10 days, thus I am not paying the highest prices after a fresh jump. In fact, I’ve been recording my petrol use for over 18 months and I’ve averaged a petrol price of $1.24 over that period. Shop vouchers come into play too…. :)
How have you gone? Do you search for the best prices? It can’t work for everybody, especially if you do high Kms, but for those who don’t, are you saving by using petrolspy or a similar website?
Benny
Another week has gone by now, and virtually all servos have followed their brethren to their current highs (around $1.70). But, using that website, one servo is easily identified in my area that has not lifted. Thus, I can top up at $1.41 saving nearly 30c a litre. Without using the website, I wouldn’t have known, as they are on a road I don’t use much.
Check it out – you could save yourself a lazy $25 when filling up. It’s like trivago for servos !! :)
By the way, Perth seems to have stuck with “Cheap Tuesday” so no need for this procedure. But other major cities seem to have around a 3 week cycle, so it is good to be able to flatten out the sine wave a bit. Darwin, Hobart and Canberra are a whole different case altogether, so this may not apply to you either. The graph on petrolspy tells all.
With two more years having passed, I thought it worthwhile updating you all with some hopeful news. Again, as a retiree I don’t travel so much as in the past – typically a tank of petrol will do me for a week or so. Any of you who HAVE to fill more regularly may not see the same benefits. But here’s my summary as of Dec 31 of 2021:-
I live in Greater Brisbane (Logan CIty actually, where we do enjoy lower prices than many other LGA’s in SEQ).
I commenced recording my petrol usage in Feb 2018. At that time, petrol prices were $1.17/litre.
Over the next (nearly) four years, we saw prices as high as $2.00/litre and as low as $0.87/litre. Currently, the average price in Brisbane is $1.46
BUT, by using shopper dockets and selecting the lowest priced servos to fill, and minimising any top-up amounts while prices are high, my average petrol cost over that time has been $1.20/litre. Compare that with my Feb 2018 figure, and you’ll see it has been worthwhile.
Sure, it is a little more effort – emptying jerrycans into the car when prices are high, and travelling a little further to get a great price. A cent or two isn’t worth travelling for, but to save 14c I’ll drive a few Km.
What can YOU do? Simply by checking out that website, who knows – you may save 10c/litre quite easily, and regularly !! (Do note that some states don’t work the same as others, but the graph on petrolspy will tell you how your State works.
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