Have you noticed how gas prices keep going through a yo-yo effect, but the trend just keeps getting more expensive. If you remember 2008, gas prices were on average at $3 a gallon at the beginning of the year and jumped to over $4.5 a gallon through the summer. The increases in gas prices was taking a big toll on many of my friends and families wallets. But not mine, I purchased a CNG Car (compressed natural gas) that not only saves a load of money (only an average of $0.75 a gallon equivalent through 2008) but is far and beyond a cleaner solution for the environment.

Most people started changing their summer plans last year when the gas prices skyrocketed. But we didn’t have to, we traveled more finding the roads less congested and saving a lot of money too. We went on camping trips, went to Vegas and LA as well and the whole time we saved a lot of cash. A great example is when we traveled to LA from our home in Provo, Utah. The round trip is around 1,300 miles. This would normally cost an economy car about $195 in gasoline alone. Lucky for us there are CNG stations the whole way, and it only cost us $43 and saved the earth from a lot of polution because CNG cars are so much cleaner. That’s about $150 in savings, and in these financial times who wouldn’t want to have an extra $150 in the wallet?

Both my husband and I were students during the fall of 2008. I was doing my student teaching and my husband was attending classes and working on a business he was getting started. Because of this our monthly income was very low, but because of our CNG car we were able to save a bunch of money every month using our alternative fuel.

While we would normally be paying over $200 a month for fuel, our CNG car was costing us about $40 a month. Having an extra $160 a month during that time was a real blessing to us. Even though our income has really improved since then, having those extra savings every time I fill up my car is great. Especially when I know that I am doing my part in polluting less.

It’s hard for us to pay for regular gas when it costs so much more than natural gas. I keep questioning ” why don’t more people look for and purchase natural gas vehicles so they can be saving so much money on gas prices? It’s one less expense that we love not having to worry about.

I’ve been using CNG cars for a couple years now, my husband has been using them for much longer. There are many different ways to go about purchasing CNG cars. There are used and new cars, you can also get your current car converted (costs around $6K). Also, hitting the alternative fuel market soon is the CNG Roadster, it get 70 mpg and runs on CNG. Reserve it soon though.