A person fills up their car at a Shell gas station in Markham, Ont.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
In my Ottawa neighbourhood, gas prices varied one recent afternoon by 21 cents a litre, with a high end of $1.85 and a low of $1.64. I did not drive around to gather this information – I just opened the GasBuddy app on my phone.
GasBuddy and Waze are apps for your smartphone that can help you find cheap gas near your home or wherever you are. Gas has lately gone from an incidental expense of daily life to five-alarm cash drain. Change your driving habits to save on gas, and try these apps to find the lowest gas prices.
GasBuddy shows you the gas stations nearest to your home, or wherever you are, with price and distance away. There’s also a GasBuddy website you can use to keep track of gas prices in your city, province and nationally.
Waze is a mapping app that will choose the best driving routes for you, but there’s also a Gas Stations feature showing nearby places to fill up and their prices. Some of the gas station pricing on Waze wasn’t as up to date as on GasBuddy when I recently checked.
If you’re planning a summer driving trip, try the CAA’s gas price database. Choose the cities you’ll be passing through and find out in advance what pricing is like. The average price in Ottawa when I checked recently was $1.669, up a cent from the previous day but down from the previous week’s average $1.72.
One more app to check out is Fuelio, which shows nearby gas stations and prices while also helping you track your fuel consumption and distance travelled. Use Fuelio to see whether your efforts to drive in a way that conserves gas are paying off.
ICYMI (In case you missed it)
The 2022 Globe and Mail ETF Buyer’s Guide: Best international & global equity funds
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Rob’s personal finance reading list
‘The farce of work hard now, play later’
A must-read article on the sense of exhaustion some people are feeling right now about their jobs and careers. Working hard, but for what gain? From this sentiment comes the widely felt desire for more work-life balance. Here’s my take on how this balance might be affected by the soaring cost of living.
Inflation is eating our lunch … and dinner
Restaurant meals are way up in price, so what about ordering in? According to this thorough review of food delivery apps, the markup on meals brought to your door can be between 30 and 50 per cent on larger orders and much more on smaller orders. Now for a big picture look at what’s happening in food inflation from an expert – Dalhousie University’s Sylvain Charlebois.
Inflation hits the thrift store
Shoppers have noticed higher prices at Value Village, a popular thrift store chain. The explanation is that demand for second-hand items has soared because of a growing interest in “thrifting.”
Four millennials, one house
A case study in housing co-ownership – two millennial couples team up to buy a 3,000-square-foot house in Toronto. I’d love to jump five years ahead and see how this arrangement works out. Now for a two-year retrospective on what’s happened with home prices in 20 cities across the country. Western Canada is still a relative bargain.
Ask Rob
Q: What should I suggest to my 16-year-old grandson who wants to learn about “finance”?
A: Just the thing – FinLit 101.
Do you have a question for me? Send it my way. Sorry I can't answer every one personally. Questions and answers are edited for length and clarity.
Today’s financial tool
How to spot tax season scams, i.e., “Your tax refund is now available. Click here to receive your payment.”
The money-free zone
Two versions of the great Talking Heads song Slippery People – the original and then a live cover by Mavis Staples.
Watch this
The BBC reports on the rising popularity of solo weddings in Japan – young women staging their own wedding events with a fancy dress and a photo shoot.
More Globe and Mail personal finance
- How should Nathan and Elise plan for retirement when they have more immediate goals, like a wedding and home ownership?
- Anxious about finances, this Toronto woman earning $62,000 has given up on home ownership
- Thirteen tips on how to save on your grocery bill as inflation sends food prices higher
More Rob Carrick and money coverage
Subscribe to Stress Test on Apple podcasts or Spotify. For more money stories, follow me on Instagram and Twitter, and join the discussion on my Facebook page. Millennial readers, join our Gen Y Money Facebook group.
Even more coverage from Rob Carrick:
- 🎧 Catch up on Stress Test: Are your parents giving you money? • Why it’s time to stop shaming the renting lifestyle • Is now the right time to buy a house? • Why are young Canadians leaving the cities they love? • Eating in: How COVID has shifted our food spending • Crisis-proof your finances • Can you afford to live downtown? • The cost of kids
- ✔️ The housing file: The housing boom is ripping apart the financial fabric of Canada • Shut out: A well-qualified millennial home seeker throws up his hands after losing multiple bidding wars • Big city housing affordability is over – now what? • She sold her Toronto house to retire somewhere cheaper, but it didn’t work • How young adults and the whole country win with a tougher mortgage stress test for home buyers • Can’t afford your house? It’s likely not your fault
- 📈 Investing: Robo-advisers have grown out of the novelty stage. Here’s help in finding one right for you • The 2022 ETF Buyer’s Guide: Best Canadian equity funds • The 2022 Globe and Mail digital brokerage ranking: Does the zero-commission revolution flip the script on who’s best? • Are these the stock market returns of a lifetime? • On the cusp of retirement and wondering about an ETF that pushes the limits on aggressiveness
- 💰 Your money: The five most important numbers for checking the health of your personal finances • Today’s freakishly low mortgage rates can’t last. What will pandemic home buyers do when they rise? • There’s a cost in money, isolation and family stress when seniors choose to remain in their own private homes • Taking CPP early can cost you $100,000 and limit your long term options • Fleeing the city for the suburbs? Watch out for higher property taxes, more cars and other costs
Are you reading this newsletter on the web or did someone forward the e-mail version to you? If so, you can sign up for Carrick on Money here.
Rob Carrick