Great Ideas for Cutting Your Gas Costs

It happens every year: The weather gets warm, the open road beckons, and you get ready to spend some time outside ... only to find that driving has gotten a bit more expensive. The good news is that gas prices are down a few cents in the past couple of weeks; latest figures put the average price of a gallon of regular at $3.60. The bad news is, that's up nearly 10 cents from the same time last year.

There are lots of theories about why gas prices tend to go up during the summer, but regardless of whether you think it's due to Wall Street speculation or simply the effect of increased demand, one thing is for certain: You're going to have to spend more money filling up your tank before the summer is out.

A few weeks ago, we offered some of our readers' more outrageous methods for cutting your gas costs. This time around, we'll consider some options that are a little more realistic. Bon voyage!

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Bruce Watson is DailyFinance's Savings editor. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.