Take the Drive Smarter Challenge

  Presumably, you're not the kind of person who would take a big pile of money out to your driveway and set it on fire, just to watch it burn. But when you burn gasoline, that's essentially what you're doing. And with gasoline prices now bouncing around $4 a gallon, that pile of money you're burning is getting a whole lot bigger. 

Big Green Purse lists ten ways you can conserve gas today and save at least $20-$50 every month at the pump. But you can save even more by taking the Drive Smarter Challenge, a new initiative from the Alliance to Save Energy.

What's terrific about the Challenge is that it puts you in the driver's seat -- literally. The website simulates you driving, then suggests up to six fuel-efficiency actions you can easily take. If you do (or say you plan to), the website immediately calculates your savings in money, gasoline, and greenhouse gas emissions.

I took the challenge as if I were driving my son's 2001, 6hp Toyota Avalon. By the end of my "road test," I was informed I could save $433  (about 110 gallons of gasoline at the $4/gallon price, for almost 10 weeks of free gas) if I followed six simple recommendations like pumping up my tires and lightening the load in my trunk.

Plus, when I forwarded the site to a friend, I got a coupon for $10 off a Bosch Oxygen Sensor, which will help my engine run even more efficiently.

Beware: the website takes a longish time to load (at least on Explorer 6.0) and seems to re-load every time you switch screens. But those inconveniences are well worth the cost-savings you'll enjoy if you take the Challenge.

Thumbs up to the Alliance to Save Energy for giving us this ingenious tool!

By the way, you can credit gas savings to your One in a Million balance sheet.