I received this e-mail last night and thought I would pass it along. Sorry to those of you that have already read it.

Do the Math!

With gasoline prices soaring these days, it dawned on me that
I should actually do the math on some of the trips that I
make, especially the trips I make in an attempt to "save
money." Here's how to calculate the cost of your trips:

1. First figure out how many miles per gallon (mpg) your car
gets. Mine gets on average 21.1 mpg. (I averaged together the
"city" and "highway" figures or actually measure your car's
performance.) If you don't know your mpg, you can easily get
it by typing in the year, make and model of your car followed
by the words "miles per gallon" into any search engine on the
Internet.

2. Divide the cost of one gallon of gas (I just paid $3.55 per
gallon) by the number of miles per gallon your car gets. I
divided $3.55 by 21 miles per gallon. It costs me about 17
cents to drive each mile.

3. Figure out how many miles it takes to get to and from your
destination. If you don't know this number, go to "driving
directions" within Yahoo Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com/) and
input two, complete addresses (in most cases, your home and
your destination). That will yield the number of miles between
the two locations. If you don't know the address of your
destination, use the Internet to locate it first.

4. Double the number of miles you just found to calculate your
round trip.

5. Finally, multiply the number of miles in your round trip by
the amount it costs you to drive a single mile.

The number you get back will surprise you. It surprised me.
For example, there is a thrift store I love to bargain hunt
at. It's 14.7 miles from my home. That's 29.4 miles round
trip. I used to go at least once a week just for fun. Well, I
just did the math, and it costs me $4.99 to go there each time
or $22.45 a month. And often, I don't buy anything!

If you take a minute to actually do the math, you will likely
become more thoughtful about where and when you decide to
drive. Your wallet and our environment will thank you.
JR in Houston