Naturally I’m talking about gas prices which, it has recently been reported, are expected to soar up to levels as high as $4+ per gallon. Last time I filled-up in NJ I think I paid $2.92 but it’s gone up since then.

Some of my coworkers and I were discussing yesterday that, for some of us, it costs upwards of $8 per day just to commute to and from work! How nuts is that? Over the past year or so whenever I’ve worked from home, I have had a tendency to calculate how much money I saved just by not having to drive into the office. What I wouldn’t give to live a few miles from work! Of course “living near the office” translates into “living in crazy-high cost of living area” so what I might save in gas, I’d probably more than spend in real estate taxes and other costs. In either case, I really feel for people who have less fuel-efficient cars… At the rate we’re going, I wonder if anyone will get to a point where they flat-out can’t afford to get to work any longer…?

I do everything I can to conserve gas… I don’t speed (which incidentally also protects me from speeding tickets), I try to accelerate slowly (I don’t typically feel the need to get to the next red light first), and I consolidate my errands as much as possible (if I go out, then I try to make sure I do everything I need to do in one trip). But I’m always looking for other options to help improve my MPG which currently averages about 30.

So does anyone know anything about the technology out there I’ve been recently hearing about that allows you to convert your gas-only car into a gas-and-water-hybrid car? I know the technology is valid – I remember seeing a news story on a couple of years ago about a guy who had re-engineered his cars and tracker to run on water, but then I didn’t hear anything else about it until recently. Now there are a couple of different sites out there offering the tools and instructions to DIY, or you can have a mechanic do the installation if you’re not comfortable with it. Sounds like a fantastic idea, but honestly I don’t know what I think since it’s not as though the sites are terribly legit-looking and the last thing I would do is throw money at something like this unless it was a true and certain thing. Just Google it and you’ll see what I mean.

According to a bunch of sites I’ve looked at as to whether or not this is a scam, but then of course there are others that say it is – isn’t that always the way??

As with so many other things, it might be better just to do everything possible to improve fuel economy with what I have today while waiting for someone to invent a 100 mpg car which might be here before we know it…

Thoughts anyone?