Hey folks, Stephen Jondrew here and this week it’s my turn to fill in for Michelle’s iThing of the Week. Although I recognize that there’s no way I can offer the level of knowledge and information Michelle offers each week, I thought I’d at least try to save you a few bucks thew next time you fill up. This week I’m recommending the GasBuddy app.

While GasBuddy.com has been around since the early 2000s, I only found myself really using their services regularly once they created an iPhone app. The GasBuddy app interfaces with GasBuddy.com to show users the prices of fuel at gas stations in a specified area. For example, if I know I’ll be going to Vancouver or Bellingham, I can type in the city and find the prices in there and compare them to my local prices before I go (I might save myself a good chunk of change by filling up before I go – or waiting until I get there).

Or – simpler, if I find myself needing to get gas but realize that things have changed since I woke up, I can simple hit the “Find Gas Near Me” button on the home screen of the app and it’ll display stations near me.

Now as mentioned, GasBuddy works based on community reports and while you can update via the website, the app makes it SUPER simple to report changes. Simply click on the specific gas station you wish to report, hit “Report Prices” fill in the boxes, press submit and your update will now be displayed to other thrifty pumpers everywhere.

I certainly realize that at first glance this might seem extremely cheap – but if you live in a city like me, sometimes gas prices can change over 20 cents a litre in less than an hour. Next time this happens and you find yourself cursing, pull out the GasBuddy app, have a search at the stations near you, and you might just find that by stopping elsewhere along your route home you can get a signiciantly cheaper price on gas.