As part of his goal to get readers to save $1,000 in 30 days, personal finance blogger Ramit Sethi suggests setting up a personal fuel hedging fund to protect against rising petrol prices eating into your best intentions. His own method calls for figuring out what you were paying for petrol a month ago, setting up an automated bank sub-account, and transferring his monthly savings in gas costs to it. Setting a calendar reminder, he'll check the cost of fuel in three months, and pull from the fund if needed, or drop more in if prices fall. If you're not the type to save receipts, Sethi suggests an expense tracker like Mint to deliver your fuel costs to you. It's basically an advanced means of tricking yourself into saving money, but a worthy one. Photo by 'bert.

Consumer Reports' Tightwad Tod blog espouses the value of holding onto your clunker car rather than trading up—a well-maintained, reliable clunker, that is. The magazine's auto writers suggest that despite whatever your friends, parents, or mechanic tells you, the best rule of thumb for needed service is the recommended maintenance schedule in your owner's manual.

What are the non-essential items that you can usually do without? They include radiator flushes and new fuel filters ... To avoid getting unnecessary work, make a copy of the recommended service page, show it to the service manager and say, "this is what I want."

Simple, yet something most car owners have rarely considered. Hit the link for other tips on knowing when your clunker is past its prime. Photo by berzowska.

If you need to sell your car in a hurry and don't want to spend a fortune on advertising, a free listing at CARbarter might be just the ticket. While the site has paid-for options, a basic ad including a photo is free of charge. The volume of vehicles on the site isn't huge (less than 30 when I checked), but as a free option it's hardly a risky move to try a listing. Got any other online tricks for buying or selling cars online? Rev into the comments and share your thoughts.

Manic traffic, expensive petrol and the perceived idiocy of other drivers can often make a stint in the car seem like torture. At the BBC News Magazine, driving expert Tom Vanderbilt offers ten tips to reduce the stress of driving. Some of them are UK-specific (there's no option for cyclists not to wear helmets in Australia, for example), but there's still good advice in here, including the ever-notable assertion that changing lanes rarely helps you get to your destination much faster. Got any other tactics to make driving less of a hassle? Steer them into the comments.

Trying to track down the cheapest petrol price in your area? Google's new iGoogle Petrol Price Tracker lets you select your preferred petrol type and brand, and offers twice-daily price updates by postcode (sourced from MotorMouth). Google claims to cover 50% of major metropolitan areas; I found a few holes on a quick search of Melbourne, but if your suburb is covered, it's a useful way to check prices before heading out the door.

Mark Gladding (who created previously mentioned Text2Go as his day job) blogs about the ways in which you can use an iPod for in-car entertainment, covering all the options from the extremely low-tech (listening through the supplied earbuds) Like Mark, I'd concur that it's a waste of money to buy an in-car FM transmitter; you're better off getting a replacement car stereo that supports audio input. If you want to keep your iPod in place, check out this DIY car iPod dock. Got any other tricks to get your iPod rockin' roadside? Share them in the comments. [8 Ways to iPod your Car]

Wired's How-To Wiki details how the bane of many an unlucky car-owner's existence, the ability to start a car without a key, can be mastered and used for good, particularly if you find yourself stuck somewhere without a key or an ignition that just won't cooperate. It starts out with a low-tech screwdriver hack and moves onto the electrical disembowelment of the steering column you've seen in countless flicks (or true crime shows). It is, of course, entirely illegal, in a felonious way, to hot-wire a car that's not yours, but knowing how to do it teaches you a bit more about cars, and maybe makes you useful in one or two crucial life moments. Hit the link for the lesson, and share your own (legal) hot-wiring tales in the comments.

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At some point nearly everyone has had a collection of empty bottles and fast food containers riding shotgun with them. Take a few tips from Sue Brenner, a new contributor at the organizational blog Unclutterer, and have your car in order in no time. Her tips range from diving the car into quadrants and working systematically through them to sorting all the material you find into three bags.

Along with your trash and recycling bins, bring three grocery bags with you when you clean out your car. Label the first one "Does Not Belong Here." Write on the next one, "Give Away/Return," and label the final one, "Storage." Each bag will serve as a receptacle for the variety of things that found their way into your car. The "Does Not Belong Here" bag, for example, would be good for tossing in the spoons, client folders, and other items you want to keep but don't belong in your vehicle. Return these items to their homes after you've completed your car uncluttering project.

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If you're in the market for a new car, or just wondering how secure your current set of wheels is, the RACV's annual review of how secure different models are is essential reading. While some manufacturers produced consistently good results, there are plenty who aren't doing enough, especially with cheap but effective technologies such as self-voiding vehicle labels. The document itself is a PDF; it'd be good to see a proper interactive version next year.
[RACV Car Security Ratings]

In an article for The Courier Mail about new housing developments, writer John McCarthy laments the fact that Australian houses are getting smaller:

NO real backyard, no laundry, smaller and fewer rooms, the end of the two-car family and probably the backyard cricket match - welcome to the future of affordable housing.

I'll be honest -- when I read this, I thought a serious dose of urban realism was required. Although I've got my own laundry and only two bedrooms, my own Sydney apartment largely matches the description of this "bare necessities" home, and I've got no complaints. If I lived in any other major global city, I'd probably think the amount of space I had was spectacularly generous. A bigger backyard would be nice, but that's what the local park is for (mine even has a BBQ). And as for the two-car family, the rising cost of petrol and its environmental impact should be making people rethink that strategy anyway.

Do our homes need to be as big as they have been in the past? What strategies do you use to live effectively in less space? Let us know in the comments.

Houses shrinking as mortgage costs bite [Courier Mail]