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.

US-centric - Free fuel-tracking service FuelFrog provides a service you could technically do yourself, but it's a lot more convenient than keeping a paper journal and doing monthly division work. Whenever you fill up your car, you can Twitter FuelFrog with your miles since the last fill-up, price per gallon, and gallons pumped, and your data will be graphed and tracked to show you how many miles per gallon you're getting. It can serve as visual reinforcement to start driving for fuel efficiency, or just a confirmation of your car's real-world mileage.

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Mapquest has added a new feature on its Gas Prices page that pops up a small, simple calculator that can help you figure out how much it will cost to, say, visit your in-laws. Gas cost calculators are, of course, nothing all that new, but Mapquest's tool sits on the same page as its local gas price finder, eliminating at least one step in the process. Mapquest also added alternative fuel stations to its local gas listings for those rocking a diesel, bio-diesel, or other eco-conscious wheels.