Gas mileage

I finished the lining to the kitchen curtain. My goodness, it makes a difference. This is a good thing, because it is a very ugly curtain, and its powers of insulation are the only thing keeping it there. It doesn't make much of a difference during the day with the crock pot running, but at night, there's at least five degrees difference between the kitchen and the rest of the downstairs. If I had a safe place to put the crock pot elsewhere in the downstairs, I would. It doesn't kick up as much heat as the oven, but it makes a difference. Maybe I could put it on top of our dryer.

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Today I had to drive out to my husband's work for a wellness check. It's a royal pain in the butt, but it gets us a major discount on our insurance.

I decided to try a couple of hypermiling techniques on the way there and back. On the way there, I started at 19.1 mpg. By the time I arrived, it was up to 19.5, and by the time I got home it was up to 19.9. And I hardly did a thing. Mostly, I just attempted to drive a little more smoothly than usual and look ahead a little more. I get nervous about holding up people behind me, so I'll never be a true hypermiler, but it was gratifying to see that just a few small changes can make a difference ($.06/10 miles, if I'm calculating correctly, which I'm often not). What do I do?

• Pop the car in neutral going downhill and while decelerating; I don't do this with cars nearby, however.
• Take corners as fast as is safe.
• Instead of keeping up to speed all the way to stoplights, and then stopping, I coast toward the light from a good distance away; by the time the light turns green and the cars ahead are moving, I'm still moving at a decent clip and don't have to use the brakes or accelerate very much.
• I keep the tank less than 1/2 full. I don't know how much of a difference this makes, but I imagine it's not insignificant with a van's gas tank; half a tank weighs about 86.6 lbs. If we didn't have to keep so much stuff in the back (it's stuff we use regularly, like the double stroller, but have no place to store inside, since it clutters the house for showings), I could probably eliminate another 30 lbs.

Now, I hardly ever drive, but if I can get The Guy to do some of this, and he drives a minimum of 47 miles per day, and if he can do just half as well, we're looking at saving $1.40-ish per day.

(Am I calculating this right? That sounds really high.)

Any other safe and reasonable tips for getting great gas mileage? Avoiding headwinds and taking different routes is not possible. He has to go to work when he has to go to work, and the route he takes is the best possible. The interstate would probably give him better mpg, but he'd be driving a few miles farther.

I won't update my list unless he agrees to do this, but I think this should definitely qualify as one of my 100 Things.