An acquaintance of mine recently drove a group of his friends to a convention a couple of states away, probably 1,000 miles round-trip, under the typical 'I drive, you pay for gas' arrangement. It wasn't my place to explain to him that he'd been ripped off by his friends, big time.

Run the numbers. The vehicle they took got around 25 mpg, which means that the trip burned 40 gallons of amber gold. At $4 a gallon, the three passengers split a $160 gas bill, which figured out to $53 and change each. Edumund.com's handy "True Cost To Own" calculator for the Honda CR-V they drove shows that, based on 15,000 miles a year, over five years the cost per mile to operate this vehicle is $.52. This includes depreciation, insurance and maintenance, in addition to fuel.

At that estimate, the trip cost my friend $520. Minus the $160 in gas, he was out of pocket for $360, all for the privilege of chauffeuring his friends.

How can you deal with this situation? The easy way, or the hard way.

Earlier this month, tons of technology companies gathered in San Diego at DEMO to debut a plethora of cool new products. Being a self-professed geek -- and a penny pincher -- I was excited to see a new program called Avego, which was demoed by Mapflow and put an interesting spin on carpooling.

We all have a rough idea of how traditional carpooling works in the US. An area where it is weak is that for the most part you are only carpooling with people you know rather than individuals who are going the same route as you.

Avego turns this model on its head and uses real time location data and cell phones to find other riders who want to be part of the route you are currently taking. For example, you could advertise an opening on the way to work in the morning and another person halfway there may ask to join your carpool for that trip only. These same kinds of interactions occur whenever you take a trip be it to the grocery store, movies or wherever.

Avego isn't just looking to change carpooling, but also human behavior by trying to get people to start sharing rides and also sharing them with a stranger, no small task on any front. It seems it has thought this through and it's using two of the best motivators currently at its disposal; the desire for many people to go green and the desire of more people to earn green! To facilitate the ride sharing Avego charges the rider 30 cents per mile, an amount cheaper than driving on their own or grabbing a taxi, and then pays the driver about 85% of that for the trip, thus providing motivation for all of the involved parties.

It goes without saying that carpooling saves money, especially with gas now averaging above $4 a gallon. Last month I posted about how you can use Ridesearch.com to calculate your carpool savings as well as find others to carpool with. Even though I have been carpooling for 2 years now, just recently I realized that while the money I save carpooling is excellent but the non monetary benefits can be a huge bonus as well!

This week we added a third person to our carpool and my immediate thought was, "Awesome, more money saved.", but as I was driving home today I realized that I don't have to drive to work for the rest of June! That realization floored me, making a bright spot in a rather dreary day. Rather than take my time as a passenger to enjoy the scenery, I am already planning what I can do with this extra hour of time each day.

One thing I will plan on doing is writing posts to share with you here on WalletPop which replaces the time I had spent writing papers before I graduated in May. A 30 minute commute is also an excellent time for me to catch up on the many science fiction books I want to get through. If I run out of books or productive activities I can even use the time to play some Sudoku on my Nintendo DS.

The point I am trying to make is that even with the inconveniences that carpooling may bring, the rewards are bountiful. Imagine what you could do if you had an extra hour every day on top of cutting your fuel bill in half. For me it's the difference between getting by and putting my money towards debt and savings. If my carpool fell apart, I would need to move closer to work or get a new job!

What would you get done if your daily commute became free time?

With average gas prices peaking over $4, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you can save money by carpooling. Even though the savings associated with carpooling is clear to me and my carpool partner some people may not realize exactly how much you can save by carpooling.

Thankfully RideSearch.com provides a great calculator to figure out just how much it costs you to schlep to and from work each month. The calculator even takes the maintenance costs of your vehicle into the final cost calculation. The calculator is only one tool they provide, the main draw is that you can use RideSearch.com to find other people to carpool with.

The service helps connect you with carpoolers in the area and takes into account a myriad of preferences for sorting and finding carpool partners. For example you can set your preferences to indicate you only want to share rides with females who don't smoke, have working air conditioning and will alternate days of driving. Of course the more restrictions you start adding in to the mix the fewer applicants will be remaining.