Money. We're thinking about it more often, even talking about it more openly. These days we throw quarters around as if they're manhole covers. Stretching the dollar, clipping coupons, pinching pennies -- these are our new national pastimes.

Gas prices are more volatile than the actual gasoline itself, and, let's face it, our favorite diversion involves throwing a leg over a big old gas-powered engine. So how do you balance budget and bike? You can pinch a lot more than pennies just by commuting to work on your bike. For help with the math, check out the EPA's fuel economy guide at www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/savemoney.shtml.

This ingenious little program allows you to calculate quickly just how much money you can save with a more fuel efficient vehicle, and you can use it easily to calculate what you'd spend commuting on your bike versus your car or truck. Most bikes average around 45 mpg -- with some getting closer to 70 mpg -- and the average car in the U.S. nets just 20 mpg. Even with our limited riding season, the savings can be substantial.

If you're a weekend rider, consider throwing a tank bag or a pair of saddlebags on your bike, pick up a decent bike lock and give commuting a try. Many parking lots give discounts for bikes -- when I worked Downtown I paid just $2 a day to park my bike -- saving you more than just gas money.

But there always seems to be a bag of dry cleaning or a 30-pound tub of cat litter -- or even a couple of kids -- to haul, making commuting via two wheels impractical. We're the weekend riders, you and me, and we're doing our part to keep the tradition of the Sunday Drive alive, but I feel guilty each weekday morning as I walk past my underused bike and, instead, hop in my overworked car.

Plus I'm the original queen of cheap, so even though my car gets decent mileage, that EPA calculator I mentioned above showed me ever so clearly how much I could save just by organizing my errands and riding my bike to work a couple days a week. Still, leisure riders like us can save a few bucks -- and assuage our guilt -- by really maximizing our mileage.

Last year Cycle World magazine tested a group of bikes, looking for the ultimate in fuel economy. A street and trail bike, the CRF230L, came out on top with 93 mpg, and it earned the title, "Frugal Fueler." Cool. But what I found even cooler was what the magazine staff did next. They handed the machine back over to their test rider with a challenge: Ride the bike with gas mileage in mind.

With minor changes in driving habits the rider coaxed a whopping 115 mpg -- an increase of 23 percent -- out of that same bike. That means if your weekend cruiser is giving you the average 45 mpg with very little effort -- and no coupons to clip -- you could be getting more like 55 mpg. How's that for stretching a dollar?