Gasoline

[bjl584]

I'm feeling the pain here. I hardly drive anymore. Just to work and back. I try to plan all of my errands at once, and only go anywhere if I absolutely have to. $3.20 a gallon hurts. I don't even want to get started on my truck. I paid $3.89 for diesel the other day. I know a guy that makes Biodiesel and sells it for around $2.50 a gallon, so I am seriously considering going that route. Anyone out there changing any of their habits due to fuel costs?

[sweeps]

It's definitely getting painful. Predictions are $4/gal or more this spring. I'm telecommuting more now, and I'm paying more attention to web sites that list the lowest gasoline prices. I'm going to max out in a hurry the annual rewards on my Chase card that pays 5% cash back on gas.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

"Who told you that?"----Isn't this what our US president said when asked about the possibility that gasoline could soon cost $4/gallon.

We are here up to $2.99/gal and I'm aware our gas price tends to lag behind most of the country, though is by no means the lowest. Husband just took off on a small road trip. I should have asked him to go drop off recycling on the way out of town and to please pick up milk and vegetables on the way home.

[DebbieL]

Where I live there is NO COMPETITION for gas price whatsoever. They all charge the same no matter what (although they say there's no price fixing here - cough"bullsh!t"cough).

It is currently Canadian $1.14/litre (approx. $4.31/gallon). This works out to about US$4.36 per gallon. Anyone want to trade?

PS - Last summer it went to about $1.20 a litre, and I expect it will go higher than that this year.

[Seeker]

Interesting article:

Howstuffworks "How Gas Prices Work"

[Seeker]

At any rate, California is over $3.50 per gallon again... thankfully I drive approx 5k miles round trip a year for work alone. And last year we purchased a hybrid, so we're probably spending a lot less than before I changed workplace location.

Still, I'm sort of leery of adding those costs up separately.

[pearlieq]

I'm being a lot more cautious about my consumption as well, and I'm fully expecting $4/gal or more this spring/summer here in IL.

I keep thinking, though. All of these things we're now doing to keep our gas usage/costs down--shouldn't we have been doing this all along?

I can't help but see a bit of a silver lining here.

[texastek76]

I keep thinking, though. All of these things we're now doing to keep our gas usage/costs down--shouldn't we have been doing this all along?

I can't help but see a bit of a silver lining here.

Good point. I work in the oil and gas industry so I tend to get an earful from friends and relatives about gas prices. Especially when I used to work at ExxonMobil, the big bad grand-daddy of them all. What ignorant people don't realize is that no one in this country has any affect at all on gas prices to any appreciable degree. It is controlled by the cost of the base product (oil) which is currently trading at $108 per barrel, and this price is controlled by our friends at OPEC, not us.

The only thing we can do is control consumption (thereby affecting demand). I have always wanted a truck but when it came time to buy a new vehicle 18 months ago I bought a 32 mpg Honda Civic.

[Gruntina]

Unfortunately It's a one hour drive one way commute to work so that will be two hours a day commute. I am not able to move nor find a decent paying job where I live so at this time this cannot change. live in a high mountain town and there are no city bus available until about 15 minutes from my work so it seems like a moot point to drive to a spot and then take the bus.

I do make it a point not to drive my vehicle on the weekends and only stick with the stores that are on my way home from work. I been doing this all a long because gas was expensive enough already. Now that it is up again, there is not much else I can do to cut driving consumption to cut gas usage.

The basic cost of living has gone up for me while I have cut off all the fat and only to break out even.

[jc3900]

You can thank a screwed up monetary system for this one. If we had been on a gold standard, crude would A LOT lower.

[Diolla]

I just walk alot

Work 3 miles
Grocery, Drugstore, 2 Banks, 3 Restaurants- 1/2 mile
Park/Zoo 1/2 mile
Library 1-1/2 mile
Dinner Theater 1/8th mile

I only use the car when necessary and have been managing fine on $25 every two weeks. I do have to go to the grocery in the car occasionally because I want more than I can comfortably carry home.

[atomicrc11]

I do drive quite a bit to work, about 45mins (30miles) but we only own one car. The rest of travel is on public transportation and my wife uses public transit exclusively. People think I'm crazy for driving 30 miles to work when I can move closer to work, but there are very few apartments to rent, houses sell for a minimum of $500k near where I work and I don't have to pay for gas or maintenance of a 2nd car. At $4 I will come out ahead.

[Aleta]

I have driven less since the gas has increased. I do alot of errands at one time. I strategize with my shopping list. The only thing that people have to be careful about is letting the car sit too long without driving it. I tend to need my fuel injectors cleaned out more often if I don't drive my car enough. You also need to drive 5 miles so that your oil is working properly in your car.

I have been doing no gas days and it really helps. All I think about now is how much it is going to cost me for every mile that I drive.

[FrugalFish]

Last week gas was $3.71/gallon where I live in CA. They predicted it might go up over the past weekend, but I haven't been out to see.

We are driving as little as we can. I go grocery/supply shopping once a week, and DH commutes about 45 minutes each way to work, 5 days a week. There is no public transportation available to him and carpooling is not possible either. We have no choice but to just suck up the extra costs- and it hurts! I feel sick about the fact that I have to go out of town for a dental appointment at the end of the month.

[Aleta]

It seems to me that there was a time that we were either boycotting by not buying gas on certain days or not by beef. It might have been both. I think that we as as nation should try to have one day a week that we just won't drive. We'll find other alternatives. As a poster earlier said it is because of consumption that our prices are this high.

We're going to drive on vacation and I can only imagine what that will cost.
It's not only about your car. The lawn maintenance people are raising their prices to cut your grass. Anything that you need for gas will be increased. Pressure cleaning your house being one of them.