How are gas prices affecting you?
 

While I was out and about today, I noticed that gas in my area is averaging about $3.35 for the lowest octane unleaded. The rising price of gas has definitely affected me and my family.

We bought a second car (Ford Taurus) last summer that we avoid using because it doesn't get nearly the gas mileage of our Honda Civic. We have to fill it up three times in a week if we both drive it work, whereas we fill the Civic up twice when we both drive it to work. Gas prices were a major consideration when I was debating whether to keep my current job or find a new one when the company relocates in June. The company has decided to lease a van and the 5 of us that are staying with the company and live in the Salt Lake area will be carpooling to work every day.

I was considering a trip to New Mexico in the upcoming months to visit with some friends but have decided against it...mainly due to the cost of gas. I'm sure that our road trips in the future will be less frequent than in the past, and air travel is unlikely for us anytime soon.

Our "fun money" for movies, dinners out, and the like has been cut into as well. We are staying in more often and renting movies instead of going to the theater, much to my dismay. One of mine and hubby's favorite pasttimes is watching movies in the theater; we used to go 2-3 times per month but we've only gone 3-4 times since the New Year.

Indirectly, prices for food and such have gone up and our grocery bill is larger than it was a year ago. I'm not an expert on the economy, but I know that rising fuel prices for the transport of goods have been passed onto the consumer.

So...how have gas prices affected you? Has your standard of living changed? Have you made lifestyle changes because of it?

Fortunately, I have a bicycle and use it for my main mode of transportation. I drive a station wagon, which is not the most fuel efficient car, but is occasionally necessary for the work that I do. I only drive a few miles a week, so the expense of gas hasn't really cut into my budget. Plus, riding my bicycle allows me to save my gas for longer trips, and I don't burn all that extra gas I might burn were I driving around my town on a daily basis--this town is compact and bicycling often proves to be more practical than driving. My plan is to keep on biking as much as possible.

I recently moved to a new apartment. My old one was 12 miles from my job. My new one is 2 miles away. My car gets 24 miles per gallon. I figured at $3.00 a gallon my savings from gas saved on my daily commute amounts to about $57.00 a month. High gas prices were not the only factor in my decision to move, but it was one of the factors.

We drive Tt's 2003 diesel beetle, which gets excellent mileage. Still, fuel is expensive and we chose to live walking distance from the university, where I attend school and Tt works. We walk nearly everywhere, only drive when we have a lot to carry. I also have a bicycle, but haven't chosen it over walking for a few months.

So, we're lucky. Fuel prices aren't affecting us drastically. We travel less. Tt is less inclined to finish his private pilot's lisence because he realizes it is an expensive hobby, but that does go beyond fuel prices.

I'm sure it will affect us more when we no longer live in a dense city where all of our needs are met within a few short blocks.

Nothing yet. If things get bad, I'll buy a diesel and use biodiesel. The MB ML has a diesel that looks pretty good.

I've been driving for 3 years now. If you ask me how much the gas is in my area, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I drive to work and school. I give my sister and girlfriend rides to work and back quite regularly. I get errands done. I drive to stores. I have a car, it needs to eat, I feed it.

I fill up on average once every week. Sometimes a little over a week. Costs me about $40 a pop for a full tank from a Shell station (I only use 89 Octane). I also sometimes use Mobil. I would be lying if I wasn't happy that summer is near. My Protege gets about 28 mpg in the summer (if I ease off the gas) and only 21-23 in the winter. I'm already feeling the savings.

The price of gas has not affected me in the least. I drive about the same amount as before. My new car actually gets slightly worse mileage than the last one and I have to use the high octane gas.

No matter how little or how much money I made, I've never allowed my spending to reach a point where an extra $15-20 dollars a week would force me to make sacrifices.

The average dentist in the US makes about $110k a year. While I applaud your hard work in attaining your degree and establishing a practice, not everyone is in such a comfortable position. In other words, some people may not have the luxury you and I have in being able to decide what we can and can't spend money on. Not everyone is upper middle class (or lower upper class?).

Had these prices shifted when I was in school and had 3 jobs, I would have been cutting into rent or food money.

I walk every day. Sometimes I take the car out, but because it's a luxury I understand that with that luxury comes the costs associated with luxury.

It makes me surprised when I fill up my tank. Almost $50 to fill up a Neon 12.5 gallon tank.

I'd be glad when the price of gas matches the rest of Europe. All those fucktards who drive SUVs because they think it's "cool" or "think" they need to haul things and people can take a keen look at what their real needs and choices are.

I see plenty of Escalades, Navigators, Denali Suburbans...

Funny how people are only seeing that it affects their pocket at the gas pump.

Most of my groceries have gone up if not doubling in the past 2 years alone. Tropicana Orange juice is now $3.99 a half gallon. Pizza slices are adjusting to almost $2.50. A bagel is now $1.25 up from $.65.

I really will not stand for American's complaining about the price of fuel.

You dont know youre born!

At the moment the price of diesel in the UK is about £1.15 a litre.

There are 0.22 Gallons in a litre

Assuming an exchange rate of roughly 2 USD = 1 GBP

You are complaining that you have to pay about 33% of the price that I do.

And what kind of monstrosity gets 24 MPG? 3.5 tonne GLW vans get better MPG than that!

im the only fucker in here thats laughing at the moment!

muuwaaahahahaha

i live in the middle east (dubai to be exact), and here petrol is dirt cheap (its even cheaper in saudi). i full up a full tank for around 70dhs once a week, which works out to be about $19USD per tank for a nissan sunny, i think its a 50litre tank.

however, i dont pay a cent cos its a company paid and maintained car. so all petrol, maintenance, rental etc is all paid by the company. i see nothing in car bills.

so i cant say that im affected at all by the rising price of fuel

muuwaahahaha!

ok..ill stop now.

haha... well, as I live in a rather large oil producing country, you would think that gas prices are dirt cheap here too. But Nooooo. They are twice what they were in 1998 (just 10 yrs ago). Today regular unleaded (87 octane) is hovering around $115/litre. Last week it was $.98/litre. Who knows what it will be next week? Most of the cost of a litre of gas is government tax.

How has it affected me? Well, I have always budgeted $20/wk per vehicle for gas. This still seems to be sufficient for my day to day driving requirements. Although the V6 Rav4 is thirstier than my Jetta around the city, it is far better on the highway.

As for British prices being outlandish, well, aren't they always? From what I recall, everything over their is the same price as here, except the units are pounds, instead of dollars, so everything is double the cost.

We're paying around $8 a gallon here, so no pity whatsoever. :) I can't WAIT to do our US road trip at the end of this month (driving coast to coast) because we're going to be paying dirt cheap prices for gas, at $3.50 or whatever... over 50% cheaper than what we usually pay. I'm stoked!!!

I try to conserve it for the big trips.

Since the fall, I've been getting up at 4 a.m. to take my daughter to her bus stop. I used to get up later, then go back home and shower and head to work. Now I get ready early and head to work nearly two hours early because of the gas I'd burn going back home and then heading out again.

I also take the time to plan out my errands and no longer just hop in the car when the whim strikes me. I try to purchase gas on Tuesdays or Wednesdays when the price will often drop a cent or two per gallon.

i also recal it´s 1600km from rvk to rvk via the whole island. i drive 15 km to work (hfj) and for most icelanders that´s insanity. still, it costs me around 800isk where the same trip used to be around 500isk. we pay through the nose for petrol but distances equalise it thankfully.

The UK is the most expensive place in the world to buy fuel that I know of - no pity for no one!

At the moment I think my company can buy Red diesel (ie - with no duty, for reefer's and donkey engines, etc) at about 38 pence a litre, and white diesel at 1.15 a litre - so thats the element of it here which is duty and VAT (sales Tax)

Yeah, but it's not like they set gas prices based on how far people drive... and in the rest of Europe, prices aren't that different (and people still drive pretty far). I know some people in Iceland who drive every day between Keflavík and Reykjavík, and I'm sure you saw the truck drivers protesting the high prices the last few weeks. So I don't think it really gets equalized... it just depends on your particular commute and salary.

no change yet. however my considerations for my location of my house when i purchase it will come into play. I bike to work three days a week, and i'd liek to keep that the same!

I have a motorcycle that gets 50 mpg. I live 20 miles from work and don't usually go anywhere else. So a full tank costs me on average of 13 dollars and will last me the whole week. But, the hard thing for me right now is my bike broke down in november, so i'm taking the train and bus to work. The sucky side to that is it's costing me double to take public transportation than it was to drive my bike.
I can't wait to get back on it.

/ Threadjack

... if you haven't heard Russell Peters yet, Youtube him. He has one routine where he is lising out a bunch of ethnically diverse matchups. Cubans and Icelanders would be Ice-Cubes.

sorry you and Abaya just jogged my memory. Carry on with your your gas problems... :)

/ end Threadjack

Quit acting young, you would think I was born a dentist.

Think before you assume.

And for the record I'm currently running a net LOSS of 5k a month, but proper planning means I can do this for a while, a long while before $15 dollars more makes a huge difference.

Fuel efficiency standards in the United States are awful. The Wikipedia article gives a decent overview:

The bolding is mine.

I don't own a car nor do i need a car. I take the bus in the winter and ride a bicycle in the summer months and only live 1 km away from work to which i walk everyday.

I guess i feel the price of gas because the overall cost of goods and services that rely on transportation.

I am looking at buying a new house here coming up so i will need a car/truck for minimum the first year or two of ownership (for transporting home reno stuff...etc) so i guess i'll really be able to tell then.

For now i rely on my legs, the bus and sponging rides of people when i need to carry something heavy lol.

the CAFE standards have pissed me off since the 1980s when I became aware that we're not doing enough and allowing corporates to lobby for an "easier, softer" way.

I'd also note that, there are fuel surcharges on almost everything these days.

FedEx, airlines, and apartment oil heating to name a few.

Haven't you ever heard the old adage "always live below your means"?

BTW, 28 mpg here.

Believe it or not a midsize 1998 Chevy Malibu with a 3.1 liter v6 engine. Although it does improve to 30 mpg on the highway.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articl...malibu_ls1.jpg

Agreed. The thing that really pisses me off is the whole scam with E85. That came about when the farm lobby convinced Congress to give automakers a 3 mpg bump for CAFE purposes if they built vehicles with E85 capability. Since the only real cost to the manufacturers was changing from steel fuel lines to stainless steel fuel lines, putting in higher capacity injectors, and writing new software for the computers to recognize when the engine was running on E85. Minimal cost compared to the engineering and use of lighter materials that would have resulted in having to actually make the vehicle get 3 more miles per gallon. The domestic brand automakers have been building in this capability in many of their vehicles for 7 or 8 years now, but have only been publicizing it for the past 2 or 3 since gas prices have shot up.

I'm sure you've also heard that "it takes money to make money..."

without taking some risk, there's no gain.

i did wonder exactly what the protests were going to achieve. funny part was i was driving rvk-hfj during the protests several times and only found out after ie no impact on me at all. you are right that it depends on the commute and salary. a low income earner probably wouldn´t work too far from home and will drive a car that´s as small and fuel efficient as possible. and i don´t see a doctor or a banker zipping around in a yaris or a micra. hell, this is iceland... having said that i´d be curious to know if there are countries that have vast distances and high fuel prices. both the states and australia have comparably low prices which offsets the vast distances (50-150km a day in au is rather common) europe tends to be more closed in and i remember in slovenia having to commute further than 15 minutes to work is considered just stupid, but then slovenia is tiny and if you drive to far you literally run out of slovenia. i´d be curious to hear how it is in larger places like germany. having said that a lot of places in europe are now well served by low budget flights which is a viable alternative. do the people you know work or are they at uni? i have a friend who lives in kef as well and she tells me there is a free shuttle bus as kef is where all the accommodation is cheap and hance the students (including herself) end up being housed. i have another friend who works in hfj and he commutes from sandgerði everyday, but then that´s what having kids does to you...

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/5729/facepalmly4.png

This :rolleyes:

Don't we make like the exact same amount? I own a house.

what does that have to do with ustwo expanding his business that is currently costing him $5,000 more a month?

You've paid off your mortgage already?

Biofuels - seriously? I mean, it costs more to produce and it cuts back on how much food is produced. So in essence, you'll be paying more for food. Plus, the mpg is less than regular gas so you'll actually pay more per gallon. And the carbon footprint to produce this stuff is very high.

I recently pruchased a new Camry hybrid. I've been getting 35-36 mpg and got 37.7 mpg over 750 miles on a recent trip. Hybrids don't have the premium price any more so I got it at the same amount I would have paid for a regular 6 cylinder. Rides like a dream and very quiet and you operate it just like a regular car.

When done right, biodiesel isn't a bad alternative. It can be made from food byproducts and inedible plant sources (think waste vegetable oil, jatropha oil, and switchgrass). Will it be done right one day? Well, it depends on how the markets and the politics play out.

Biodiesel is not ethanol. It has a much lower carbon footprint than gas or diesel. It's made from WASTE vegetable oil, so it doesn't "cut back on how much food is produced". Not only that, but it's emissions are really excellent; substantially better than a hybrid. Oh, and biodiesel actually cleans injectors, fule lines, pumps and tanks, and it constantly lubricates the engine, which means less engine problems and a longer motor life. Where are you getting your information from?

As for your hybrid? If you bought a Geo Metro, you could be getting 55 mpg. And you can get one for less than a grand, that way if you have an issue with ride quality, you could use the $32,000 you saved not buying a Prius or Camry and get McPherson struts off a Porsche.

so when everyone is in need of using biodiesel, will it really be cheap and effective? In other words, when scarcity comes into play will it actually be "free" and a real alternative with proper distribution channels?

It would suck to drive from SF to LA and not have any idea if you will be able to refuel or not.

HAHAHAHA!!! Not even a little. Biodiesel is for me, right now, before everything goes to shit (there's a biodiesel station right around the corner). If everything goes to shit, I'll be too busy trying to redirect the local creek to a park for crops to worry about fuel. Biodiesel is an alternative.

Do you really need to ask that? If everyone is in need of biodiesel, it means an alternative fuel source is being used in place of a previously cheap and abundant source. I wouldn't expect it to be cheap. Fuel for automobiles in the U.S. can't be cheap forever when you burn at the rate it's burning.

Yes I need to ask that.

I recall my parents owning a Benz 300SD in the 70's and there was a book which came with the diesels telling you where diesel was sold. We based our family vacations on stops along where diesel was sold.

So until you KNOW where you can purchase something, just because there is an alternative doesn't mean there is infrastructure to distribute it, it doesn't mean it's a viable alternative for every consumer.

I had a friend who's race car used jetfuel. His range and limit was from airport to airport. Hardly a viable alternative, but an example of scarce locations for refuelling.