Gas Prices

[Albort]

Since you overseas folks love to join in and tell us your costs, how many times per week do you fill with that $7.62 per gallon gas? How many miles do you drive?

Friday I filled 2 cars up with about $50 each. I'll fill my wife's up with another $50 before the week is up. By the time I get paid again in 2 weeks after filling up this past Friday, I'll fill 4 more tanks of gas. Combined, we put 50,000 miles a year on vehicles. THAT would by why a lot of folks over here complain about $4+ gas. From my median income paycheck, I spend 50% on housing and 30% on gas. That leaves me 20% to pay for everything else including the required 10% they say you should save for retirement. So, with 10% left after not wanting to work when I'm 104 years old, I have to pay electric, phone, heat, insurance, home repair, car repairs, car replacement, clothing, kid's school supplies, everything. Groceries are the only thing that doesn't have to come out of that 10% because my wife solely and only pays for groceries.

That 10% left is about $200/month for the median income folks to pay a general average of $100/month electric bill, $100/month insurance bill, $100/month averaged over a year for heat. So, yeah, gas increasing from $3/gallon last year to $4/gallon this year is quite destructive to the finances of median income folks who don't live in the big city.

Every $1 per gallon difference is about 7% of my paycheck.

not to mention, a better transportation system... we dont even have a single high speed rail here in the US.

 

[Emteach]

How many litres in your gallons?

£1.30 per litre here in the uk

It is about the same here in Ontario, Canada per litre. The range is usually between 1.23 and 1.38 lately per litre. It is nuts! I have a small hatchback car and it costs about $45 to fill, depending on how much I drive I can usually get it to last 1.5 weeks.

 

[Disney Commando]

It's kinda funny since they always say NJ gas prices are cheap, we went to VA last weekend I filled up before we left at 3.69 we got to our destination 6.5 hrs later and filled up again at 3.54 so much for that, on the way home the closer we got to NJ the more it went up so we stopped in Maryland and topped the tank at 3.64, 2.5 hrs later when we hit NJ it was 3.79 go figure, but since last weekend I got gas today at 3.75

 

[S. C.]

I paid $3.77 a gallon tonight.

 

[PigletsPal2]

DD#2 filled her tank on Wednesday after work, spending $3.49 a gallon. She said she heard/read/was told not to buy gas between 10:00 a.m. on Thursday until 5:00 p.m. on Monday; that's when station tanks are filled and "weekend prices" are in effect. I remember that's true from when my Dad owned a gas station.

Queen Colleen

 

[mrodgers]

That implies it's somehow normal for one couple to drive 50,000 miles a year, which it's certainly not.

For most people, who put say 15,000 miles on a car that gets say 25 miles to the gallon, a dollar more a gallon is $600 a year. It's not nothing but nor is it even remotely close to 7% of anyone's paycheck.

Even if someone drove 50,000 miles a year, at 25mph, that'd be $2000 more a year for $1 increase. If that's 7% of your combined income, you make $35,000 a year, combined. Possible, but seems quite low for two people.

Not implying that it is normal, but I am implying that not everyone lives in the city. There are a lot of people who live in the country and drive a long way to everything. Everything we do is at least a 30-40 minute car ride.

I did state that it was my paycheck and did not include my wife's paycheck. I did state that my wife's pay pretty much pays for groceries only, which isn't too surprising considering it is a part time job since she can't work full time with the kids (even if we did think daycare was an option, we couldn't do it with all daycare being 40 minutes away in town, so we can't figure out how they would get to school.) Thus, the $32,000/year take-home for a single income would end up being more than the median one income of 37,000 (the last figure I've heard of) and wouldn't be considered low. Not everyone works in the big city where the big money is, as I've said.

So, yes, a $1 increase in gas can very easily be 7% of the budget for a lot of people, certainly not everyone as you imply, but certainly for a lot of people.

Of course, there is everyone's suggestion, "Move closer." That would certainly work in saving about $4000 per year in gas, but then again, it never takes into consideration the $200,000 cost of home increase not including the interest on that $200k. So, I bought my house at 30 years old and if I expect to live to 80, I would finally break even on the paying $200k more to save $4000/year, but that still doesn't take the interest into the equation.

Another suggestion is always "buy a car with better gas mileage." Again, that doesn't come free, so if I spend $12k or so to buy a better economical car to save $1000/year in fuel cost, it will never break even at driving 25,000 miles a year since the car wouldn't last that long putting a total of 300,000 miles on what would be a used car for $12,000.

 

[cornflake]

Not implying that it is normal, but I am implying that not everyone lives in the city. There are a lot of people who live in the country and drive a long way to everything. Everything we do is at least a 30-40 minute car ride.

I did state that it was my paycheck and did not include my wife's paycheck. I did state that my wife's pay pretty much pays for groceries only, which isn't too surprising considering it is a part time job since she can't work full time with the kids (even if we did think daycare was an option, we couldn't do it with all daycare being 40 minutes away in town, so we can't figure out how they would get to school.) Thus, the $32,000/year take-home for a single income would end up being more than the median one income of 37,000 (the last figure I've heard of) and wouldn't be considered low. Not everyone works in the big city where the big money is, as I've said.

So, yes, a $1 increase in gas can very easily be 7% of the budget for a lot of people, certainly not everyone as you imply, but certainly for a lot of people.

Of course, there is everyone's suggestion, "Move closer." That would certainly work in saving about $4000 per year in gas, but then again, it never takes into consideration the $200,000 cost of home increase not including the interest on that $200k. So, I bought my house at 30 years old and if I expect to live to 80, I would finally break even on the paying $200k more to save $4000/year, but that still doesn't take the interest into the equation.

Another suggestion is always "buy a car with better gas mileage." Again, that doesn't come free, so if I spend $12k or so to buy a better economical car to save $1000/year in fuel cost, it will never break even at driving 25,000 miles a year since the car wouldn't last that long putting a total of 300,000 miles on what would be a used car for $12,000.

I think by saying 'we drive 50,000 miles so it's this much money, that's why people complain' you are implying not only that your situation is normal but usual.

No, not everyone lives in a city. MOST people, however, live in or around them. Very few people live so far out in the middle of noplace that they put 50,000 miles on cars a year.

If you're using two cars to add up to the mileage, then you include two paychecks to cover the gas, regardless of which actually pays for it, money is fungible. If she made an extra $12,000 a year, then you add it in to the total and it's not 7% of income.

As for the rest of the post, everything you cite is based on only one option out of dozens. Like you say people say to 'move closer' but that'd come with a $200k home increase - well, only if we're only talking about the specific communities in which that's the price of ALL homes. There are plenty of suburbs and even cities in which a home can be had for much less than $200k, nevermind an increase of that size over what you've got.

Same as the 'better mileage' you say it like the only way to get better mileage is to spend $12k, and then it'll die really soon. If you found two cars with better mileage for, say, $5,000 each, and don't assume they'll a. die, b. apparently have zero resale...

Even if this all is your specific, non-negotiable position, it's rare, not close to the mainstream. If I said no one cares about gas because the vast majority of people don't have cars at all, you'd tell me that wasn't the norm, which would be true. Hence...