When gas hit $5, what will you do?

[Sleepy]

We took a huge jump in gas prices when we moved here. I drive a Durango and STILL drive it like a taxi. We just pay whatever gas costs and deal with it. As others said, less eating out, etc.

 

[ducklite]

I try to combine trips as much as I can. I mail order rather than going to the mall.

I drive a Saturn Ion (have a Saturn Sky on order--same engine/gas milage give or take one mpg either way). If I make no side trips--just back and forth to work and stop at Publix and Target on my way home--not out of the way--and use fumes on the last day, I can make it two weeks on one tank of gas.

DH drives a Prius. He drives back and forth between NJ and FL every month. He does fly sometimes, but he often doesn't know he's going to be able to be here until the last minute, so flying isn't always practical. Because he puts about 30,000 miles a year on the car, the 46-48 mpg he gets with the Prius DOES make a difference.

As far as buying a hybrid, there is generally a waiting list of up to six months, so if you are interested, you might want to act now.

Anne

 

[Viking]

I would do a happy dance as this would mean that gas were more than $1 cheaper than now
I paid $6.08 a gallon for premium on Sunday. $65 to fill up my convertible!!

 

[DisneyStar006]

I'm with ya Viking, I would be celebrating as we already pay $6+/gallon (equivalent)

It costs me nearly $80 to fill up my small car

 

[N.Bailey]

We're lucky, as far as HAVING to drive, we really don't have to put many miles on our vehicles. Hubby could walk to work if necessary, but for now, he drives just so he can get home for ALL breaks. LOL That will be changing at $5.00 per gallon though. It hits us the hardest when we have to buy our oil to heat the house. Living in PA can be quite costly with these prices. I think we'll be okay till next winter though.

My car is a '99 Grand Am and it has less than 30,000 miles on it. Does that tell you anything?

When we all go out though, we take the van which actually gets better gas mileage and gives us more room for family outings.

BTW: Hubby just filled both tanks up. It is sickening to pay $75 for gas though.

 

[MsDisney23]

DH only works about 2 to 3 miles from our house at the Mall, I am home all the time just about. Most of my running is local and I do combine my trips, etc.

 

[MScott1851]

I will do exactly the same thing as I do now. I drive an Explorer that gets about 19-20 miles per gallon, and during the week, I really only go back and forth to work, about 22 miles roundtrip. On weekends, if we stay around town...I only have to fill up every 8 days or so. If we go out of town, we suck it up and pay for the gas. It stinks, but I am not going to drastically change my lifestyle over fifty cents per gallon. If my gas bill goes up $50 a month, I'll just work an extra hour at work. It's not like I can run out and buy another car...the resale value of my SUV isn't enough to pay it off.

DH's Highlander is completely paid for by his company; payments, insurance, maintenance and gas, thank goodness.

And FYI...ethanol isn't that much cheaper. My car is a flex-fuel vehicle. Only one station in town has E85 right now, and it's roughly the same price as regular unleaded.

 

[Evil Queen]

Will look more into public transport if needed. DS10 and I just spoke of this last night. We agreed once it hits $3.00 a gallon, we are making MAJOR cutbacks in all areas of our lives.

 

[Southern4sure]

Thank goodness both of our vehicles are paid for so it will be cheaper to keep them and pay for higher gas then go buy smaller cars.

DH drives a Ford F150 and his work is less than 10 miles round trip. A tank will last him almost 2 weeks if he doesnt drive around on the weekends.

I drive a Grand Caravan but I do not work so it is parked in the garage most of the time. If I need to do somewhere I go.

 

[Marseeya]

I'm ready to cry as it is. I only drive to school (40 miles round trip) two days a week, and we use my car (a Tucson) as the family car when we go anywhere together. It's okay for us now, but we're noticing a dent in the finances.

Next fall is going to be difficult and maybe impossible. I start student teaching and if they send me out of town (a high probability because they're a bunch of worthless so-and-so's), I may just have to drop out of the program.

I'm extremely stressed and depressed thinking about it.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I hate to gloat, but I'm glad I bought the VW Jetta Wagon Turbo Diesel!! 45 miles/gallon and diesel fuel prices seem to stay constant, unlike soaring unleaded prices!!!

 

[DaisyD]

We'll just have to pay it. It is already over $3 again. Even going to $5 isn't bad when considering what some places overseas charge. I won't be trading in my SUV anytime soon either. LOL!

 

[golfgal]

POSTED BY GOLFGAL ON A EARLIER THREAD:

We have a Blazer that gets about 20 mph highway(then she goes into saying she is getting a van because she needs room). She does say the van will get better MPG, but that doesn't really matter to her.


Okay, GolfGal, my Suburban gets about 17 MPG highway. We are a family of 5 but my older children usually do not go with us to my youngest son's game. We usually always have at least 1 or 2 "stray" children with us at all times. My husband coaches several sports and "always" takes kids with them whose parents can't be there.

Yes, we do have another car that my husband drives to work, gasp, 60 miles each way everyday!!!!!!!! It is GrandPrix GT, it gets better gas mileage but not great. It is smaller would be crowded, hard to haul equpiment and gasp again, doesn't have a DVD player( that my DS loves) which the Suburban does.

In my original post, I was supporting the carpool idea, not so much to help me financially, but others. I figure, if I spend that much money on the SUV, I better never complain about the cost of gas! I try not too, but sometimes it gets to me!

Sorry, my post "burned" you, I will just go vaccum my house with my DYSON vacuum cleaner!

Actually, it DOES matter to me but we have 3 kids and I carpool pretty much EVERY day so I need the space in a van. Our Blazer prevents me from carpooling so in the long run, we are saving quite a bit in gas. If we are only taking 3 people, we take our Saturn. We don't drive the Blazer unnecessarily. My kids are in plenty of sports and we all golf so I totally understand needing trunk space but we can get all of our golf equipment in the trunk of the Saturn. It can be done. You said in your original post that there are 3 of you in your Suburban driving to the games and your were THINKING about carpooling, you did not say that you take extra kids.

 

[we3disneygo]

yea! for the grand prix GT......... we have a 93 grand prix and a 2000 GT, we tried to go with a smaller car,but didn't feel safe we've been hit twice on a Friday!

 

[CheshireVal]

I drive a Scion that gets about 35 mpg. It's pretty fuel efficient, and my commute to work is less than 10 miles.

However, if gas goes too high, I'll have to cut back on road trips on weekends. Which would be hard for me, because I frequently go visit my mom, who lives about 90 miles away. I don't want to have to see her less.

 

[Chattyaholic]

I am so thankful I only live 6 miles from my job. If gas goes really high though, and stays up there, I might consider buying a scooter or golf cart.

DH primarily farms for a living, but is an crop insurance adjuster on the side and does quite a bit of driving for that. He recently got a smaller pickup (Dodge Dakota) for that job though, so it uses less fuel. He does get paid mileage but not nearly enough. The companies may increase that though, if gas goes much higher.

 

[AllyandJack]

I'll start using my Citi card to get gas instead of my debit card. At 5% cash back, how can I resist? I'll just pay it off at the end of the month and rake in the 5% cash back. When I reach the max on that benefit (I think it's $300. a year), I'll switch to the Disney Visa and rake in the points for my November trip.

 

[Marseeya]

You know what really gets to me in threads like this? And it's not that I've seen it here, but it's inevitable in the SUV and/or gas threads. You always have someone coming on gloating -- and maybe they don't mean to gloat, or maybe they don't realize they're coming off that way -- but they display the attitude that everything's just fine and dandy because they can afford that Hummer and it's all just peachy keen with them; hey just let those gas prices SOAR!!! It's all good!

This is serious for some people. Where I live, people aren't going to be able to go to work when they're making minimum wage and driving whatever old car they can get their hands on. I'm willing to bet we have some people on the DIS who are seriously worried about gas prices, and no, not everyone here is planning trip after trip to WDW, but are very overburdened right now.

It reminds me of the "let them eat cake" attitude.

It's not that anyone should be ashamed to have money, but really. If you're going to be so blatant about it, why don't you just come right out and tell us what your salary is. Either way, it's just tacky.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

You know what really gets to me in threads like this? And it's not that I've seen it here, but it's inevitable in the SUV and/or gas threads. You always have someone coming on gloating -- and maybe they don't mean to gloat, or maybe they don't realize they're coming off that way -- but they display the attitude that everything's just fine and dandy because they can afford that Hummer and it's all just peachy keen with them; hey just let those gas prices SOAR!!! It's all good!

This is serious for some people. Where I live, people aren't going to be able to go to work when they're making minimum wage and driving whatever old car they can get their hands on. I'm willing to bet we have some people on the DIS who are seriously worried about gas prices, and no, not everyone here is planning trip after trip to WDW, but are very overburdened right now.

It reminds me of the "let them eat cake" attitude.

It's not that anyone should be ashamed to have money, but really. If you're going to be so blatant about it, why don't you just come right out and tell us what your salary is. Either way, it's just tacky.

Yikes! If you're talking about me (although I hope you aren't), I'm sorry if I offended anyone by my gloating about driving a diesel, just wanted to put it out there as an alternate for paying outrageous unleaded prices.

 

[CheshireVal]

You know what really gets to me in threads like this? And it's not that I've seen it here, but it's inevitable in the SUV and/or gas threads. You always have someone coming on gloating -- and maybe they don't mean to gloat, or maybe they don't realize they're coming off that way -- but they display the attitude that everything's just fine and dandy because they can afford that Hummer and it's all just peachy keen with them; hey just let those gas prices SOAR!!! It's all good!

This is serious for some people. Where I live, people aren't going to be able to go to work when they're making minimum wage and driving whatever old car they can get their hands on. I'm willing to bet we have some people on the DIS who are seriously worried about gas prices, and no, not everyone here is planning trip after trip to WDW, but are very overburdened right now.

It reminds me of the "let them eat cake" attitude.

It's not that anyone should be ashamed to have money, but really. If you're going to be so blatant about it, why don't you just come right out and tell us what your salary is. Either way, it's just tacky.

I totally agree. I try not to click on the SUV threads for that very reason. Not only tacky, but infuriating.