My Gasoline Budget Is Always In The Red
In January I set my gasoline budget per month at $130. I had consistently been spending a bit more than that per month, about $150, but I thought with some effort I could reduce my usage and bring my bill down.
And I was right. In January, February, and March, I came within $10 of our budgeted amount every month, either a tiny bit over or a tiny bit under. I was happy that my effort to make less trips and consolidate driving was paying off.
And then in April I started a new job teaching taekwondo in another town, which added unavoidable driving to my life. I used April as a gauge to figure out how much, and determined that we’d need about 50% more gasoline than we used in previous months. The new studio was about twice as far away from a mileage perspective as the one I used to teach at, and I was teaching more often. I knew that the new salary would more than compensate for the increased gas consumption, and I raised the gas budget by about 50%, or to $200.
But then the world really started to plot against me. Between April and today, gasoline prices in my area have risen by about 30%. The average price of gasoline at the beginning of April here was $2.99/gallon. This week, it was $4.17. So now, not only am I driving more, but the gas is more expensive and shows no signs here of leveling off. Every month my gasoline budget column is in the red. I’ve eliminated all the driving I can figure out how to eliminate - I only do errands one day a week and consolidate them all into one trip, I never idle my car, I only drive to work and the kids’ activities (as does my spouse) and even with decreasing usage as much as we feel we can at this time, we’re still in the red.
So all I can do is allocate more of my taekwondo salary every month to gasoline and hope that at some point, I can come up with a realistic gasoline budget again. Will prices ever level off, or at least slow to the rate of inflation? I think my next car is going to have to get at least 30 miles per gallon. But that’s hopefully a long way off, so all I can do is tell myself that gasoline will not rise in price by 30% every four months. One can dream.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
You can also: Stumble It! Bookmark Submit to Reddit Submit to Tip'd
June 28th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Sigh! In California, gas is over $5 a gallon. Living in a neighboring state, we’ve seen that as California goes, so go we, sooner or later. I’ve cut my driving back as far as I can and am trying to “hypermile” within the limits of safety and my driving skills, but gas is still running over $100 a month. The other day a local news report said that busses coming in from the suburbs, which usually run empty (a little secret the metro transit folks try not to discuss) now are standing-room-only. According to the Play-Nooz, transit officials don’t know how to cope with it: they never expected to actually have customers.
Meanwhile, the university has rescinded its free bus passes for faculty and staff, although they still offer them for students.
These prices couldn’t come at a worse time: we get no raise in pay this year; power and water prices are through the roof; and summer is the time when power bills are at their highest here. I’m trying to limit spending, at least in my routine day-to-day budgets, to only the barest necessities, but less than a week into this month’s budget cycle, I’m already running in the red.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
The most frugal driver I know of is my boss, and she lives 31 miles from our job. She works at home Monday and Friday, and is in the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On her trip home on Thursday night she stops at all the stores which are right along the way and does her grocery shopping and errand running. Then her car sits in the driveway until the next Tuesday. I’ve tried hypermiling but apparently I’ve been doing everything right all along because my mileage doesn’t increase from one tank to the next. I’ve been unintentionally grating on other driver’s nerves for years because I don’t floor my vehicle when the light turns green and get going from 0 to 50 in 2 seconds. Unfortunately, most of my 48 mile trip to work is on the highway with posted speeds of 65mph, so I’m unable to reap the benefits of going slower to save gas. Most folks are driving 80mph and it feels like my life is in danger keeping my vehicle at 65mph. I did change my hours from 7am-3:30pm to 6am-2:30pm because it’s a straight shot to work at the earlier hour rather than the later time where there is an additional half hour of sitting idling in traffic.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
These kind of gas prices forces one to reevaluate every mile you drive: for instance, is the TaeKwonDo job worth the cost? Probably, for you! But we’re looking at job changes, and mileage is a real factor. DH can use his scooter to get to and from work at present, but he’s considering a job in a neighboring city. It would require commuting by car, so there’s going to be a major debate if he is indeed offered the position.
I, too, drive some drivers nuts with my “easy goes it” approach to driving! I just hope others learn something when they see I get from point A to point B in the same time, without the accelerate/brake nuttiness
It definitely helps my driving technique to have a Prius with its instant, dashboard, feedback as to mpg!
June 28th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
My little contract job did give us a raise…and my son’s employer also gave her employees a raise. I think it is to offset the cost of gas, so we won’t look closer to home for jobs. I have given up my mystery shopping jobs, as the pay is not worth the trips in the car.
I plan my route when I do use the car for errands and make a circle with no backtracking, getting everything done in one trip. I also make one day a week a no driving day.
Gas prices are going to get worse in time with no leveling off in the foreseeable future, I fear. We will all be making adjustments to our lifestyles and using public transportation, bicycles,walking and more fuel efficient vehicles as they do in Europe.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I’ve taken to doing all my trips when I take my son to work (he can’t drive until July 17, at which point, he’ll have to figure it all out himself). I get a bunch of grocery dry good delivered via Amazon, buy in bulk, and am telling the kids that the $1 ice cream cone is actually costing the price of the food, plus $4+ in gas, so we won’t be getting it. My husband starts riding the bus next month (I used to live in L.A., so I laughed about the RTD buses being empty all the time…it was so true - we rode the train) and his work will have change the way they do things if he doesn’t have a car. We have a bike trailer for cargo, but bike lanes aren’t so good for kids…we’re still doing it, but it feels scary to watch how closely cars are getting to my children. I think our world is just now starting to change.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I can’t believe your gas budget is that low! We live pretty far away from work and each commute over an hour to our jobs. On top of that, we drive 800 miles round trip to visit the in-laws every other month or so. In June, our gas spending was about $300 over budget. Sigh. Time to increase those numbers.
June 29th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Is bicycling or commuting via public transportation an option? (I know sometimes it’s not because of distances, schedules or other factors.) You could get a few local errands run by bicycle and avoid starting up the car; that’s a win in my book! And you get in some extra cardio exercise to boot!
June 29th, 2008 at 8:13 am
I think you can be pretty safe that gas will not increase 30% most 3 months periods
It is pretty amazing how rapidly gas prices have increased these last couple of years. If these prices stay (or are higher) for a couple more years gas prices will have a much greater impact on where people chose to live (near work and other places they want to go). In the past the cost of gas for commuting was rarely a significant part of the equation when people looked at where to live.
One good aspect of the whole situation is the increased use of mass transit and the likely increased investment in it going forward. It is good to remember the USA has 4% of the world population and uses 25% of the oil. Especially when people indicate it is China using more oil that is the cause of higher oil prices. Doesn’t it seem likely the USA is a significant factor?
June 29th, 2008 at 10:50 am
My gas budget = $0.
I got tired of dealing with rising gas prices and the cost of fixing my car so I just gave it up. I live near my workplace so I take public transit, and when I’m feeling extra frugal (or fat), I walk the 2 miles.
Sometimes, I’m annoyed by the time it might take to take 2-3 trains or busses, but then I read about people’s issues with $4 gas and think - I don’t really have it so bad! My employer pays a certain amount per month towards my public transit costs, which brings my part down to zero. Plus, I get a lot of reading done, and some exercise in.
If I ever decide to not live in the city (or close to it) then I’m going to have to be completely self-sufficient.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I automatically budget my gas over the regular price, to compensate for raises in the price. For example, right now I budget it at $4.50 a gallon. Since Spring of 2007, I was budgeting at $3.50 a gallon. I couldn’t come up with an easier way to do it, because there were always extra trips I had to make. (My job is in one town, daycare/home are in another. Grocery store is in same town as job, but can’t stop on way to daycare because I pay hourly rate, and would put me into the next level, costing me an additional $40-$80 per week. So I have to pick up kids, THEN go back to store.)