Make you change the way you live your daily life?
How will YOUR daily life change?
I don't know for certain where the price of fuel is headed, by Independence Day, by Labor Day, or by the Election but one fact is certain, the price is headed upward of $6-8 per gallon (my thought) by the end of the year. Because fuel costs have a trickle down effect, how expensive will it be to purchase food, to run errands, what jobs will go away or at least what jobs will be negatively impacted? Can you even afford to drive to work or will you take mass transit or perhaps car pool?
What could be cut out or downsized in order to save costs?
We've already made changes in our daily lives by staying holed up at home more of the time. We are fortunate to be retired and not need to make a daily drive to and from work. When we retired we made cut backs in our budget for things that were not necessary, increased deductibles in home and auto insurance, made changes in the way we grocery shopped and cooked, did we really need both a landline and a mobile phone, did we actually watch all those movie channels? We didn't "need" to make all those changes (to the tune of thousands of dollars a year) but we did and then took the monies that saved and socked it away.......luckily we have that to supplement now if needed. We'll travel less than we have in past years (although I'm glad I already bought the airfare for the cruise this fall), and we'll eat at home more often.
After yesterday's prediction of higher fuel costs to come we went out last night and topped off our tanks at $3.99 (premium). Today, premium fuel at the same gas station is $4.09 a gallon with even more escalation expected before the end of the weekend.
OMG!!!!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
At What Point Will The Price Of Fuel.......
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14 COMMENTS:
It's starting to get tough all around for lots of folks. I'm fortunate that I moved a little closer to work than I used to live because that commute right now would be having a drastic impact on budget. I've continued to be pretty frugal, and I keep waiting to see how bad it will get, hoping that I'm not one of those that makes it through, but it's scary knowing how many are skating so close to the edge. Hmmm, do I eat lunch, or fill up my tank so that I can get to work and keep my job... My heart goes out to all the folks in that position.
I was so mad yesterday listening to Sean Hannity on the radio saying that our economy is fine and that it's all hype as if the price of gas hasn't gone up and as if that hasn't impacted necessities like groceries. I haven't seen my paycheck going up along with the cost of everything else; I've seen layoffs with little chance of a raise. I consider myself grateful to even have a damn job. Hard work, he says. That's effing brilliant when people have jobs to go to and can afford the gas to get there. I'm all about people being self-sufficient and go capitalism and all that, I really am, but I also believe in seeing what is going on right under my nose, and this? Stinks. Record profits for oil companies while some people, regular working class folks who didn't need a hand out this time last year are in line at the food pantry needing some help to feed their families.
Damn. I did it again. :)
You're right Maggie and I think it's going to get worse before it levels off. The days of fuel under $4 a gallon is over, I think it will go up to over $6 a gallon before it levels off around $4ish. I'm thinking it should have been higher all along, going up little by little for years so that this huge jump didn't drastically impact so many that just were not prepared. Fuel in Europe is the equivalent of $11 a gallon, we must sound like spoiled whining boobs. Americans need to live differently, it's time for a change in mindset.
It's nothing short of depressing. We feel the squeeze here at home big time. Then we trickle down to my daughters family.. worse there. with fuel and the price of food they just can't feed the babies if we don't help them to buy fresh produce and milk. It's getting tough all over.
I am extremely thankful that I only have a 3-mile round-trip commute to work but considering I work for a company that runs on fuel, I'm afraid to see what's going to happen there as we can't raise the ambulance rates even though the gas prices are going so high. The cost of an ambulance is set by th government and they aren't going to raise what a company can charge Medicare or Medicaid for an ambulance transport. They allow for rate adjustments once a year and it's a long, long time until January.
Things are looking pretty grim for the future right now ... pretty grim.
The economy is a very scary thing right now.... As you know, I am going to Boston in July and I was gonna rent a car to get from Boston to Cape Cod to Cambridge. The ECONOMY car was about 250 dollars for six days not to mention it costs about 22-25 dollars a night to park in Boston as well as Cambridge. Gas to get to Cape Cod and back would have been at least $80 dollars so I figured why not take the ferry across to Cape Cod and take public transportation in the city? Between the rental car fee, gas and parking, it would have costed me like $500 to drive around for a week! Now that is what I call crazy! I will be out of town for like two weeks so at least I won't have to put gas in my car for those two weeks! I am glad I have a second job while it lasts! It ends at the end of June.
Peace,
Diva
Yeah not liking the prices very much. Last night we were seeing this longer than usual line at the gas station and were wondering why (gas was 3.76) and after driving by it this morning I now know why... It was 3.89..
That's horrible. Round trip it is costing me $10 per day just to go work..
I'm sure by this time next year it will be $20 per day.
I paid $4.35 at one of the local gas stations in my town yesterday. I live in California so it goes with the territory. I suspect that prices will rise if the mid-east gets into a conflict (Isreal-Iran).
It has already affected my daily life - I walk to the grocery store WAY more than before, I order more stuff online rather than drive 45 minutes each way to the nearest big box shopping area (yeah, I live in a small town), and I have also felt it at my store - people have to decide whether to buy a gift for a friend or a gallon of gas. It used to be the greeting card to go with the gift or a gallon of gas, but now it's the gift or gas! Small businesses cannot survive long in this economy!
cheers,
mo
As of today it's $4.21/gal in CT. I only have a 7-mile commute to the cube job. This is worse & more scary than the 1970s when we had gas rationing days and alternate fill-up days according to your last name. Anyone remember?
I remember although I was 7-8 years old. I used to hang out with my dad waiting for gas on the days he could fill up. Hopefully, our politicians will not commit the same mistakes that they did back then--price controls on gas. Price controls caused the gas shortage; gas retailers running out of gas because they couldn't afford to pay the wholesale price.
remember the gas rationing too but I also remember when businesses weren't open on Sundays at all and that included gas stations.
They say that this is being caused by investors and hedge funds, etc - I must admit that I don't understand all that financial jargon but I really do believe that gasoline under $4 a gallon is a thing of the past.
We should have been spending more on developing alternative sources of fuel and vehicles that got 50+ miles per gallon.
We have to change the way we live!
It's depressing. We're at 3.99 a gallon for regular grade. I tried to fill up my tank yesterday and it shut off at the 75.00 limit. I had to start over and put my debit card in again.
We've been consolidating trips around town here and pile as many as we can into one van when we go places with friends.
I've heard we're going to hit 5.00 by the end of summer. I think we're going to see a lot of people trading in their vans and suvs.
Someone has got to do something soon!
The idea of it taking $75 to fill up anything short of a mobile home is crazy!!!
I know how you all feel, as your country is the 'home' of petrol, but ours has now reached 118 pence a litre!! ($2.2) That is about £5.00 a gallon. I am also retired, and finding things very difficult, because as you say, everything else has gone up in leaps and bounds because of delivery charges, especially food. I live in the UK
Regards to you all in the USA
Sandie
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