- How Will The Rising Cost of Gas Prices Impact Your Home Business? (Series)
- How Gas Prices Affect You and What To Do About It (Part 2 - The Grocery Game)
- Dealing With High Fuel Prices (Part 3 - Saving Gas)
From Katy Castro at I'm Blogging That
Last year, when we purchased our new car I thought we did the right thing in paying attention to fuel efficiency. Then, we paid $25 to fill the tank and today, it's $40.
I've thought about considering the long-term benefits to purchasing a moped/scooter but with a toddler, it's not really practical.
The answer for us, has been to cut costs elsewhere. No extra trips out, no visiting family in another state, no useless spending. I'm watching our budget very close just to grab more pennies where I can. Not so easy to do.
From Pickel at A Child Chosen
I am so glad we got rid of our Yukon last year. Although it was my DREAM car (it was the Denali) and we got a great deal on it...it was not practical for the city driving I do now that we moved from Michigan where all I did was country driving and needed a bigger car.
I used to spend 60 on a tank two years ago. I can't imagine what that would be now. With my new Element I spend 50 at these high prices and its killin' me! I make sure I get all of my errands done in one day and I don't go anywhere the rest of the week. We use hubby's company car for everything else.
From Yvonne Russell at Home Biz Notes
Gas in Australia is $6.40 per gallon at the moment and expected to rise.
From the Frugal Urbanite
We bought our 'new' car (a Toyota Matrix) a month earlier than we originally planned because our old Explorer was such an awful gas guzzler. We go on so many road trips (either to family, friends or for business) that it translates into more than $100 a month in savings. I tried looking into taking a bus or plane for trips, but the gas issues are making ticket prices ridiculous and I'm not paying $50 for the privilege of a second suitcase.
Thankfully we can walk or take the subway almost everywhere we need to go in our daily lives(including work, for DH) but I find myself 'saving up' errands that we need to drive for. Sometimes this means that we're waiting an extra week to buy something (or I end up having a day of nothing but appointments) but since it's all heavy traffic, city driving, it's worth the wait.
The worst effect on my business is the cost of traveling to conventions and shows. I have to drive because I'm often taking a full load of merchandise (some of which is pretty fragile.) More and more I'm sticking to only 'local' (within 3 hour's drive) shows, which is hurting my business because of loss of advertising and the loss of the actual sales. Even with my decreased travel radius, I'm using an entire $50 tank of gas for every trip.
From Andy Boyd
If it's bad in the USA, it's abominable in the UK.
Where I live 1 litre of petrol costs £1.15, or ~$2.30. There are ~3.8 litres in a single US gallon, which means I have to pay £4.37, or $8.5 for a gallon.
It's daylight robbery and the main reason why I've radically cut back on driving.
From Carrie at Ad Chiclet
This year for the first time ever I have planted a vegetable garden in the hopes of no longer needing to make frequent trips to the grocery store for fresh greens. Lets hope the lettuce grows well!
Thanks to everyone who participated!
Image Source: www.sxc.hu
I missed the earlier posts on this. What a great topic!
We live in Portland, OR and don't own a car. Actually, we haven't owned a car since 2004 when we moved from Los Angeles to NYC. When I worked in Corporate World, we always found places to live that were close to the office, twice literally across the street. Not for everyone, I know, but it was great for us.
In DC from 2005-2008, we started using Zipcar (zipcar.com) when we needed a car. Gas and insurance are included and we could do it by the hour.
So far, we rarely miss having a car in the driveway. We consolidate trips to Costco with Target, mall-shopping, or a movie. Sometimes we'll get a car for two days and have a weekend visiting the beach or camping. We went camping in Shenandoah several times using the Zipcar.
Otherwise, I bike or walk everywhere. We chose to live in an area that's less than a mile from libraries, grocery stores, and other things that we might need on a weekly basis. You can find a place to live with a good "walk score" at walkscore.com. Love it.
So, that's how we deal with rising gas prices here at Sparky HQ.
Also, it's interesting to note that when we lived in Germany in the 90s, gas prices there were already high like they are in the States now. We're just catching up. :)
Posted by: David Billings | May 31, 2008 1:45 PM | Permalink to Comment