[AlphaQup]

Does anybody actually calculate their fuel cost before complaining? I read an article on CNN where a woman drove 12 miles one-way to work and public transportation was not an option. She told her boss, "If gas goes up from $4 a gallon to $6 a gallon, I am going to have to work from home at least one day a week!"

She then actually posted this on CNN.

I mean come on people.

12 miles one-way is 120 miles a week and at 22 mpg she would pay a whopping $10.90 more on gas a week in fuel if gas rose $2.00. For some reason $10.90 more a week is a lot but having one more $6.00 Corona Light at the club on Friday night is completely reasonable.

Who here really crunches their numbers and know how much they spend on transportation a week (for work) and how much more they would have to pay if gas went up another $2.00?

[gasguzzler]

Originally Posted by AlphaQup

Does anybody actually calculate their fuel cost before complaining? I read an article on CNN where a woman drove 12 miles one-way to work and public transportation was not an option. She told her boss, "If gas goes up from $4 a gallon to $6 a gallon, I am going to have to work from home at least one day a week!"

She then actually posted this on CNN.

I mean come on people.

12 miles one-way is 120 miles a week and at 22 mpg she would pay a whopping $10.90 more on gas a week in fuel if gas rose $2.00. For some reason $10.90 more a week is a lot but having one more $6.00 Corona Light at the club on Friday night is completely reasonable.

Who here really crunches their numbers and know how much they spend on transportation a week (for work) and how much more they would have to pay if gas went up another $2.00?

I do... That's why I don't give a shit if gas goes to $6.00. I also didn't give a shit when it went from $2.00 to $4.00. I owned a 2003 Honda Accord and sold it to buy a 2006 Ford F150 w/ 5.4L motor. My gas expenses for the week went from $60.00 to $75.00. $15.00 more a week to drive the vehicle I want to drive.

[Clown Baby]

No one does. That's why people will drive 15 minutes across town to buy their gas for $.03 less per gallon, or will buy their groceries from a gas-discounting supermarket that charges 35% more for the groceries that earn the discounts.

[Sabin]

People should focus more on mpg because they can control that. For my driving habits (about 20,000 miles per year) it costs me about $70 per mpg per year.

So while 1 mpg might not be much 10 sure is. From 20 to 30 mpg would be $700 per year; if I own my car for 5 years that would be $3500 I could have in the bank.

I see what you're saying though, people waste a lot more on stuff they don't need, but love to complain about gas prices.

[tsuifuku]

The cost of gas is more significant if you have a long commute. I recently accepted a job 40 miles away because there are not many jobs in my field in this area right now. I have 9 months left on an apartment lease, so I will need to drive this for awhile. I estimate my gas bill will be about $200/month. A few years ago it would have been $100/month. I don't know about you, but I used to enjoy taking road trips on the weekends and holidays. For someone with a meager income this isn't very practical anymore. I suppose someone will give me grief about this but I can't help not making a lot of money. Then Republicans wonder why the poor and middle class get pissed off when guys like Phil Graham call us whiners. Graham's wife served on the audit committee for Enron and the company paid her between $915,000 and $1.85 million in stocks and dividends, as much as $50,000 in annual salary, and $176,000 in attendance fees. Enron was also Graham's largest corporate campaign contributer. Three days ago Exxon announced $11.7 billion in second quarter profits, the largest quarterly profits of any corporation in history. On Friday, Democrats in the Senate brought up a bill to lower gas prices by cracking down on oil speculators but could only muster 50 votes, with nearly every Republican Senator voting to stop the bill from advancing. I don't suppose that could have anything to do with the campaign contributions that Republicans receive from the oil companies.

[Alcoholica]

I don't think it is that big of a deal, if gas went up to $5.00 a gallon my gas bill would only be an extra $30 a month.

[kraetos]

The nearest town is about a 20 mile round trip.

Gas here is over $4.50 gallon (as high as $4.80).

[megaseth7]

So the difference is about the cost of a soda a day (out of a vending machine). As far as I'm concerned America could stand to cut out the snacks. Its really not that bad unless you run a transportation company with some long term contracts...

[AlphaQup]

Originally Posted by tsuifuku

The cost of gas is more significant if you have a long commute. I recently accepted a job 40 miles away because there are not many jobs in my field in this area right now. I have 9 months left on an apartment lease, so I will need to drive this for awhile. I estimate my gas bill will be about $200/month.

This is what I am talking about.

Now maybe I am wrong in my assumptions but if I assume you make 5 round trips a week to work, that comes out about 1,680 miles (estimate) a month. If your car gets 20 mpg and you are paying $4.00 p/gallon, then your monthly gas bill would be about $336 a month. You are off by about 68%!

If you could buy a new car (Honda Civic non-hybrid) that got 38 mpg, your gas bill would be $176.50 a month, saving you about $159.00 a month, which would probably be your new monthly car payment. So maybe buy a used Honda Civic.

Just rambling, but explore your options and get familiar with what you actually pay for transportation and how much more your monthly transportation bill would be if gas went up a $1.00 or down a $1.00.

[tsuifuku]

Originally Posted by AlphaQup

This is what I am talking about.

Now maybe I am wrong in my assumptions but if I assume you make 5 round trips a week to work, that comes out about 1,680 miles (estimate) a month. If your car gets 20 mpg and you are paying $4.00 p/gallon, then your monthly gas bill would be about $336 a month. You are off by about 68%!

If you could buy a new car (Honda Civic non-hybrid) that got 38 mpg, your gas bill would be $176.50 a month, saving you about $159.00 a month, which would probably be your new monthly car payment. So maybe buy a used Honda Civic.

Just rambling, but explore your options and get familiar with what you actually pay for transportation and how much more your monthly transportation bill would be if gas went up a $1.00 or down a $1.00.

I think my estimate was pretty close. I drive a Hyundai Sonata which gets about 30 mpg (in theory), which comes to $244 a month. The price of gas has gone as high as $4.25 here, although it's come down in the last few weeks. My main problem is not the small fluctuations in the price of gas but the huge increase that has taken place in the last few years. If gas went up to $6/gallon my monthly bill would go up almost $100. I chose a 4 cylinder over a 6 when I bought my car specifically because I tend to drive a lot, but now that choice is just compensating for the increased cost of fuel. Unfortunately the cost of a hybrid negates any money saved by the fuel economy of the vehicle.