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That's a good point and I'm interested in your last question. How often do people fill up their cars? We don't drive our van enough to tell, but before we had the Leaf it seemed like I filled up weekly. I regularly drove about 350-400 miles a week.
I fill up about once every 1.5-2 weeks - I drive about 15 miles total each day to/from work but I also like to travel on the weekends and go to Durham/Chapel Hill whenever I can to see friends/Bulls games etc... I can go about 400 miles on my Mazda3 before the gas light comes on.
It's interesting to me that people have no issue spending 5 bucks on a coffee at Starbucks, but gas goes up .20 a gallon and it's pure pandemonium.
I mean for the average car, that's 2.00-3.00 extra per fill up. How often does the average person fill their car, 2-3 times a month?
I know - I agree. I don't really care what I pay for gas. It's a necessity of life, for better or worse. Having NO gas is more of a problem for most people...life isn't that dire if gas goes up $.20. Seriously. People aren't crying and gnashing teeth over their AC bill in the summer - you want to be cool? You deal with it. Don't want to pay it? Don't use AC and suffer. Simple as that.
DH and I both work form home. I probably fill up twice a month. DH maybe a little more often as he usually is the one who drives DS to school.
It's interesting to me that people have no issue spending 5 bucks on a coffee at Starbucks, but gas goes up .20 a gallon and it's pure pandemonium.
I mean for the average car, that's 2.00-3.00 extra per fill up. How often does the average person fill their car, 2-3 times a month?
Totally agree. (Although I refuse to buy coffee when I can make my own). Even at $5 per fill-up, it's really not that big of a deal. I don't get the rush on the pumps, you'll still need to fill up, so the only savings you can really get is to time it just right, before the increase, and again after the price drop. Just not worth the time or the hassle to save a few bucks.
To your question, I also have a Mazda 3, and I fill it up on average every week or two. It depends, if I have my daughter with me, I'm doing good to make it a full week. If I don't, I usually can go two. So your 2-3 times per month is just about right. (I did the math, and I drive about 15k miles per year, and get about 400 miles per tank, so that is 37.5 times per year, or just over 3x per month.)
Even for people travelling this weekend, I don't get it. If you drive 1000 miles and only get 20 mpg, that is an extra 50 gallons. At 40-cents per gallon, that's a whopping $20 (a beer and a burger) added to the cost of your trip. Take it in stride, and be glad your house is not under water.
Totally agree. (Although I refuse to buy coffee when I can make my own). Even at $5 per fill-up, it's really not that big of a deal. I don't get the rush on the pumps, you'll still need to fill up, so the only savings you can really get is to time it just right, before the increase, and again after the price drop. Just not worth the time or the hassle to save a few bucks.
To your question, I also have a Mazda 3, and I fill it up on average every week or two. It depends, if I have my daughter with me, I'm doing good to make it a full week. If I don't, I usually can go two. So your 2-3 times per month is just about right. (I did the math, and I drive about 15k miles per year, and get about 400 miles per tank, so that is 37.5 times per year, or just over 3x per month.)
Even for people travelling this weekend, I don't get it. If you drive 1000 miles and only get 20 mpg, that is an extra 50 gallons. At 40-cents per gallon, that's a whopping $20 (a beer and a burger) added to the cost of your trip. Take it in stride, and be glad your house is not under water.
Couldn't agree more with you and others on this thread. Not having gas, big problem. Gas going up $.20-$.50 cents for a week or two, not a problem. If money is tight, you can easily make up that difference. If you're going somewhere for labor day and driving 500 miles this weekend and you have a truck that gets only 18-20mpg, you're still only paying $7.50 to $8 more for the 500 miles if gas is $.30 more than it was last week. The way the media is reporting about people canceling vacations and opinion pieces on why you should think twice about traveling this weekend, it's really getting out of hand.
"Yeah, gas for our $50k truck is going to cost $10 more for this weekend. I guess we should cancel our $300 a night hotel and dinner and party plans at the beach this weekend honey."
I saw a quote from AAA that the gas price increase could prevent people from taking their Labor Day vacation....and I all I could think was "if you can't afford another $25-$50 in gas you have no business going away for the weekend anyway"!
I remember during last year's (very temporary) gas shortage "crisis" the crowds of vehicles lined up at a gas station in Wake Forest with prices $.10 cheaper per gallon than a gas station approximately a mile away (that, yes, was slightly more expensive, but had NO lines). I heard later that people were waiting 20+ minutes to fill up at that one station. All the time, they were sitting in running vehicles, burning gas. Many, if not most, of the vehicles were very recent to brand-new models -- so probably a number of them were not paid off. So you have people burning gas while sitting in a not-yet-paid-for vehicle all trying to save something like $2-$3 (with diminished effect because they burned gas doing so).... because of a perceived "crisis"? Definitely shows how humans can fall into irrational behaviors in a group, and will willingly walk right into the narrative of a media-created frenzy.
I saw a quote from AAA that the gas price increase could prevent people from taking their Labor Day vacation....and I all I could think was "if you can't afford another $25-$50 in gas you have no business going away for the weekend anyway"!
And that's only if they're driving 1000-2000 miles AND gas goes up $.50 a gallon AND they're only getting 20 mpg. I would venture to say no one is going to be paying over $20 more than they would have. It's a non-factor!
If you get 30mpg and you're only traveling 500 miles round trip AND gas goes up $.50 a gallon, you're going to pay about $8 more for your vacation. Who's that going to stop?
I saw a quote from AAA that the gas price increase could prevent people from taking their Labor Day vacation....and I all I could think was "if you can't afford another $25-$50 in gas you have no business going away for the weekend anyway"!
sheer inanity when I heard that quote on TV today.
You've committed to whatever lodging. You plan to spend a lot of money either on groceries or eating out. Driving 4 hours each way, and likely consuming 20 gallons of gas at even a $1 spike, for $20 extra?
To me, it's just further proof some folks don't even think about what they're reporting.
I remember during last year's (very temporary) gas shortage "crisis" the crowds of vehicles lined up at a gas station in Wake Forest with prices $.10 cheaper per gallon than a gas station approximately a mile away (that, yes, was slightly more expensive, but had NO lines). I heard later that people were waiting 20+ minutes to fill up at that one station. All the time, they were sitting in running vehicles, burning gas. Many, if not most, of the vehicles were very recent to brand-new models -- so probably a number of them were not paid off. So you have people burning gas while sitting in a not-yet-paid-for vehicle all trying to save something like $2-$3 (with diminished effect because they burned gas doing so).... because of a perceived "crisis"? Definitely shows how humans can fall into irrational behaviors in a group, and will willingly walk right into the narrative of a media-created frenzy.
Drive by any carpool at any school this afternoon and you'll find people sitting in their cars for 20-40 minutes with the engine running. And then running home and posting on Facebook about the gas "shortage"/price of gas.
Filled up at Costco today, premium was $2.70, no lines (bad weather). This should last me 2 weeks. Bu sure as heck I'll try to use this story as an excuse to work from home an additional day. Thanks for sharing!
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