Thursday, May 1, 2008

Thankful Thursday

When I acquired my first car, I was a senior in college. Gas hovered just under the $1 mark most of that first year. All of us knew where to fill up so the number of gallons of gas we purchased was less than the number of dollars we spent. It was a great game, and I know when I tell my kids about this some day they are going to roll their eyes like I did when dad told me gas used to be 25 cents.

Gas is officially over the $4 mark in my town; $4.03 to be exact. Yesterday on the evening news I heard the national average is now $3.60. But rather than wonder where it is that I can get some gas for $3.20 (and sure that it is much farther than reasonable to drive for a fill up) I have a few things to be thankful for....

First of all, I'm not driving 600-700 miles a week anymore, just one more reason why losing my job was not such a bad thing. One time, I actually went out to lunch on a sick day, spending the $10 I'd "saved" not driving to work that day. I know you're wondering why I went out to lunch if I was too sick to work, so for the record, I'd twisted my foot and could barely walk, so driving was out of the question.

I also don't pay full price for gas, I get a discount by buying it with my gasoline company credit card. Getting 5% off makes a big difference when gas is $4 a gallon, so when I see the price on the sign, I just subtract my discount. A word to the wise - if you decide to try this, please note that to make this worth it one has to pay the bill in full and on time so those pesky late fees and interest don't cost more than the savings.

Then there's my car, which I love, and which has great MPG. I would absolutely LOVE to be driving a small SUV or pick up truck, but I couldn't quite sacrifice the dollars it would take to fill the tank, so I picked a compact car instead. I still nearly passed out when it cost me $48 (well, actually it cost $45.59) to fill my 12 gallon tank, but then I remembered I only have to do that about once a week these days. THANKFULLY!

So, I'm fortunate to have some ways to cut costs on gasoline, but gone are the days when I started the car without considering the cost. So, what are you paying for gas? This won't be a scientific survey, but I'm just curious. If you want to play along, post a comment with your city, state and gas price.

3 comments:

  1. Uh yeah, I think that's better then the $75 I paid last week to fill up my car (and that was when guess was at $3.40!) Oh well. What are you going to do? I would love to buy a hybrid too, but I don't think it would accomodate our family very well. I am very fortunate to have a lot of stores right at my fingertips, that's for sure.

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  2. One of the benifits of a baby who needs regular daytime naps is that I don't get out much. I just realized that I haven't been in my car for several days now... I have no idea what gas costs at our local station (just asked Mike, he says it's $3.88). The Chicago market is almost always higher than the national average. :-( We're still researching a new car purchase, and have crossed our small SUV contenders off the list!

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  3. It is funny because for some reason this IS really the first time that the price of gas really has made me thought about where we travel and what kind of cars we drive. All of a sudden, driving a couple of hours away puts a bit of a dent on the wallet. I don't drive much either - and the store I frequent is very close. So that $3.49 gallon here in MN doesn't get burned up too quickly in my vehicle....thankfully.

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