Let's Talk About Gas!

Here in Michigan its $4.02   We have cut back on the extras like movies and fast food. I agree that if it was just Gas we could deal with it. Luckily I live 3 miles from work and hubby drives 20 round trip so we are not doing to bad in that area.  I am the office manager for a chain of car washes and I must say the gas prices are hitting us hard. Customers have a limited resources and car washes are way down the list. We have seen a decline in business. The owner says its easy to be a Good Business Man in good times. But when things get tough only the strong survive. He has been running car washes since 1968 and he is good at it. We will make it though this. My husband works for the hospital and his job is stable as far as we can tell. So I think my family will be fine.  But my son, girlfriend and grandson who live on there own, suffer greatly.  They both make $7.50 an hour. He works first and she works second so they don't have to put thier son in daycare. They only have 1 vehicle. They truly struggle. He hits me up for gas in the middle of the week. Its the lower income people that I feel sorry for. They don't have enough as it is!!  I wish I had an answer for this problem.

My family was just talking about this. Gas here for the low grade is 3.99-4.14 We have 3 vehicles a ford expedition 120 to fill up chevy minivan 100.00 to fill up geo metro 28.00 to fill up so geuss which one is in the garage(right the expedition) we take it when we all go i have 3 long legged sons and the mini van is uncomfortable. the mini  van and the geo we trade out with my parents they have no transporatation so we loan them one of ours. but i wont ride in the geo im afraid ill turn it over.ol my dh works as a poker dealer in the casino and his tips are down so i am worried. He was found non deployable with the national guard but they have a job for him 30 minutes from where we live and he will be home everynight.it will be more stable than the casino. I worry about the elderly and the people on fixed incomes. we are stayin home this summer and working on our house,the boys have a pool and there bikes and we told them once a month we will go somewhere within a tank of gas distance. i feel blessed to have what i have and to know that every night i have somewhere to lay my head and this summer my children and learning this.

Hi Kix, I live in Phillie so the gas is above $4.00 at most places.  I do all my shopping in NJ which is 5 minutes from my house.  I go to Sam's club, you don't have to be a member to buy gas there, I paid $3.82 on Saturday and the great part is that they pump it for you. If you drive along one of the main roads they actually have a gas war, that some places are offering $.05 discount if you pay cash. Having both of my knees bone on bone I have to rely on my car.  I hate to pay it but George and his wife have another daughter''s wedding to pay for. Try and keep cool everyone. Jeanne

We have a Subaru Wagon and an Impala that I call a "grandparents car". The Impala was bought so we had a car for family trips, and the wagon is for errands, esp pet & garden related. Right now I don't fit into the Subaru as a driver (tummy vs steering wheel issues). While that car sure is comfortable, I'm embarassed to be driving it, as it seems to only get about 20mpg. My last fill up of the Impala was 2 weeks ago and I got gas at just under 4 bucks. The tank full came to $60. I hate to see what the next one brings. Hubby is disabled, so only drives to appts and a few errands and my commute is short. We can stretch a tank of gas for 2 weeks, esp. if I tele-commute a few days a week. Once I am more fit, I plan to take the bus a few days a week. We have a stop 3 blocks from the house and another 3 blocks from my office. I'd also love to get a moped with baskets for errands around town. The costs aren't too bad for us yet, but are enough to get us combining errands.

I drive a Dodge truck which takes diesel.  I'm paying about 4.75 gal at Safeway, which is cheapest I've found.  Some places are 4.85-4.95.   Luckily I work at home so don't have to commute.  My husband drives a company van so we don't have to pay for that gas, thank God.   I have definitely limited my tooling around in the truck.  I only get 13.6 mpg so too spendy.  I used to take one day on the weekend and drive around all day taking  pictures and I don't anymore.  It's just too expensive with the gas.  And I'm combining errands in one trip to cut down on the gas.  I won't be surprised if I'm not  paying 6 bucks a gallon for diesel by the end of summer.  Linda

In Sweden there has also been an investigation by the goverment to see what is required if we want to live up to the goals we have set for the environment. And that investigation concluded that we ought to raise the environment tax on gas, so that we Swedes end up paying $16 per gallon. 

I don't think that raise would be popular among people here...  especially since many people struggle to pay their gas bill today. Recently the gasprice raised to 8,50 per gallon.

My fiance often leave our car at home and take the bicycle to work, the ride is just about 20 minutes there and 45 minutes home (we live on top of a hill). I don't have a job, I am doing my best to get in shape to work. But we are doing good anyway, my fiance have a good salary and we have no kids. But we still don't like to drive more then necessary, it just cost to much. My biggest problem so far has been that I can go everywhere with the tram, I just can't go home, because I can't manage walking up the hill to our apartment buildning.

In Kansas City  it is around $3.98  and my parents are paying around $4.00 in Cape Coral FL. I am lucky to live about 10 mins from work.  A lot of people I work with drive 45mins- 1 hour and I sure as heck couldn't imagine that.  Brad walks to work so no worries there.  My parents were going to drive up from Florida with their dog but that may not be possible...  Scary stuff

It is $4.09 around here, Good Ole NY It has def impacted our lives, no vacation for us this year...my bariatric surgeon is a 3 hour drive, I am saving between appts (for gas for the next appt) since it is easily 80 bucks for the round trip, usually more.  RIDICULOUS!! We also try to combine errands and stay home most weekends. How do you justify "going for a ride" these days...when my kids were little that is what we did for cheap entertainment. Those days are gone. Tough having to choose between food or gas....I, too, worry about the folks on a fixed income.  What is this world coming to?

I'm one of those on a fixed income, but I consider myself extremely fortunate in that I live in my sister's house and I pay a very reasonable amount for room and board, and the room and board is pretty generous.  There's no way I could live this comfortably on my own with only my monthly stipend (even though my stipend is at the top range because when I worked, I made really good money).  When I go back to work, I might just consider staying here and paying additional rent. Anyway, so far, I'm able to meet all my bills before running out of money at the end of each month.  As the price of things continue to go up, though, I'm not sure how easy it will be to continue making ends meet.  I top off my gas tank every few days because it's less of a hit than letting the tank go empty, and the price of gas at Costco went from $4.02 to $4.07 overnight.  Costco is cheaper than most stations around my area.  My sister talked to her daughter tonight and learned that 91 octane gas is now over $5/gallon in the San Francisco area.  It's really scary, and I really don't know how folks working low pay jobs or folks with small children manage these days.   Kix

We went to town tonight  I always look at the gas prices swifty 3.99 roaddog 3.99 superamerica 3.99 bp 4.24  i about died. my hubby laughed and ask me where id been i said last night it was 4.04.