I paid $51 to fill my gas tank the other day, the first time I broke the $50 mark. Driving away from the gas station, I couldn’t help but do the math: $50 a week for 52 weeks is $2600 for a year’s worth of gas—and that is just for one car. It seems like it wasn’t too long ago that we budgeted $100 a month, or $1200 a year, for gas and oil changes for two cars!
In fact, I may officially be old because I can now say, “I remember when you could fill your gas tank for less than $5...”
In an effort to minimize the economic impact of this rapid increase, I’m playing a sort of game with myself. I’m trying to drive in a fashion that gets the highest mileage possible. So every week when I go to the gas station to fill up I calculate how many miles I got per gallon and see how I’m doing. So far it’s kind of fun.
Hey, it may not be much, but at least it’s something. So if you see someone in a white Buick slowly coasting up to the next red light (I’d just have to sit there and wait for it to turn green if I drove any faster anyway) it’s probably just me trying to squeeze as many miles as I can out of a gallon of gas!
I heard recently that in the US petrol costs less than in SA. It is now costing me over R400 to fill the tank in my car - close to $57. Not good. And I have to fill up twice in a month. And that is my expense just to work and back. And I remember in 1987 paying R40 to fill the tank!
Posted by: Coral | June 04, 2008 at 02:42 AM
Are you checking your tire pressure at least weekly? Just one more way to save a buck or two.
Posted by: Miriam | June 04, 2008 at 07:04 AM