How are Gas Prices affecting you?

[Eddie Simmons]

I work as a Facility manager and I have 22 site that we visited each month. It is costing me about 600.00 dollars a month. Hope that we can come up with something soon.

[Rich Konopka]

Congratulations to you Americans, your gas price is just about half of ours here in Sweden.
Kurt Johansson

Kurt, I think it is more of a congratulations for not having the taxes on gas that you have in Sweeden. On the other hand we should congratulate Sweeden for having one of the best living standards in the WORLD.

[Joe Chritz]

I got a new assignment which includes a G ride (state owned) and a gas card. The wife is going back to work (county transportation) and will have a bus here at the house. We now only drive when we go somewhere on personal business so I am actually spending a lot less on fuel than this time last year.

If we both still had to drive into work it would have hurt a fair amount.

Joe

[Bruce Page]

My foot has gotten lighter.

[John Keeton]

As Reed noted, shipping cost is hurting many sectors of the economy. We live in an area that is not serviced by rail by any great extent, and we are not on a waterway. Everything we buy comes in by truck from somewhere. In reality, fuel prices are hurting our local economy in so many ways in addition to the price to fill up our vehicles. Personally, we don't drive very much anyway, so our fuel cost year to date is only $1500. But, we are paying a lot more for food, etc. The wife and I now drive at 65 mph and it makes a significant difference.

Last December, in large part because we saw this coming, we shut down and liquidated a business we had owned for a little over a decade that was a "discretionary spending" business - guns and archery. I have talked to so many of our former customers that tell us we got out just in time. They have cut back their purchases dramatically because they no longer have that extra $50/week to spend on "toys." We were very fortunate to successfully liquidate over $400,000 in inventory when gas was "only" $3/gal. I really feel for others that may not be as fortunate.

[Jason Roehl]

Fortune would have it that my '93 F250 (~10mpg) developed a tranny issue, so I parked it due to the expense of having it fixed. I may fix it myself later, but in the meantime, I needed work wheels. A friend/former neighbor had an '89 Mazda B2200 pickup with 91k miles on it and in fairly good condition. I have been bugging him for years to sell it to me, and when he heard of my plight, he did just that. I am getting close to finishing off my first full tank, so I'll know mileage here in a couple days, but it's looking like about 20 mpg in town. I just have to get used to the much smaller cab and cargo area.

Oh, and my wife and I started to change our driving habits a couple years ago--since then we've ratcheted down our trips and speed even more.

[Nancy Laird]

To borrow a phrase from Bruce, my foot has also gotten lighter. I just arrived in Phoenix after a 425-mile drive from Albuquerque - on 3/4 of a tank in my Windstar, with the A/C ON most of the way. I just set the cruise to just a hair under 70 and did fine. I paid $3.829 yesterday for gas at Sam's, and saw gas in Holbrook, AZ, (right off the freeway) for $4.399. I haven't seen any gas stations here in Phoenix yet, but the stations I saw on the way were hovering around $4 to $4.10. Not bad, I guess? My little Windstar just got about 25mpg on the trip.

When I'm in Albq., I don't drive every day because I don't need to, but I've started consolidating my trips so I kill several birds with one stone, about twice a week. No more "run to the grocery for a quart of milk" trips.

[Andrew Derhammer]

I'll have my permit next february. I'm considering getting a scooter! Our neighbors have one. He fills the 2 gallon tank once a month

[Keith Outten]

I have adjusted my shopping habits. Whether I need lumber or hardware or whatever I don't make any more trips to the store unless I am traveling to our from work. I plan my weekend needs for projects, once I roll in the driveway thats all she wrote.

Since I have so much grass to cut I now wait until I have to cut rather than cutting every Saturday. At work last week several people noted that evening traffic on our roads is noticeably lighter than it has been in thirty years. Shopping centers that normally have packed parking lots here have plenty of empty parking spaces.

The price of everything is rising based on fuel costs, major lifestyle adjustments are inevitable for working class people.

.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

The price of everything is rising based on fuel costs, major lifestyle adjustments are inevitable for working class people.

That about sums it up. In my area, other required things, like property tax and health insurance, have been on the rapid rise for many years now. They have been escalating about as quickly as gas and heating oil.

It's not easy to put a happy face after my name anymore.

-Jeff

[Tom Godley]

I thankfully, am not required to do much driving -- years ago I did over 30k a year. Now it is just weekend trips.

I do most of my work in front of a computer - so my commute is short

Last week after coming back from a trip my fuel light came on - 25 gallons of premium will get your attention!

I do feel sorry for those who recently purchased homes out in distant suburbs - the value of their houses are down and the commuting cost are killing them.

Both of my primary cars are rather poor in the mileage department - so I am lucky that I do not have a long commute.

[Bryan Rocker]

I love my 2004 4Runner, I already have over 75K on it, I just replaced the original brakes this weekend. It is in great shape except for the gas mileage. If it weren't for the fact that I start driving 50 miles each way to work tomorrow I wouldn't sweat 18 mpg on average. However, driving 100 miles a day, 26K a year 18 MPG will not cut it. We are looking very hard at the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, both rated at 36 MPG or better, a hybrid would be nice but I am not sure I have the patience to wait that long. Around here they are saying 6 months or better before you can get one IF you put money down ahead of time. For me its dollars and cents, I can spend $18K for a econo box and save $3K a year at least.

[Greg Peterson]

It is indeed interesting times we live in. I'm not sure when or where the breaking point may be, but I've got to think that we are closer to it than ever before.

Some of the effects of these prices will take awhile to show up in tangible ways that all of us will notice. I think most people are still trying to make what they hope to be temporary adjustments.

It is relatively painless to curtail discretionary spending for a while. Hard to say what the general mood becomes if we end up with gas prices permanently pinned above $4/gallon.

Heating oil and diesel fuel have even less wiggle room. At least with gas, people usually have options (walk, bike, mass transit, car pool, maximize trips). People need oil for heat and farmers, truckers and railroads need diesel in order to put food on our tables.

I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. And I fear my over active imagination can not fully appreciate just how interesting the times could get.

[Dennis Peacock]

We drive as little as possible any more as well as consolidating our trips for shopping.

I'm now riding motorcycle to work each day and my fuel cost fo the month of June 2008 wasy just under $25....as compared to $260 in fuel for the previous month of driving "my car" to / from work.

Latest stats is that by the end of July 2008, Texas will have over 60,000 new motorcycle/scooter owners/riders. Here in Conway, the trooper stated that they are licensing 10-15 motorcyclists per day of class. For a town of around 50,000 people, that's a lot of new bikers/scooter riders on the road each week.

[glenn bradley]

Before I will drive to Rockler to use an in-store coupon, I make sure the discount will cover the gas.