So far, the rise at the pump has not changed our lifestyle at all. Of course we've been spending more on fuel, but we've still got room to make cuts and haven't had the need.

On the way home yesterday, I hear they are expecting $7/gal by the end of summer. Ouch!
I guess when it reaces over $5.50 or so, we will be making some small changes.

1. I still pay for my son's gas (incentive for him to stay in school) and he'll just need to take that on himself.
BTW, he'll be starting at Cal State Long Beach this year and we're proud of him. He'll be the first in our family to get a degree.

2. We still cheufer (sp?) our daughter around town and she'll need to start riding a bike more. Ironically, her bike got stolen at the beach yesterday.

3. Over the past two years, I've reduced my commuting by motorcycle from about 80% to maybe 40%. Just getting older and the car is just so comfy in the mornings. I'll need to get back into more riding.


We've already got one Hybrid in the family, but our other two cars are quite thirsty. If I ride more, one of them sits. And my wife has a short communte with the other.
When our daughter starts driving, I already told my wife we will need to find something with no less than 35/mpg.

Well, that's our rosey outlook for now.

We've really started pulling in the reigns across the board. Between gas, food, and saving for heating oil, there is less and less to go around. We have a "date" planned for this weekend as my wife got an end of year gift certificate.
There is little we can do to reduce fuel consumption at this point.

I thinking about getting a small scooter. I have a chance to get a job that is only 7 miles from my house.

I got a 2008 Zuma scooter for fathers day. It gets about 100 mpg. I use it to putt around town, and the camp ground. I only have 60 miles on it so far, but I love riding it.

-BF1

I wonder how many are buying up motorcycles. I know I'm looking at it but my family says "no" really loud. I used to ride a long time ago.

But I'm saving boat gas because my lake is still flooded. I still haven't had my maiden voyage yet this year. This summer sucks big time.

I dont understand how spending $2-3k on a scooter or cheap motorcycle will put someone ahead of the game with rising fuel prices? Especially if your riding season is limited in the colder climates.

Say someone drives their Jeep 15,000 miles annually and gets 15mpg @ $4per gallon = Annual fuel cost of $4000

If they buy a scooter and reduce the mileage on the Jeep by say 3000 miles (cant imagine the average usage of a scooter is much more than that). The Jeep's annual fuel cost is reduced by $800. Add back in $120 for the cost of fuel for the scooter (@100mpg as many claim), the fuel savings is only $680 annually. Now consider the cost of the scooter (dont forget tax, title license and insurance)estimate an intial expense of $2500 - $3000, it would take 4-5 years to realize any savings.

You're putting too much logic to that. I can't think of a better excuse to satisfy my mid-life crisis than "Honey, to save money, I must buy a Harley". It sure beats sitting at home and watch CNN tell us how bad it is.

+1 Rocnat. It's kindof a current, what?, trend?, that puzzles me too. Ditto for taking a hit by dumping an SUV/truck/large car etc, and buying a Prius et al. I'm sure there are circumstances that warrant this, but I don't think many are carefully thought out.

One of our local car dealers has a commercial running that's pretty clever and actually makes sense, IF you "fit" the scenario...goes something like this: If you're driving an old paid-for beater such as a truck or SUV getting 12 mpg, but don't want to get rid of it, then buy one of our 'Deluxo Maxo's' that gets 36 miles per gallon, which can save you up to $305 per month on gas, which will make your payment. The trick is, you still have your trusty beater, and for the money you were spending to DRIVE it you basically get a new car to drive for nothing. If you want to SAVE money, then of course this won't work. If you were okay with the cost of gas for the beater, then--why not?

I've seen some pretty good lease deals where the savings would even cover the cost of insurance...

Of course, I also own a cabin cruiser that gets 1.5 mpg. Kindly disregard me as any type of authority on fuel economy logic

Let me try to put things in perspective.

Last year we probably averaged $150-$200 on our Shell credit card that we use for all gas purchases. This year the average seems to be around $200-$260. From this one can assume that our fuel bills have gone up by around $50-$60 per month.

That sounds like a lot, but in terms of our overall monthly budget, that is a relatively small amount. We frequently spend more than that on a dinner out so essentially if we gave up one dinner out per month our budget would be unchanged from last year.

Like Rocnat4, I'm running around in a boat that gets 1mpg. I'm still burning gas I put in the boat last September when I filled it, so I'm running on cheap gas. I probably won't have to fill it up until late fall and then I'll feel the pinch to the tune of about $900-$950. That's still not bad for an entire summer's worth of fun on the water.

My gas credit card bill, just like the price of gas, has pretty much doubled. Last year was around $90-$120 a month, the last 3 months have been $220-$240. One of those months was high because of the steam cleaner that burned gas AND diesel to run (and I had a lot to clean!), otherwise I'm doing nothing different than last year.

FR, my point was....how much of your family monthly budget does that increase represent? Probably not a high percentage and could be made up by eating out one fewer night each month.

That's the direct total, I think what hurts more is the indirect price increases on everything because of gas. We can drive less, boat less but we still have to eat. We still have to buy goods and services that are feeling the price increases and passing them to us. That all is a little harder to measure.

I agree Andyk2. And, I think most here are able to absorb these increases more than most. I've talked to many folks that are in lower income brackets and they are really starting to hurt. Its not just the increase in gas that's hurting them and these aren't folks that have over-extended themselves.

Many working-class people are basically living on a fixed income, similar to retired folks. They are spending up to what they make and have a lot of revolving debt. Their pay raises are small and infrequent, and get lost in inflation. This is going to represent, IMO, a very large class of people that will feel the pinch first. This fall in the cold climates, the fuel oil prices will compound a bad situation. Major lifestyle changes will be in order.

If gas were to get to $7/gal, I cannot believe it would be long term.

First, I would hope that voters would "convince" the politicians to start allowing new drilling. Seven bucks a gallon on the eve of an election.... that will be interesting.

Next, I do think that one of the reasons there is such a demand for gas is that many countries are subsidizing gas purchases. I have already heard that at the current gas prices countries are cutting back on those subsidizes. That in itself should curb demand quite a bit.

But what do I know - I am applying logic to something that so far has seemed to defy all logic.

Like I said before...a couple times now...anywheres between the 3rd and 1st Q, It'll come down. The speculators are driven by an "unseen-unheard force" IMHO. That "force" will be exposed long after we're all gone. Again...IMHO.

No reason other than a gut feeling about "things" I've read.

I wish that I could find the reference, but I did hear a reference attributed to Ben Stein that he was in a meeting with a lot of oil speculators... and they were laughing about the price of oil.

I keep reading about it taking years for drilling to payoff. But, I bet if we started drilling, OPEC countries would increase their supply and prices would crumble on their fear that we wouldn't need to buy their oil anymore. They would jump up supply at least short term to get us back into a state of complacency with hopes that the environuts would win out again and the drilling would stop.

I paid $81.50 to fill up my 12 MPG Jeep yesterday. There is a $6.50 carwash in there, so net cost is $75.00. That's a lot regardless of the wash...

We've yet to take the boat out, but that's not all due to gas. I have a tank full of last year's gas..

We went shopping today, and I noticed how everything has rapidly increased. Blew my mind! Stater Brothers normally has a 2fer special on milk... last week it was 2 gal.s for 5.95... today it was 2 for 6.19! Last year it was 2 for 4.35! Almost double in a year! That's bad, no matter how you play the cards!

Getting to the hurting point? yup! It may represent a small % of the total budget, but to fit it in, ya gotta cut something out!

Seriously, what we, as the citizenry of the country, need to do, is all write your reps.. tell them that the wallet out-weighs environmentalism... drill, drill, drill... it doesn't matter that it will take 5-10 years to the pump, the fact that America is getting aggressive on it's energy needs may show opec we're serious, and the speculators may see a long term plunge in the price of crude. That, along with developing alternative energy sources, just may help my kids out... If we'da drilled 10-15 yeaas ago, this wouldn't even be a topic of discussion today!

VERY true!

But we are seeing purchases made by EMOTIONS and not LOGIC.

People are thinking with their little brains and not their big ones...

It has already been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that Prius buyers will not be saving any money for at least 7 years. And by that time, the vehicle probably won't have much life left to it.

As usual, instant gratification wins out in folks' minds.

"I now get 40 mph!".

Sure you do. But at what overall cost?

Our local paper did a story on a "wise consumer". Long story short, he replaced his 70's full size pickup with a new motorcycle for commuting in order to save on the cost of fuel.

His choice of new motorcycle? A $16,000. BMW! (which he had to finance)

Tell me... Where are the "savings"???

Yet the paper made him out to be a "hero" for his choice...

Probably wasn't his personal savings (which we can figure didn't occur) but his reduced usage of gas and smaller "carbon footprint" (whatever the hell that means!).

If we don't change our usage patterns, we'll be at 10$ a gallon in no time flat....

I personally think we are near the limit as the price is seriously affecting many people in the country and they are starting to change habits. As previously mentioned, most on this board can afford the additional gas with little or no change to where money is spent.

However, for those that are not in the same position, they are choosing more economical ways to commute or to not commute at all. A guy I know that owns one of the large motorcylce dealers in town said he sold out of everything in the 250CC and smaller range very quickly and are waiting for more from the manufacturers.

In California, there are a lot of people that might commute 40-80 miles each way to get to work. Many of them are seriously impacted given the amount they are spending on gas.

Make no mistake, there is no quick fix. People will need to find jobs closer to home. One upside to this is hopefully the counties in the Northbay can settle their differences and build a rail system to get from the Santa Rosa area to San Francisco.

Time will tell.

Agree!

Yeah, for instance, they need BART out to the base of the Altamont Pass. They have for a long time. The fuel savings would be tremendous, given the large number of San Juaquin Valley commuters that now have to drive into the Dublin station.

But no... They spend $84 million dollars on a new station about 1 mile WEST of the Dublin station! Once folks pass the 580/680 interchange, there is no more traffic!

Our idiotic county supervisor was there with the golden shovel on ground-breaking day smiling for the camera and telling everyone within earshot that the new station will take 4,000 vehicles off the road.

I don't think so. All the new station