Well, I love being wrong occasionally. 😉 A little while ago, I posted about how utter delight had filled my soul at the sight of a 2 perched in the first place up on the gas sign. And I mentioned that I hoped that the numbers after the 2 would continue to fall. I really didn’t dare to hope that gas would fall below $2 a gallon, and yet, just a few weeks later, the unthinkable has happened! I saw $1.99 on Sunday, and then today the gas near my grocery store was $1.91!!! I’m so used to seeing a 2 or a 3 in front of the gas prices, it’s really kind of shocking to be seeing a 1 again.
I am so, so happy about this. When gas prices were at their height, it was costing my husband $50 to fill up his truck every week. Now it only takes half that, saving us $25 a week, or $100 a month. I usually only fill up once or twice a month, so the new prices will save us $20-$40 a month on our van gas.
I’ll have to chat with my husband so that we can decide what exactly we want to do with the $120-$140 we’re saving. Off the top of my head, I’m kind of thinking we should save it up for auto maintenance. My van is going to need some work done on it at 90,000 miles and I’m currently sitting somewhere around 88,000 miles. I don’t know exactly how long it will take me to drive 2000 more miles, but I’m trying to make it take as long as possible so that we can save for the maintenance. Over the course of a normal week, I usually just drive to church(a 5 minute drive) and to the grocery store(a 10 minute drive), which means that it will probably take me a couple of months to hit 90K.
So, even though gas prices have fallen in a delightful way, I still have plenty of motivation to keep my driving to a minimum.
How much are you paying for gas?
Photo by mrkumm.
Mrs Green
Tuesday 18th of November 2008
Hey Stacey, good to meet you and yes, I understand it is worse prices over there than in England, so I have lots to be thankful for. I was reading the other week that prices in Ireland for fuel were the highest in the world.
I've never visited Ireland, but would love to some day - it looks really beautiful. Mind you, I just read the post about grey and grey has been seriously affecting my mood too. i splashed our, very un-frugally on a light box and it's making the world of difference.
Stacey
Tuesday 18th of November 2008
I resonate with you Mrs. Green. We're here in Ireland and we are also celebrating the price of pretrol coming down! It's still loads more than our Stateside friends, but we have to still celebrate right?! It's true that taxes are incredible. Kristen, I admit that I had some serious envy reading your posts about the cost and quantity of sugar and flour you were able to buy. Nothing like that here! We have some of the highest prices in the EU. It's becoming a trend even for people in the Republic of Ireland to drive up to Northern Ireland (UK) to save money on food, electronics, clothes etc...everything but petrol!! =) But while prices are higher there are definitely loads of other benefits to living in Europe! =)
Kristen
Monday 17th of November 2008
Dear heavens. $11.25 is almost unimaginable to me! lol
I just did a Google maps, and my Weis grocery store is 2 miles away. However, it's not walkable at all...most of the trip is on a four-lane highway!
Pretty much the only other places I drive regularly at the music store(2 miles or so) and church(which is about another 2 miles). Neither of those destinations are walkable, either. There just is too much traffic and not enough in the way of sidewalks.
Mrs Green
Monday 17th of November 2008
just worked out that at the height of prices in the summer, we were paying $11.25 a gallon. I think I need a lie down :D
Mrs Green
Monday 17th of November 2008
Kristen, the tax over here on fuel is phenomenal, as you've gathered from our recent prices. Remember this is way DOWN on what we were paying in the summer of this year - we're celebrating at how low our prices are at the moment :D.
The thing to remember though is the size of our country. It takes me just 10 hours to drive to the other end of the country from here - I'm guessing it's a few days over there, so the whole lifestyle is different!
Our last car did 23 mpg and we've just traded it for a MPV which will do 50 mpg so that's a great help. plus remember that our local store is 2 miles away; which we can walk to, yours is probably half a day away (well, at least that's what I gather from watching American movies). I have a feeling you don't have local shops? (but maybe I watch too many films LOL!).
Our local supermarket is about 4 miles from here; the farm shop is 6 miles, so we only do about 7000 miles a year......