Gas Prices Driving You Crazy?

I don’t drive much. I drive a Suburban, which has always been expensive to fill up, even when gas was back in the two-dollar range. But now? Now, I find that I am limiting my travel even more. Last week, for instance, we tried to stock up at one of our regular errand spots. This week, we were able to skip that weekly errand.

This errand is to a store that is 11.6 miles round trip from our home. My Suburban gets approximately 12 miles to the gallon on city streets. This means that running this errand costs our family $4.35. It is worth it to me to try to skip it every other week in hopes of saving that money.

Especially when everything is adding up that way.

It costs Si almost $5 to drive to work and back each day. It costs $2.40 for all of us to take the Suburban to the grocery store. Sometimes it feels like dollars are flying out of our checking account at great speed.

So I ask you, have you started doing the math? Are gas prices changing how you live your life?

That trip to an out-of-town friend’s house I was hoping to take? $77. The annual day-trip to the beach? Approximately $81. Driving to great-grandma’s for a swim? $8.40. Driving to our favorite park? $4.28.

I make it no secret that we run a tight ship around here. We do this out of necessity, not because frugality is something I find particularly exciting {at least not to the extent that we practice it}.

So I ask you again, have you started doing the math?

I realized when gas was in the $3 range that it was no longer profitable for me to visit second-hand clothing stores that were away from home. I actually save more money watching sales at Kohl’s.

And can you do the math? Here is the equation, in case you need it:

D x P/M

Where:

D=distance, the number of miles {round-trip} that you will be driving
P=the price per gallon of gas {it’s $4.50 here and rising}
M=miles per gallon of the car you are driving

Here is an example:

D=Your grocery store is 5 miles away, round-trip {2.5 miles each way}, on city streets
P=You are lucky and you’re paying $4.25 per gallon
M=You drive a compact that gets 21 MPG on city streets

So:

5 x $4.25/21= $1.01

Lucky you! It only costs you a buck to get to the grocery store and back.

What are you paying to drive your car?