Re: gas prices. People here have been describing mere 3-5 cent differences, but in this area (NE Florida) they can be much larger. Today I saw some at 3.12, and others much higher, 3.49 being one. Plus this is an area which undergoes regular price cycling, and topped off this morning after OPEC’s decision to cut production some more. That 3.12 will likely be 3.49 by Friday or even higher, so I just saved over 4 bucks (11.5 gallon fillup). Annnd where I am moving to [N Ohio] can have even more dramatic swings-when I was there on vacation 2 years ago I witnessed a 60 cent price yank, and was driving around to find a station which hadn’t done so yet (and did, saving over 7 dollars).
The stations and their corporate masters are COUNTING ON you not paying attention, you see. That’s how they can get away with this garbage. If everyone learned to anticipate these price jerks and filled up beforehand, the stations couldn’t get away with it, and we’d see much more gradual increases. Oh well your loss is my gain.
There’s one place I know, Oakland NJ, where the Exxon right off the highway might have a price of $3.99 and a half mile down the road is a Delta priced at $3.29, and people still go to the Exxon.
There’s a Mobil station at $4.39 and a 7-11 across the street at $3.69 right now near me. The gap was 1.00 three weeks ago but the 7-11 has gone up while Mobil has not.
I can count the number of times I have seen a car filling up at the Mobil in the last ten years on the fingers of my hands. Excluding blizzard and hurricane events when you pay whatever to whoever has gas available.
I usually notice these things, but have learned over time to ask myself if it really matters. Since it rarely does, I do not think about it again. However, I might not wish to do business with someone consistently employing sketchy practices.
It’s like when I go grocery shopping. Inflation has caused the occasional sticker shock. I like quality, but am not generally brand loyal and see most food items as “substitutible”, being able to make my own stuff if needed or good meals out of whatever. But if something is a reasonable bargain, it does not matter to me if it is the biggest bargain.
I now live in a frankly posh zip code. I used to live in the immediately adjacent very much not-posh zip code just across the county line which is barely a mile from here.
Gas in the old zip code at all the various stations of all the various brands is ~70 cents per gallon less than it is at the few stations of fancy brands here in Snootyville. My car gets relatively poor mileage and takes a 20+ gallon premium fill-up.
Hitting the old neighborhood vs new neighborhood station saves $14 per tankful on a not-quite $100 fill-up. For me hitting one or the other on the way to or from work is a matter of trading 2 miles of boulevard driving for 2 miles of freeway driving within the same total home-work distance either way.
That’s a no-brainer. Hangin’ in the 'hood is good!
The short answer is it depends. I’m remodeling a room in my house, and in the process of getting bids. I prefer 3, but can get 2 for this job. I’ll take the prices into consideration – if one bid is significantly higher than the other, I’d probably go with the lower one (everything else being equal of course). Sometimes the higher price is better.
For the gas station example: If one station is 30 cents a gallon cheaper, but a couple of miles farther away, I’ll go. If it’s only 1 or 4 cents lower, I won’t.
I’ll look at the pros and cons, but I don’t obsess over it. My philosophy is I don’t mind spending money, I just don’t want to waste it.
It’s not that rough of a neighborhood. Ethnically diverse, yes, but not rough. More hard workin’ class. Plenty of Trumpy pickup trucks along with the immigrants and the non-white Americans. Not much strife.
I meant because it sounds sort like an endorsement of lynching in black neighborhoods. I know that is not what you meant, but I could see a chant of “hangin’ in the hood is good” at, say, a Trump rally happening. It was gallows humor…
Wow. I totally did not even think of that meaning. I meant “Hanging out in the hood”. I thought you were objecting to my use of “'hood” offending the good folks there who might kick my geezery white ass.
Yeah, that flavor of “hangin’” puts a very different spin on it.
My parents both grew up in relatively poor families, and even though they’re solidly middle class now they’ve never really been able to shake the idea that need to spend as little as possible for absolutely everything. I used to be that way as well, I’m sure due to their influence, but I have now embraced the idea that sometimes it’s worth paying more for better quality. Which sometimes leads to minor conflicts when I visit them or vise versa. If I’m at the store with them and pick up something I like, but costs a little more, they’ll be like “Why are you getting that? This one’s cheaper.”
That said, I know which of the gas stations near my house and along my usual commute route (when I went to the office) are usually the cheapest, and I patronize them for that reason. I know I’m not saving all that much, but I’m going by them anyway, so it’s not like I’m going far out of my way to patronize them. And I’ll get the store brand beans rather than the name brand ones; I can’t tell the difference anyway.
My daughter and SIL are selling their house. The listing is for $499,999. I gave them grief about the listing, but it was a studied choice. It’s a $400,000 home, but they wanted to puff it u a bit so they had room to work. Going above $499,999 kicks in extra legal type stuff they’d rather avoid.
Meanwhile, my first three houses didn’t add up to anywhere near that. WTF?