$1.51 in Va. Beach…
So your saying that you can’t sell you 90 z24 and buy a 90 honda civic with the money? I’m having a hard time believing that.
Homer - that just cracked me up! I feel the same way!
Our gas prices here just jumped from $1.52 to $1.67 this week! I have a 12 gallon gas tank and it costs me about $19.00 to fill it up and I get about 25-28 mpg. I drive 65 miles a day (to the sitter, to work, back to the sitter and home) and I have to fill up twice a week. Plus I have softball practice once a week and a game every Sunday and I have to drive 50 miles round trip just for that! And I have to drive another 40 miles round trip when I have to go grocery shopping and go to Wal-Mart. It’s costing me about $160.00 a month just to go to work, play softball, and run my freakin errands! It’s a ripoff!!
We the same situation in Toledo, Ohio that Milossarian has further north. Gas was about $1.65/gallon Wednesday night and Thusday morning it was about $1.95/gallon. I have yet to hear a resonable explanation for an eighteen percent ovenight increase. I’m blaming it on Clinton/Gore until I hear a better story.
Dear Lord, thank you for remembering us here in Mississippi. I love the fact that I can get gas (87 octaine) for $1.34, on average, and that I live within a few miles of competetive truck stops. Now if we can work on the absolute lack of rain and insane heat/humidity that we will have until October, I’d be a happy camper down here.
As ever
Saint Zero
You know what the shitty thing is?
Heard that the EPA says that gas prices for Chicago and other cities with the RFG should go up MAYBE 10 cents a gallon. Gas companies just suck ass, plain and simple.
Rachelle said:
Oh, what I wouldn’t give for $1.67 !!
:::shades of Python::“what I wouldn’t give to be spat on in the face!”
i agree totally with Homer. I have to work at job in one city and drive to school 30 miles away five days a week. then drive to my in-laws house 2 times a week that is 30 miles away in the opposite direction. I drive a 1990 car with decent gas milage. My hundred bucks per paycheck is not going far enough. I have to push my bills around and pay them late because otherwise I wont have gas money. If they are increasing gas prices they need to appropriatly inflate the wages at work and other things so that the average person isn’t stuck at home with no gas money. Is that how an economy works anyhow?
Regular jumped overnight here, too (far western IL) to $1.79.
No matter the arcane explanations, seems like the increases always miraculously coincide with the summer travel season. It’s never explained on that basis, though; always a highly technical blanket of smoke designed to obscure the price gouging.
::hangs head sheepishly::
I’m ridiculously lucky. Since I work 4 blocks from home I usually walk. Most of driving is to meetings and for errands, etc. I had to tank up this morning though, and gritted my teeth, forking over $30.
Veb
Up here, we’re up to 88 cents a litre. That’s $3.33 Canadian or $2.26 US per gallon. Everybody’s up in arms.
FWIW, the price of a barrel of oil (NYMEX light sweet) - what those who produce gasoline call feedstock, i.e., their raw material, is now ~$30. 6 months ago, it was ~$25, a year ago it was ~$16 and a year and a half ago it was ~$10. What were you paying for gasoline a year and a half ago? 1/3 of what your paying now? I doubt it; the fact is, those who produce gasoline are making less off of you now than they were 18 months ago.
That’s a very simple approach - the whole picture is a bit more complex. A shortage hitting us now as the summer driving season comes is the result of the suppression of the entire industry through 1999 (the worst year in my 20 years in the business). My end of the business is removed from that of the refiners - they’re the guys that rape us (meaning moi and companions in the exploration and production side of things) when the price of a barrel is low. Nevertheless, I’ll repeat what I said above.
Gasoline, even at today’s prices, lags far behind almost any other consumer product in price rises. A $1.72 gallon of gas in 1980 prices is $0.91 - not what we were paying then (here it was about $1.30 - national average for regular in 1980 was ~$1.04)
The price of gasoline is more volatile than many other commodities, so price swings are more notable. OPEC has stated that they’d like to keep the price between $22 and $28/bbl. for the present. More power to 'em, but frankly, nobody controls the price.
Homer so eloquently wrote:
Homer, I sympathize with you,really.I have a Ford Econoline cargo van that just sucks the money out of the wallet with a fill up. I also have a two choices for a back up car for vehicles that are much better with fuel economy. And I don’t have a paying job ( I’m a domestic tyrant) so I am very lucky in many many ways to have the option to stay at home and save gas and money. But can/may I point out something in this one part in your rant.
It’s the clothing money. Do you really need to buy more clothing? ( Unless it is work related, then ignore this, but then again, how many work related outfits do you need?) Most of us have way to much as it is. You can learn to pack a lunch and make do with out a few things for a few months until the gas prices drop.
I will have to confess that * I * am the reason why the gas prices are going up up up.
Everywhere I go, all I see are those big ass SUV’s driven by people that seem to need an SUV for going to the mall.Sport Utility Vehicle, phsaw. The only sport these people do is channel surfing. I mock these people openly. I’ve said this for quite some time, that " Just watch, the minute the gas prices go up, all these Keeping Up with the Jones’s wanna be’s will have to ditch their gas hogging SUV’s and go to something more dull, like a sedan."
Now, because of where we live and the fact that everyone commutes about 30-50 miles a day one way to work, all you see in the paper and sitting at the end of their driveways, are their SUV’s for sale.
The people that use their trucks for work, now those are the people I sympathize for.
You’ve probably already seen this but:
[ul]http://poseur.4x4.org/[/ul]
If you check out nothing else, have a look at the Kenworth Ultimate SUV. Riot!
Gas has gone up around 50% here in eastern New Mexico. Despite the high price of petroleum products in europe, I’m sure you can agree that when something you can’t do without shoots up that much (and you haven’t anything to spare in the disposable income department) you’d be screaming blue murder, too.
Wouldn’t you?
~~Baloo
Well, the gas prices are holding steady today. The Clark station I usually buy my gas from was still $1.99, as of a couple of hours ago.
I’m in a situation similar to Shirley’s. Not only do we have a humongous Ford Econoline van (with two tanks–next time we fill that monster I’m going to have to sell one of my children), I am lucky in that I have a backup vehicle that gets waaaaaay better mileage. A Chevy Corsica, to be exact. I do work outside the home, but it’s a less-than-ten-mile drive. My husband is a stay-at-home dad, so I don’t have to drive to day care, and my kids are too young to be involved in all the activities common to kids today.
What I really don’t get is the sudden huge increases. The twenty-cents-a-gallon jump. If it were a slow and steady climb, like most things, I’d just write it off as ordinary inflation. beatle, since you’re in the industry, can you explain this one? I understand what you said about the price of a barrel, but I’m still a little unclear about how this causes the sudden dramatic price hikes.
Most of the low-priced stores in Columbia, SC are at $1.399 now, although there is one that I’ve noticed at $1.349.
What amazes me is the difference in prices in my area. Crown Gas is at $1.499, but at name brand places right off the highway it’s $1.699.
I can see poor passers-through getting zapped at the pumps not knowing where to go for cheaper stuff. But I regularly see locals gassing up for the expensive price.
Speaking of gas: Last night on “Candid Camera” they had a skit where an attendant at an Oregon gas station was offering self-serve gas for a discount. (FYI, Oregon and New Jersey only have full-serve by law.) What was funny was how many of their victims declined, not because it was illegal, but that they had no idea how to pump their own gas.
I caused a scene at a service plaza on the New Jersey turnpike by pumping my own gas, oblivious to the law. The attendant came out to lecture me sternly, then noticed my Maryland tags and walked away shrugging.
Regular 87 octane here in the Baltimore area averages around $1.65 per gallon. I had been bitching about it, but after seeing how much it is where some of you are, I think I’ll stop.
Hey, labdude. Tell ya what. How about I take a day off work and lose THAT $50 bucks. Then, you and I can go to a dealership, and find a Civic that’s not riced, not a POS base model with no power, and not a total heap. Heck, let’s go all out and find one in as good of shape as my car. Then, we’ll take my car and try to sell it to this guy. First off, let’s aim for 50% of it’s value. After we get raped in this area, we can go and watch me get denied for credit because I’m only 18. Hey, how about you cosign? Then I’ll be able to make yet ANOTHER payment, because I’m still having to pay off my parents for this car. When we get done with that, I’ll take yet another day off work and lose another $50 bucks, we’ll go to the tax place, get a green card on this car, then go to the DMV, wait in line for hours, and finally pay about $40 to register this vehicle. Don’t forget, I just registered my old one, so pshhh, that’s the $35 I paid on that one out the window.
Hey, that was fun! But wait! What about my stereo system I bought with graduation money? It’s in the Cav I just traded in! And the alarm system? Shit! Gone, too! Oh, man. In my old car, I had power everything. This doesn’t even have a trunk release! And geez, man. I USED to be able to go up hills. Well, speeding tickets are no longer a problem, cuz I can’t exceed 65 in this thing. I thought this was a ‘good’ trade? Oh well…
Darn, looks like that didn’t work out as planned. Maybe next time.
Yeah. I think that had a little cynicism and sarcasm in it. This is a lesson on preaching to other people. Don’t do it, because you are guaranteed not to know the complex dynamics of the situation. Alright?
Shirley, yeah, you read right. I need to buy more clothes. The only pair of work pants I have left are terribly ragged. I plan on probably buying some A&F khakis this next paycheck. Not because they’re stylish. Not because they’re ‘name brand’ but because they are the best damn pants I have ever owned. Tough as shit, thick, strong fabric, nothing I have got on them will stain it, can’t tear them for nothing, they wear and look great. They cost about 50% more than other brands, but trust me. You own one pair, and you will see how superior they are to everything else. The shirts are basically the same way, too. Thick fabric, strong stitching, virtually un stainable. The work pants I bought previously were Structure. I’ll never buy THEM again. They stain from everything, they have thin, weak fabric, and they shrink EVERY FREAKIN TIME I wash them.
Other than that, I only have two pair of long pants, no jeans, and two pair of short pants.
I also only have about 8 t-shirts left… I think a normal rotation should have about 20 or so.
No, I’m not rich, and no, I don’t have alot of clothes. But I’d rather buy quality clothing that will last me for years than binge at Wal-Mart and buy new pants in six months.
–Tim
BTW, I paid $1.76 tonite. $20 bucks for just over 11 gallons. FUCK.
I saw on Headline news where the EPA is going to investigate the high prices in the midwest, paticularly Wisconsin. Coincidence? Or does someone there read this board?
(Was on Headline news this evening…)