I work in study abroad. The weak dollar has forced us to raise our program fees, which is beginning to make our programs difficult for less-advantaged students to afford. Which sucks. I didn’t get into this field because I wanted to send rich kids back to Italy for the 4th time.
Personally, I’m putting off some home renovations I’d wanted to do. With gas and food prices rising, it doesn’t make sense to spend on luxuries like that. I can put up with my crappy old cabinets and carpet for the next couple of years.
It has pretty much put a halt to our planned vacation to Ireland. Until the dollar rebounds, it’s just not feasible. Gas prices are outrageous, but I’m planning on buying a scooter to use as my morning commute vehicle this fall. That will cut our fuel costs to about $8.00/week for both vehicles, combined. My usual shopping sprees on British web-sites has also taken a serious hit. Sorry, Cunning Artificer, but I just can’t afford anything this month.
This past winter I spent two weeks in St Martin. My last trip to the Caribbean, I felt like a King spending my American dollars. This trip it was almost embarrassing. The Euro was the preferred currency. Restaurants posted their rates; 1 Euro = 1.40 American was common. The few places that advertised Euros = Dollars were places we avoided though, in an attempt to avoid our fellow Americans.
My company has a subscription-based service that we created and sell, and we haven’t changed our price in a long time. We’re getting tons of new overseas subscribers because the cost is nearly “half off” for them.
So, in that respect, it’s good for us. Plus me and my partner work at home so we don’t feel the gas pinch too much.
What are you driving? If I drained my tank (A typical 4 door car) it would be $4.55 more to fill it up. Reading the cite given the weak dollar contributes about $12 to $15 a barrel to the price of oil. Today crude is about $125 a barrel. Take away the cost of the weak dollar and you still have oil at $110 a barrel. An unheard of price until just a short time ago. So yes it is a factor in the price of oil. It is not the major factor.
Contemplating foreign travel, especially to Europe, is when it hits you. It’s just too expensive. Sure, one could get by with camping and hosteling, but for most of us beyond student age, roughing it isn’t our idea of a great time. Nor is just being in a place, but being cash strapped the entire time there. It’s just too expensive now. One could still find decent fares there and back, but what good is that when you can’t afford to be there?
On the other hand, I’ve noticed that the prices of many European imports don’t seem to have risen much. Obviously, America is a huge market, and the manufacturers of wine and cheese and the like have been holding the prices down pretty much. I would imagine there’s a good deal of maneuvering room there, however, since lower-end wine is, after all, just an agricultural product. I appreciate that, because I believe that in the $10 - $15 range, French and Italian imports are better than the local product.
President Bush just half-heartedly asked a second time for his [del]benefactors[/del] oil suppliers to increase their production. They declined and politely waited until the cameras stopped rolling to slap him on the back and roll on the ground laughing…
Believe it or not I have owned several cars in my 40 years. The fact remains that out of the $125 a barrel oil cost the weak dollar accounts for at most $15 of it. So therefore if the high price of oil is the only thing that is effecting you it is not, for the most part, the weak dollar.
Loach, I’m not sure why you’re so agitated over this. :dubious:
I never said that the weak dollar is the main cause of soaring oil prices. I just said the weak dollar affects anyone who owns a car. Which it does. And that the weak dollar costs us $5-$10 every time we fill up our cars. Which for must of us, it does.
I am not agitated. Just don’t like bad information. It effects me in the same way that paying for the Dope does. Takes money out of my pocket, but not that much. The other factors contributing to the rise in gas prices are effecting me and everyone else much more. And if you have a 13 gallon tank like me it is less than $5. About the same size tank of every car I have owned. A regular 4 door, 5 seat sedan.
ETA: I am pissed about the price of gas. I just direct my anger in the right directions.
My business is tied to luxury New York City real estate, and business has been booming…absolutely insane crazy busy…in large part the boom is being driven by foreigners buying expensive real estate with cheap American dollars
I’ve been enjoying living like a king while visiting America. Exchange rate and general difference in price makes Ohio very cheap for me while visiting my gf. She’s over here now and everything seems to be 4 times the price compared to back home.
I just got back from a business trip to England, and even though I ate as cheaply as I could, I barely kept within my per diems. Dinner in most “nice” places (like my slightly more free-spending colleagues chose) was pushing USD 30, without any alcohol. I ate dinner with them only once, and then begged off the remaining nights, opting for fast food. Even at Subway, a footlong turkey with chips and a drink came to almost 14 bucks (two USD to the pound). There were other options in that price range, but most were too greasy for my tastes. I found a nice Thai place that had a curry chicken entree for seven pounds, but the rice was two pounds more.
Two fifteen-minute cab rides came to a total of 134 USD.
Fortunately, the hotel (a nice, stately old place) gave me the government rate of 65 pounds a night, which is about what I’d pay for a Holiday Inn near an office park in a high-priced US city. It also had a small, complimentary breakfast. Woo hoo!
I had a five-hour layover at Heathrow on my trip home, and between the usual markup of airport food and the anemic US dollar, I paid 20 bucks for two bagel sandwichs (with two slices of turkey each) and a Diet Coke.
I had wanted to vacation in Europe sometime, but that may have to wait.
EXACTLY what I mean. What’s the point of going to, for example, Paris, if you have to eat every meal at McDonalds?
How much is that in the U.S.? I don’t know about Subway, but if I buy something from Quizno’s I can rarely eat more than four inches of sandwich at a sitting.
Somebody saw you coming. There’s no way on earth they should have been this expensive unless cab fares had suddenly skyrocketed in the UK. Are cabs in London more expensive than other British cities?
My parents are pissed that the dollar waited until after I graduated to plummet (they were paying for my tuition). They’re still paying for my brother’s rent, though, so they’re not entirely displeased. Although the Korean won seems to be plummeting as well nowadays.
The first ride, from Leeds-Bradford airport to my hotel in Harrogate, was 26 pounds (USD 52). The second ride, from the hotel to the airport, cost 36 pounds (USD 72). Both trips were short in duration, but covered long distances, which I’d expect to cost more than a bumper-to-bumper ride of the same duration. Also, the second ride was at 5 AM, so I had the hotel book it for me the night before – they may have added a hidden fee. And the fare may have been higher because of the early hour – I don’t know anything about their fare structures.
A colleague in my office who’s made the same trip many times in the past estimated that the fare would be 15 to 20 pounds.
Maybe they did see me coming. Maybe it’s gas prices too. Either way, no biggie – I get reimbursed for actual expense on fares, and I made sure to get receipts.
They’re still paying for my brother’s rent, though, so they’re not entirely displeased. Although the Korean won seems to be plummeting as well nowadays.