Gas Costs
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The other day, I drove by the gas station and did a double take because I thought for sure that my eyes were deceiving me. Could it really be that gas prices had gone up by twenty cents in one night?! At $2.67, gas prices aren’t nearly as high as they were a couple of summers ago, but I still couldn’t help but feel some cause for alarm. After all, what if the prices continue to go up?
Unfortunately, gasoline is something that most of us need in order to get in our cars and go where we need to. While there is a small and perhaps steadily growing number of people who use other non-gasoline modes of transportation such as electric cars, the fact remains that the vast majority of us still have to go to the gas station in order to make sure that we have enough fuel to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. Thinking back to the summer when gasoline prices were pushing close to $5 a gallon, I shudder because back then when gasoline prices were so high, I went from normally paying around $25-$30 to fill up my gasoline tank to suddenly paying anywhere between $65-$75 for a tank of gas. And seeing as how I would sometimes have to fill up twice in one week, I was soon discovering that my paycheck wasn’t going very far after I had finished filling up at the pump.
For most people, rising gas costs haven’t been that big of a deal. These people who aren’t really affected are the people who drive compact cars, motorcycles or who live close enough to where they work that they can alternate between using a car to get where they are going versus walking, running or riding a bike. One thing that gasoline costs have done to America is that I has forced us to think outside of the box. What do I mean by this? Thinking outside of the box involves things such as coming up with creative ways to stretch a dollar. For example, more and more people are looking for creative ways to get around the gas issue whether this involves starting a carpool at work or investing in a bicycle and a new pair of shoes to help get them to where they have to go.
One thing is for sure, once the economy took a turn for the worst, I had just purchased my first vehicle- a brand new Jeep Liberty sport utility vehicle. Things were fine for the first month as an owner. But then I noticed that the cost to fill up my Jeep was extremely expensive. I was actually losing money every time I drove it, but I had to get to work! I still have the Jeep in my possession today, and while it certainly has its perks, if I had the opportunity to do it all over again, I would settle for a car instead. But I’m not the only one. There are plenty of sport utility vehicle owners out there who are desperately wishing that they had made a different choice when it came down to picking out a car to own.