Are gas prices keeping you home this summer?
Categories: Money & work, Fun & activities, Holidays
Because we don't like to deal with the traffic and because our town has an enormous fireworks display, we usually stick around town during the Fourth. We noticed, though, that a lot of other people stayed home last weekend, too. Our normal haunts, which typically would have been somewhat busy, were overwhelmingly crowded. In a state notorious for its northbound traffic on summer weekends, it seems like a lot of people decided to stay put instead.On Friday, I canceled an upcoming camping trip due to a conflicting obligation. The woman on the other end of the phone sighed. "Can you please tell me," she asked, "Is it because of the gas prices? Because you're the fourth cancellation this morning and we're starting to keep track."
Though it's painful every time I have to fill up our gas tank, I can't really say that the gas prices have slowed us down that much this summer. But after this weekend, I'm starting to wonder if people are staying home to save money. We've talked about staycations before at ParentDish, and we're talked about them again this week. So I'm curious what other families have to say. Are gas prices keeping you home this summer?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tamyu 7-12-2008 @ 8:44PM
At the very least, the price of gas is stopping us from using the car for spontaneous trips. It`s no longer feasible to just say "Hey! Let`s go down to the ocean!" or just randomly take a mountain drive. We have to plan for the gas expense, That means that the whole trip has to be planned, so fewer trips are made. Back when gas prices were lower (they were never *low* here - we live outside the US) it was easy to just absorb the cost of an extra tank`s worth if we drove more than usual in a month... But now it`s not, as the price has nearly doubled.
We`re very lucky to have access to an extensive nationwide public transportation system - I really feel for those without one.
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Kirstie 7-12-2008 @ 11:32PM
Funnily enough, as everyone is talking about canceling their vacations, I just came back from my first vacation in five years. I drove roughly 200 miles each way from central NJ to Rehoboth Beach, DE, despite the cost of gas - I wasn't letting the price of gas get in the way of my first vacation since I was 14 and my first vacation alone with my boyfriend. However, we got off easily in that gas was our biggest expense on vacation - my aunt has a house in Rehoboth which she was willing to let us use in exchange for a weekend of babysitting, which was really nice.
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Tim Leahy 7-13-2008 @ 12:06AM
Anyone can save $1 to $2 a gallon st the gas pump. Why aren't people paying attention? See info: http://tleahy.wordpress.com/ or goto: http://losangeles.backpage.com/AutoPartsForSale/_40_mpg50_saves_you_up_to_2_gallon_at_the_gas_pump_/classifieds/ViewAd?oid=1966370
Goto: http://mpg50.com or email: info@mpg50.com
It works equally well for both gasoline & diesel and is Moneyback Guaranteed.
God Bless America,
Tim Leahy
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brokemom 7-13-2008 @ 1:00PM
Wow, if that sign is an actuality where you live, I wanna live there too! We've been paying $4.56 for quite a while now...
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Miranda 7-13-2008 @ 4:29PM
I live in central WI and we've just creeped up over $4...then $4.10 shortly there after. Several gas stations have been caught messing with the calibration or something on the pumps so that either it charges more than the advertised price or it puts less gas per gallon in your car than what a full gallon actually should be. I would advise everyone to check this out. Pump one gallon out first and make sure the price matches....also make sure you know aproximatley how many gallons it takes to fill your tank and make sure the pump doesn't read out more gallons than your car holds. If so you're being ripped off. It's messed, like the oil company's aren't getting enough of our money.
As far a keeping me at home....definitly. I even changed my daughter's daycare to something closer to my work to save on gas. We walk or ride bikes whenever possilbe...and I drive a Yaris, which is really good on gas.
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Ashlea 7-13-2008 @ 4:52PM
Your petrol is still cheaper than ours! ours is $2.20 a LITRE! and there are just under 4 litres to a gallon (3.78 litres)
So if you lived where i live you would be paying over $8 if we had gallons instead of litres.
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Judy 7-14-2008 @ 11:39AM
We haven't quite hit $4.00/gallon yet - I saw $3.99 a few days ago, then it dropped back down, and yesterday prices were all over the place.
We each have a child, both daughters, from previous marriages, and both daughters live with the other parent. They, plus my husband's 17 yo niece, have been visiting in the last 6 weeks. We have had to do some driving - back and forth to pick up and drop off my step-daughter, and we will be driving to another city to take my daughter to the airport this weekend - and have chosen to make those into mini-vacations, to make the best of it.
Otherwise, yes, it has made a difference. We had planned on taking a trip back to where I am from to visit the rest of my family, but the gas prices forced us to reconsider. We're now going to try for a Christmas visit, but I'm not sure we'll manage that, either.
And we haven't been making as many short day-trips out to the beach or other similar trips lately, either.
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