How are gas prices impacting your life?

[ksr5377]

DH is a super-commuter so it's going to hit us hard.  We have been circling round and round with the idea of my getting a PT job over the past year, but kept saying it just wasn't worth the added stress.  I think this might tip us over the edge now.  I am dreading it.  I have no issues with a job.  I think I'll enjoy getting out more, especially after these years of Covid.  I dread all the extra prep work at home to make sure things run smoothly when I'm not there.  I just don't think there's anything else I'm willing to cut back on at this point.  Also, like others have mentioned, we were really hoping to be doing more activities like we used to, so we'll need some extra room in the budget for that as well.  

 

[Ting Tang]

4 minutes ago, ksr5377 said:

DH is a super-commuter so it's going to hit us hard.  We have been circling round and round with the idea of my getting a PT job over the past year, but kept saying it just wasn't worth the added stress.  I think this might tip us over the edge now.  I am dreading it.  I have no issues with a job.  I think I'll enjoy getting out more, especially after these years of Covid.  I dread all the extra prep work at home to make sure things run smoothly when I'm not there.  I just don't think there's anything else I'm willing to cut back on at this point.  Also, like others have mentioned, we were really hoping to be doing more activities like we used to, so we'll need some extra room in the budget for that as well.  

 

I've been thinking about the job issue, too, since I am a SAHM and homeschool our children.  Everything is so expensive, so it is not just the gas.  And my children lived like hermits for two years, so I do not want to deprive them of the little they are able to do.

[Terabith]

At this point, the main effect it's having is that I assume gas prices are always going to go up, so I fill up whenever I hit 3/4 of a tank.  I keep pondering a job, but finding one that works around school drop off and pick up for my high schooler (school buses are not functional here and simply don't show up at least once a week and get kids to school 45 minutes late several times a week) is tricky.  And then there would be driving to said job.  My husband is working from home, so the majority of our driving is to high schools, but my oldest drives themself.  

[HomeAgain]

We're using my car more.  I get approx. 32m/gal, dh only gets 18 or so.  He's planning on moving to the night shift so that we only use my car except for the one night a week when we overlap schedules.  We'll still have to use his to go to the dump (cars need a sticker to get in), but that's just down the street.

I honestly wonder if dh's truck would get better gas mileage if he drove better. 😄 When we both use mine we can see there is a definite difference.  He is heavy on the pedals.  I treat the car more like a responsive horse.  As a result, I get up to 33mpg and then watch it drop to 29 almost immediately when dh takes over.

[Faith-manor]

10 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

We're using my car more.  I get approx. 32m/gal, dh only gets 18 or so.  He's planning on moving to the night shift so that we only use my car except for the one night a week when we overlap schedules.  We'll still have to use his to go to the dump (cars need a sticker to get in), but that's just down the street.

I honestly wonder if dh's truck would get better gas mileage if he drove better. 😄 When we both use mine we can see there is a definite difference.  He is heavy on the pedals.  I treat the car more like a responsive horse.  As a result, I get up to 33mpg and then watch it drop to 29 almost immediately when dh takes over.

Same with my equinox. If dh is driving, 26-27 mph. If I am driving 30-31, sometimes more one the way to Bama when I am behind the wheel because I will get into the right hand lane, set the cruise, and go. I will adjust speed with the cruise if I come up on someone slower, but unless they are going quite a bit below the speed limit, I won't gun it and pass. Mark, ont hr other hand, seems to take offense at anyone not going 3 miles over the speed limits and he MUST go around. It is like this thing that gets under his skim! 😂 I just keep playing my gas mileage game, and tell him I am the superior driver (despite the fact he is phenomenal in poor weather conditions and never anxiety riddled about ice, gale for winds, torrential downpours like I am). 😁

[Lucy the Valiant]

Painfully. 

[KSera]

I feel a bit guilty weighing in on this thread, because we drive an electric car for 99% of our driving. I don’t know the last time we bought gas (though I should’ve been thinking about it and filled the gas powered car up before now). For me though, I’ve been thinking that I probably need to stop ordering so many things by delivery right now and go out and pick them up myself since I can do so in an electric car rather than requiring a truck to burn fuel to get it here. I realize it’s not likely making any practical difference, since the delivery truck is on our street delivering to everyone else every day anyways, though actually, for grocery delivery it should make a real difference since it’s just come to is. Except then I feel bad because the grocery delivery drivers need to continue making a living as well. Fortunately Covid seems to be down enough here that I feel okay going into a store with an N95 right now. I guess if I do order any grocery delivery, I will just make sure my tip accounts for the cost of gas. I’ve been tipping heavily as hazard pay anyway when Covid has been bad, so this would be similar to that financially. 

I do certainly wish that we had gotten further as a country on energy independence before this happened (though obviously, what I truly wish is that this never happened). A small silver lining to this truly terrible situation could be a positive impact on energy usage which could have an importsntnpositive impact on the planet longer-term.

[Hilltopmom]

Dh only drives across town a couple of miles but I have a rural 30 minute commute to my school. Oof.

He was planning on buying a truck this spring but decided to keep the older Subaru. Years ago he had a veggie oil powered car- that was a huge pain but neat idea.  He may wind up going electric in the future- we only need one larger car and I have a mini van.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Hilltopmom

[Laura Corin]

We don't drive much - I work from home and Husband is retired, the convenience store and post office are walking distance, and the nearest supermarket is ten minutes away by car. Our VW Golf gets 50 miles to the UK gallon. Our next road trip isn't scheduled until June. So not much will change.

[Corraleno]

After living in really rural areas for the previous 20 years, I bought my current house 100% for the location: a quiet street with no traffic that is 2 miles from Target & the mall, 3 miles from Trader Joe's, Home Depot, and all the kids' activities, and 4.5 miles from Costco. And I can walk to the medical center and Whole Foods a mile away. I drive a Subaru and use maybe 3 gallons a month, if that — I literally don't remember the last time I filled up. DD drives a Prius and just got a job at the mall (2 miles away) and is doing courses online, so she doesn't need much gas either. DS lives across the street from campus, and either walks or takes the bus (free for students) most places. I think the main impact on us is going to be airline tickets for one-off events (DS's graduation, and possible visits to grandparents in FL and the UK who are very ill). But in terms of day-to-day expenses, the effect will be negligible.

[Frances]

Personally, very little effect because we live where we can walk to almost everything, including work. We have one vehicle I rarely drive. But family members who are business owners with diesel being a big part of their budget are being hit very hard. Contracts were signed when it was much cheaper.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Frances

[Mom_to3]

We are fortunate, as it will hit us less than most. We are also a one-car family. More generally, Biden telling the nation that white collar workers should return back to the office a few days ago was a bit tone-deaf. Not just because of the energy crisis due to the war, but also climate change...

[KSera]

29 minutes ago, Frances said:

Contracts were signed when it was much cheaper.

I was thinking about that and how hard it will be for many businesses that will have to absorb this cost increase likely without initially having those costs made up on the customer end. That will affect so many kinds of businesses where sales have already been made, but not delivery. 

[SKL]

Yeah, business wise this is crap piled upon crap.  When the Covid shutdown happened we had just opened a hotel and our 3rd event center.  Shutdowns and Covid restrictions on gatherings etc. have been brutal, and just as things started looking up, this happens.  People are probably going to travel less, and this is going to impact our hotel at least.  We are not fancy people with deep pockets.  The hotel is in a very low-income community, and our project was meant to be a catalyst to pick the area up economically and socially.  And it has, but at a much higher cost than originally expected.

And this is just one more reason why I really hope/wish the Ukraine crisis could be resolved quickly.

[Brittany1116]

1 hour ago, KSera said:

I feel a bit guilty weighing in on this thread, because we drive an electric car for 99% of our driving. I don’t know the last time we bought gas (though I should’ve been thinking about it and filled the gas powered car up before now). For me though, I’ve been thinking that I probably need to stop ordering so many things by delivery right now and go out and pick them up myself since I can do so in an electric car rather than requiring a truck to burn fuel to get it here. I realize it’s not likely making any practical difference, since the delivery truck is on our street delivering to everyone else every day anyways, though actually, for grocery delivery it should make a real difference since it’s just come to is. Except then I feel bad because the grocery delivery drivers need to continue making a living as well. Fortunately Covid seems to be down enough here that I feel okay going into a store with an N95 right now. I guess if I do order any grocery delivery, I will just make sure my tip accounts for the cost of gas. I’ve been tipping heavily as hazard pay anyway when Covid has been bad, so this would be similar to that financially. 

I do certainly wish that we had gotten further as a country on energy independence before this happened (though obviously, what I truly wish is that this never happened). A small silver lining to this truly terrible situation could be a positive impact on energy usage which could have an importsntnpositive impact on the planet longer-term.

Flipside is people will find it more convenient or cost-effective to have delivery than to spend their gas. It has already had me thinking a $5-6 delivery charge from a store will be cheaper than me driving to that store with my car and location in mind. 

[Lucy the Valiant]

2 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:

Flipside is people will find it more convenient or cost-effective to have delivery than to spend their gas. It has already had me thinking a $5-6 delivery charge from a store will be cheaper than me driving to that store with my car and location in mind. 

More likely, the $5-6 delivery charge will go to $10-12 or disappear altogether.

[Brittany1116]

Just now, Lucy the Valiant said:

More likely, the $5-6 delivery charge will go to $10-12 or disappear altogether.

Until then, it's my better bet. Given my fuel economy and the stores I only occasionally need, it would cost me over $9 to make a round trip today.

[KSera]

15 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:

Flipside is people will find it more convenient or cost-effective to have delivery than to spend their gas. It has already had me thinking a $5-6 delivery charge from a store will be cheaper than me driving to that store with my car and location in mind. 

That could be, if that’s how cheap your delivery is. I have one store I sometimes order from that does not have any way to tip drivers, as they use their own grocery delivery trucks rather than individual drivers. So delivery from them doesn’t cost me a whole lot more – it depends what appointments slots are available and can range anywhere from four dollars to $10. That’s a store I don’t usually order from though, and the ones I tend to order from use Instacart drivers which means the groceries themselves cost more than the store, then there’s also delivery fee, and there’s also a tip which I almost always increase from the base amount because it seems insufficient for what I’m asking the shoppers to do for me. It’s not uncommon for using delivery to cost me $30 more than had I gone in person.
 

I definitely will condense any deliveries that I do order to being less frequent, though. I have a large family and if I order less frequently, I’m ordering a very large grocery order, which really does end up decently lucrative for the driver because their tip is a percentage of the total.

[Ausmumof3]

Considering our first trip away in a couple of years and whether the fuel cost is justifiable. If they jump too significantly ds and my jobs won’t be financially viable due to travel distance versus pay rate.

We already combine trips due to being rural.

If it jumps too massively we may have to move to a closer church but that would be really tough

Edited March 9, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, KSera said:

I feel a bit guilty weighing in on this thread, because we drive an electric car for 99% of our driving. I don’t know the last time we bought gas (though I should’ve been thinking about it and filled the gas powered car up before now). For me though, I’ve been thinking that I probably need to stop ordering so many things by delivery right now and go out and pick them up myself since I can do so in an electric car rather than requiring a truck to burn fuel to get it here. I realize it’s not likely making any practical difference, since the delivery truck is on our street delivering to everyone else every day anyways, though actually, for grocery delivery it should make a real difference since it’s just come to is. Except then I feel bad because the grocery delivery drivers need to continue making a living as well. Fortunately Covid seems to be down enough here that I feel okay going into a store with an N95 right now. I guess if I do order any grocery delivery, I will just make sure my tip accounts for the cost of gas. I’ve been tipping heavily as hazard pay anyway when Covid has been bad, so this would be similar to that financially. 

I do certainly wish that we had gotten further as a country on energy independence before this happened (though obviously, what I truly wish is that this never happened). A small silver lining to this truly terrible situation could be a positive impact on energy usage which could have an importsntnpositive impact on the planet longer-term.

What electric car do you drive?  You said you had a large family and I am wondering what electric car fits a big family. 

[Ausmumof3]

39 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:

Flipside is people will find it more convenient or cost-effective to have delivery than to spend their gas. It has already had me thinking a $5-6 delivery charge from a store will be cheaper than me driving to that store with my car and location in mind. 

I’m assuming people will not want to drive for Amazon or Uber eats etc.unless the pay rate goes up though. There’s probably still some economy where they are doing multiple packages in one area etc.

[stephanier.1765]

8 hours ago, YaelAldrich said:

Heading to Costco twice today.  Fill up both cars.  I know there will be a heck of a line today.  Them's the breaks.  I hope we force Russia to her knees.

Also increasing the fee to the tutor who travels to my home.

I did Costco today myself even though I still had 3/4 of a tank left. That place was a parking lot. I don't know how you did it twice. My patience level barely lets me get through it once. On the plus side, the attendant today was especially mindful of the stack up of cars and was doing his best to get everyone through as safely and as quickly as possible. Also on the plus side, it was only $3.75. I can't believe I just used the word "only" in that sentence. Wow.

To answer the question about how it's affecting me, is that I'm being very mindful of where I go and if I actually need to go. Mostly, I'm staying at home. Right now I have a boot on my driving foot so staying home is really the best answer all around anyway. My DH is driving his motorcycle instead of his van, even in the rain. That makes me nervous.

[KSera]

27 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

What electric car do you drive?  You said you had a large family and I am wondering what electric car fits a big family. 

Good catch 😉. Yes, there’s the rub. Between Covid and kids at college, we almost never are all going in the car anymore. The 1% that we drive gas would be in the rare case of having everyone going somewhere. Which I can’t remember the last time we did that. The little kids don’t go to any indoor places during Covid. We are waiting for a financially feasible larger electric car to replace the gas powered one.  The Tesla model X is definitely way out of our budget. Rivian has one that seats 7 as well, but I’m sure that’s out of budget as well*. There are more on the way. I’m hoping one of Kia‘s upcoming electric SUVs will have three rows. Tesla has a 7 seater model Y that is in the price range of a lot of other 3 row passenger vehicles, but I don’t think it would be a good trip car with older kids and a lot of stuff. There are lots of good 5 passenger options, but I’m guessing you’re still in a stage where you frequently need more than that. 

eta: *lol, yes, the Rivian is definitely out of budget. I just looked it up, but man what I nice family vehicle otherwise! https://rivian.com/r1s

Edited March 9, 2022 by KSera

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, Brittany1116 said:

Flipside is people will find it more convenient or cost-effective to have delivery than to spend their gas. It has already had me thinking a $5-6 delivery charge from a store will be cheaper than me driving to that store with my car and location in mind. 

It has me thinking that I'm going to utilize my Amazon Prime account even more than I already do. The van is coming through our neighborhood every day anyway.

[Lucy the Valiant]

Where I live, the cost of oil also affects home heating cost.

[mommyoffive]

10 minutes ago, KSera said:

Good catch 😉. Yes, there’s the rub. Between Covid and kids at college, we almost never are all going in the car anymore. The 1% that we drive gas would be in the rare case of having everyone going somewhere. Which I can’t remember the last time we did that. The little kids don’t go to any indoor places during Covid. We are waiting for a financially feasible larger electric car to replace the gas powered one.  The Tesla model X is definitely way out of our budget. Rivian has one that seats 7 as well, but I’m sure that’s out of budget as well. There are more on the way. I’m hoping one of Kia‘s upcoming electric SUVs will have three rows. Tesla has a 7 seater model Y that is in the price range of a lot of other 3 row passenger vehicles, but I don’t think it would be a good trip car with older kids and a lot of stuff. There are lots of good 5 passenger options, but I’m guessing you’re still in a stage where you frequently need more than that. 

Ahhh.  Gotcha.  Yeah for now we need a car that can really sit 7 adult sized people.  Well 2 kids are not that size, all the others are.  Plus we have 2 big dogs.  Sitting in a minivan hardly works for us when we have the dogs and such and other things.  

We had an electric car 7 plus years ago and didn't have a good experience with it.  Maybe things are better now.  But the charges listed were not what we really got in winters.  There were no places to charge.  It was a nightmare.  I love the idea, but it didn't work for us back then.   I can see how it could be great when you mostly drive around town or a place with mild winters. 

[YaelAldrich]

28 minutes ago, stephanier.1765 said:

I did Costco today myself even though I still had 3/4 of a tank left. That place was a parking lot. I don't know how you did it twice. My patience level barely lets me get through it once. On the plus side, the attendant today was especially mindful of the stack up of cars and was doing his best to get everyone through as safely and as quickly as possible. Also on the plus side, it was only $3.75. I can't believe I just used the word "only" in that sentence. Wow.

Both times it was thankfully only Sunday level crazy. I honestly thought the morning trip would be pre-blizzard crazy and I was worried they would be out of gas by 5pm today. The hybrid car (morning trip) was 3/4 full but we have one trip on Friday that will use up 1/4 tank. The minivan (afternoon trip) was half full and we drive it very little as we don't need all the seats unless we have family plus. It's sad but I'm glad I don't have the three times a week trip to hospice anymore. Of course I would have gone but it gets expensive, even with the hybrid Camry.

[KSera]

5 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Ahhh.  Gotcha.  Yeah for now we need a car that can really sit 7 adult sized people.  Well 2 kids are not that size, all the others are.  Plus we have 2 big dogs.  Sitting in a minivan hardly works for us when we have the dogs and such and other things.  

We had an electric car 7 plus years ago and didn't have a good experience with it.  Maybe things are better now.  But the charges listed were not what we really got in winters.  There were no places to charge.  It was a nightmare.  I love the idea, but it didn't work for us back then.   I can see how it could be great when you mostly drive around town or a place with mild winters. 

The Chrysler Pacifica plug in hybrid minivan is what I would probably get in that situation. Things have definitely changed hugely in the last seven years as far as range goes, and with the Electrify America charging network offering fast charging for a lot of the vehicles coming out. From most of my driving though, I don’t ever charge when I’m out. I just plug-in at home and it’s always charged and ready to go the next time I go out. My husband does take the car for longer trips and does sometimes need to stop and charge on those. But we’re talking road trips there where he would need to stop for gas if he were driving a gas powered car. We’re holding out for a bigger full electric we can afford, because with a hybrid, you still have all the upkeep of an ICE car. Full electric is so easy and cheap to maintain, so we hope to wait for that. Or if nothing else, eventually enough kids will move out that we won’t need a bigger one 😂. 
 

eta: did you see my Rivian link above? Your budget may be very different than mine, in which case it might be worth looking at.

Edited March 9, 2022 by KSera

[mommyoffive]

3 minutes ago, KSera said:

The Chrysler Pacifica plug in hybrid minivan is what I would probably get in that situation. Things have definitely changed hugely in the last seven years as far as range goes, and with the Electrify America charging network offering fast charging for a lot of the vehicles coming out. From most of my driving though, I don’t ever charge when I’m out. I just plug-in at home and it’s always charged and ready to go the next time I go out. My husband does take the car for longer trips and does sometimes need to stop and charge on those. But we’re talking road trips there where he would need to stop for gas if he were driving a gas powered car. We’re holding out for a bigger full electric we can afford, because with a hybrid, you still have all the upkeep of an ICE car. Full electric is so easy and cheap to maintain, so we hope to wait for that. Or if nothing else, eventually enough kids will move out that we won’t need a bigger one 😂. 
 

eta: did you see my Rivian link above? Your budget may be very different than mine, in which case it might be worth looking at.

I did look at the Rivian.  I have never heard of the brand.  

Honestly dh and I don't like Chrysler or Dodge so we wouldn't get the pacifica.   We are set to get a Toyota hybrid minivan this month hopefully.  

What electric car do you have?  Do you live in a place with cold winters? 

Things were such a nightmare when we had the electric car, that I don't know if dh would ever take the leap again.  It would have to be researched to death to make sure it wasn't a repeat of what we did. 

[melmichigan]

7 hours ago, Spirea said:

What is this gas card?

We have had gas cards since we got married back when Clark stations were around and DH was in the service.  It was a specific credit card back then, just for gas, with rewards that we paid off each month.  The newest version is a loyalty card that allows a specific gas station to debit my checking account to pay for gas. We earn loyalty points and discounts so we never pay full price for gas.  It's alway $0.10 off the marked price, but then certain days are more, like today, and we fill everything on those days. We tend to save our points for when we pump diesel because those can be up to $2 off a gallon.  Most gas stations offer some version of this, as do many grocery stores that have gas stations (we don't have any of those locally).  They save the credit card fees and we get discounts that keep the prices lower than Sam's and Costco without more driving. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by melmichigan

[popmom]

6 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Many of our past things still aren’t back from Covid, so we still don’t do nearly as much driving as we used to.  I guess I can’t complain about that now, lol. I was going to look into the spring schedule for our community college’s youth program, but now I’m not so sure.  I’m probably going to attempt to shift back to my old school routine of grocery shopping every other week, but I don’t know how I feel about that yet. Dh can work from home more, and stop leaving work to go home or out for lunch.

We did get a pretty powerful solar “generator” that is not for the whole house, but it can take a significant chunk off our bill/usage. It was meant for the new house, but here we are. New house is also getting a wood burning stove.

Our food storage is about as good as it can get, so we *can skip *some things at the grocery store for a while if/when prices are real rough. Farms are closer than the stores, so I’ll do what I can there, once the season starts.

I was thinking about a family trip this summer, but I haven’t been able to plan without a decent timeframe for moving. Gas may be another reason to just skip it.

I generally already combine errands, but I’m sure I’ll get more restrictive about it.

I have been trying to talk my husband into getting a solar generator. If you don’t mind, could you message me which one you have?

[popmom]

@Faith-manor I feel your pain about college/unexpected expenses. And we may also end up with a huge tax bill this year. We are going to have to get a CPA to get it sorted out. Apparently the CARES act only 50% applied to our situation 🙄🤔
 

As others have said, it seems to be hard all over financially—the gas prices alone wouldn’t be a problem. It’s that weather and COVID significantly affected dh’s employer’s profits which affected his income negatively and at the same time, our windows are rotting, our deck is rotting, 2 still in college, likely a wedding to pay for in the next 12 months (praying they elope), food prices, transmission dies in our supposedly reliable Toyota, taxes, etc. It sounds like I’m whining—I’m not. We’ve just been incredulous at all of it coming out of nowhere. We will be okay, but this week has been pretty depressing. This year is by far the most financially precarious in our entire 29 years of marriage.
 

And yes we haven’t even bothered to make any sort of vacation plans. Vacay rentals have skyrocketed along w everything else. We always drive, so the gas prices just seal the deal on that. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by popmom

[mommyoffive]

17 minutes ago, popmom said:

@Faith-manor I feel your pain about college/unexpected expenses. And we may also end up with a huge tax bill this year. We are going to have to get a CPA to get it sorted out. Apparently the CARES act only 50% applied to our situation 🙄🤔
 

As others have said, it seems to be hard all over financially—the gas prices alone wouldn’t be a problem. It’s that weather and COVID significantly affected dh’s employer’s profits which affected his income negatively and at the same time, our windows are rotting, our deck is rotting, 2 still in college, likely a wedding to pay for in the next 12 months (praying they elope), food prices, transmission dies in our supposedly reliable Toyota, taxes, etc. It sounds like I’m whining—we will be okay, but it’s been pretty depressing. This year is by far the most financially precarious in our entire 29 years of marriage.
 

And yes we haven’t even bothered to make any sort of vacation plans. Vacay rentals have skyrocketed along w everything else. We always drive, so the gas prices just seal the deal on that. 

Just sending some hugs.  I am sorry it has been so stressful.

[Melissa in Australia]

It depends how high it goes. If it goes as high as $3au litre as they are predicting on the radio we will hardly be able to afford to leave the property. The closest little shopping centre is 20 km away, and the town we do our shopping in and swimming lessons is 100 km away. 

but it is the other little things like the full needed to mow and whippersnip, and run the wood splitter and tractor and the water pump to pump up from the dam. All these are essential .  

[HS Mom in NC]

We live below our means and we don't do much driving, so it's not hitting us hard, but we are increasing our financial contributions to the local food bank and participating in the church's food/personal items drives for the local elementary school to help others who are being hit hard by inflation and increased COL.

Since we've been focused on paying our mortgage off early and catching up on retirement in the last few years, we've been living very frugally, including frugal grocery shopping and cutting back on eating out.

Our veg garden is going to be significant this year, I have seeds starting under grow lights right now.  The strategy is succession gardening this year because I can't learn everything all at once, so food storage will be learned after I figure out how to grow each plant.

Edited March 9, 2022 by HS Mom in NC

[mom31257]

It isn't affecting us much yet, but it will be a factor for ds and us later this year. 

I work from home, and dh works 1.3 miles from our home. This is yet another reason we are so thankful we found this home! Everything else we found was 30+ minutes away. His school system only goes 160 days, so he'll be done by the first of June and won't return until the end of August. We hoped to do a good bit of traveling this summer, so that might not be as extensive as we wanted. 

Ds is at college but doesn't have a car of his own. He comes home in May and needs to find a job and get a car before next year. I think this will cause him to look for a job very close by, which might limit his options. We do have businesses close by. 

 

[Wheres Toto]

We both work only 5 miles from home which is good.   But I drive a Pilot and dh drives a Suburban, which is not good.   Ds's school, most stores we would go to, etc are all within 10-15 miles so not awful.   

But dh still has to make a few trips 2 1/2 hours away to his mom's house to settle the estate, and we are planning a weekend trip to Virginia in April.   

We did switch our heat from propane to mini-splits last year so that's probably helping at least some. 

It may hurt my business some.  I have people who travel from all over and I could see some of them deciding to cut down on driving.  

[73349]

DH is still able to work from home, so the impact is only a few dollars a week for us. His company's extroverted leaders have made lots of noises about how great it is for people to go back to the office, but it's super inefficient for DH, so he will be at home as long as allowed.

One of these years, maybe this year, our cars will bite the dust, and we will likely go at least hybrid, if not full electric. We only need to seat 4. I might try to talk DH into a Hyundai Ioniq.

Edited March 9, 2022 by 73349

[fairfarmhand]

13 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

Where I live, the cost of oil also affects home heating cost.

Yes, our electricity ends up with a fuel surcharge and it was suuuuper high last month, 

[fairfarmhand]

12 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

It depends how high it goes. If it goes as high as $3au litre as they are predicting on the radio we will hardly be able to afford to leave the property. The closest little shopping centre is 20 km away, and the town we do our shopping in and swimming lessons is 100 km away. 

but it is the other little things like the full needed to mow and whippersnip, and run the wood splitter and tractor and the water pump to pump up from the dam. All these are essential .  

I was thinking about mowing this week. We use a LOT of gasoline for cutting grass. Maybe we need to move some fences and put cows on some places that we typically mow. 

When we had sheep it wasn't a problem because the sheep poo was not bad to have near the house.  Not looking forward to having cow poo close to the house. The flies.....

[HS Mom in NC]

Also, we have an electric automower/lawnbot for our lawn.  It recharges itself every 2 hours. No gas, no fumes, almost no noise, no mowing on our part.

[Faith-manor]

12 hours ago, popmom said:

@Faith-manor I feel your pain about college/unexpected expenses. And we may also end up with a huge tax bill this year. We are going to have to get a CPA to get it sorted out. Apparently the CARES act only 50% applied to our situation 🙄🤔
 

As others have said, it seems to be hard all over financially—the gas prices alone wouldn’t be a problem. It’s that weather and COVID significantly affected dh’s employer’s profits which affected his income negatively and at the same time, our windows are rotting, our deck is rotting, 2 still in college, likely a wedding to pay for in the next 12 months (praying they elope), food prices, transmission dies in our supposedly reliable Toyota, taxes, etc. It sounds like I’m whining—I’m not. We’ve just been incredulous at all of it coming out of nowhere. We will be okay, but this week has been pretty depressing. This year is by far the most financially precarious in our entire 29 years of marriage.
 

And yes we haven’t even bothered to make any sort of vacation plans. Vacay rentals have skyrocketed along w everything else. We always drive, so the gas prices just seal the deal on that. 

I am so sorry! It stinks to high heaven, and it seems like on the heels of a two year nightmare in this nation, never lets up. Good news would be nice, just a little bit of good news, a little bit of relief. It would help with facing the next week. But, seems like that is a hard no.

I am just trying to think of ways to let some stress go while having those options limited at the moment. I cannot wait for this ice mess to finally melt and stay that way so I cam hit the trail down at the river. Walking would do me some good.

[Faith-manor]

16 minutes ago, fairfarmhand said:

I was thinking about mowing this week. We use a LOT of gasoline for cutting grass. Maybe we need to move some fences and put cows on some places that we typically mow. 

When we had sheep it wasn't a problem because the sheep poo was not bad to have near the house.  Not looking forward to having cow poo close to the house. The flies.....

Mark is talking about ripping up the lawn here, just gutting it, and then throwing out some fertilizer and clover seed to see if that will take hold. If he did, we wouldn't need to mow for a very long time even if the clover didn't take. I told my mom and mother in law that they need to go longer between mowing in order to conserve energy and reduce emissions. Mother in law was NOT pleased. She can get pretty persnickety. But, the lawn place we made her use during the second half of the season last year so I could have a break from losing three places, went out of business, so she back to being dependent on me until she can find someone else. I am not going an losing that very often. Mark will run the push mower around her picnic table plus a path to it. However, he talked to his brother about coming and laying a little terrace by her back door, and then not having the picnic table on the grass.

At this point, if I could manage the animal husbandry and had a shed for them at night, I would consider renting 3 sheep for our yard and let them go at it. If I had the right fencing, I would rent three goats too since there is brush along the back that we haven't had time to get to. I have a friend that keeps 3 dwarf Nigerians for her yard, and they maintain all the brush along the edges quite nicely.

[fairfarmhand]

42 minutes ago, HS Mom in NC said:

Also, we have an electric automower/lawnbot for our lawn.  It recharges itself every 2 hours. No gas, no fumes, almost no noise, no mowing on our part.

Tell me more about this. How much grass do you mow? Do you have a link to what you have?

[HS Mom in NC]

1 minute ago, fairfarmhand said:

Tell me more about this. How much grass do you mow? Do you have a link to what you have?

We've had it for 3 years now. It mows our lawn and the common area lawn between us and the next door neighbor (a duty formerly shared by that neighbor and the previous owner.) It's about an acre to acre and a half of grass. It has a boundary wire installed underground.  This is no longer necessary with newer models from a different company, I think Segway. (There's a remote control car type of mode that it goes into for establishing the boundary.)  It's really a lawn maintainer, as the grass needs to be cut before the lawnbot is installed-it can't mow down high grass, it maintains grass that's already cut.  The blade is adjustable for height, so grass can be shorter or taller, as with any lawn mower. It can mow in rain, but can't be submerged in water.  It slid down the side of the ditch because we put the boundary wire too close and needed to adjust it.

It texts when here's a problem, it can be controlled with an app on a smartphone, it has a way to see what it's been up to all day, I can carry it with one hand.   We think it's worth it.

The down side is getting it repaired.  There's only place here that does that and the wait is looong. It's 3 weeks until they get back to you with an estimate about any mower repair, then a few weeks for the repairs to actually happen. 

  I think it's this particular model:

 

[fairfarmhand]

14 minutes ago, HS Mom in NC said:

We've had it for 3 years now. It mows our lawn and the common area lawn between us and the next door neighbor (a duty formerly shared by that neighbor and the previous owner.) It's about an acre to acre and a half of grass. It has a boundary wire installed underground.  This is no longer necessary with newer models from a different company, I think Segway. (There's a remote control car type of mode that it goes into for establishing the boundary.)  It's really a lawn maintainer, as the grass needs to be cut before the lawnbot is installed-it can't mow down high grass, it maintains grass that's already cut.  The blade is adjustable for height, so grass can be shorter or taller, as with any lawn mower. It can mow in rain, but can't be submerged in water.  It slid down the side of the ditch because we put the boundary wire too close and needed to adjust it.

It texts when here's a problem, it can be controlled with an app on a smartphone, it has a way to see what it's been up to all day, I can carry it with one hand.   We think it's worth it.

The down side is getting it repaired.  There's only place here that does that and the wait is looong. It's 3 weeks until they get back to you with an estimate about any mower repair, then a few weeks for the repairs to actually happen. 

  I think it's this particular model:

 

Thank you. We mow about 2 acres with a huge zero turn mower that is a total gas hog. With gas being as high as it is, perhaps a unit like that would pay for itself? 

We do have 2 acres. How does it do with trees and stuff?

I have a roomba. Maybe it works like that?

[catz]

Well given my last tank of gas lasted about a month, not much.  DH working at home, DDs activities are all within 5 miles at the moment.  DH will be resuming some time in the office for the first time in over 2 years next month.  Though he will probably continue to split his time and that commute is less than 10 miles.  We're actually on a waiting list for a new vehicle that in theory should be a little more fuel efficient than the one that got totalled back in October it is meant to replace.  We're supposed to get it sometime this month but won't be surprised if that is delayed.  

I am road tripping this weekend and that will cost more but luckily we can absorb some extra money on gas.  We're lucky we live somewhere that doesn't typically require much driving.  We are using gas in our snowblower right now, but that is a pretty tiny amount.

[QueenCat]

1 hour ago, HS Mom in NC said:

Also, we have an electric automower/lawnbot for our lawn.  It recharges itself every 2 hours. No gas, no fumes, almost no noise, no mowing on our part.

NM... just saw your response to Fairfarmhand

Edited March 9, 2022 by QueenCat

[ScoutTN]

Not much so far. We drive fuel efficient vehicles, but we do a lot of driving despite the fact that Dh works at home. Other than consolidating errand runs, we do not really have any way to eliminate driving. It just takes money that would otherwise be saved or spent on other things. 
 

 

 

[Lucy the Valiant]

3 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

Yes, our electricity ends up with a fuel surcharge and it was suuuuper high last month, 

We have oil tanks in our basements. We order oil delivery, and that's what heats our homes (it's basically diesel fuel). In other words, people have to choose between going hungry or going cold. 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Lucy the Valiant