Changing Habits

[bjarvis]

I tend to fill up my car at the 7-11 across the street from my office: it's convenient and is usually at least $0.05/gallon cheaper than any station near home.

This particular station automatically prints receipts at the pump. Not everyone takes their receipts. Indeed, sometimes a strip of paper with 4-5 different purchases will be left flapping in the wind until I come along.

As I'm waiting for my own tank to fill, I sometimes peruse the purchases made before me. Until a few months ago, they were typically in the $30-40 range. Lately, I've noticed the values have been skewed to either end: some folks are spending huge amounts to fill their tanks ($116 I noted on one receipt) while others are buying only 1 or 2 gallons at a time, presumably all they could afford.

Comments

[book-of-daniel.livejournal.com]

It might sound weird but when I find I have a few extra dollars in my pocket at the end of the day I'll stop buy the gas station and get 2.50 or 3.00 worth of gas just for the hell of it. Rather than keep the extra cash laying around waiting for the vending machines at work or something stupid, I just buy a little bit of gas to try to stay ahead of the curve as much as possible. It has helped a lot between fill ups.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I typically spend around $20 per "fill up" and every now and then when I've not been to wild elsewhere in my budget, I'll put $40 in the truck's tank. Even at $20, I can get around 77 miles or so before I have to add more gas and that at around 5.5 gallons or so.

When you think about it, that's not shabby when you realize I drive a 2WD Ranger w/ the largest V-6 offered.

[manley1.livejournal.com]

I filled up my tank for the first time last night in weeks (I didn't even have to fill it after my trip to PA) not because I needed the gas, but because I wanted to get gas before it went up ANOTHER $.10. It's up to $3.70/gal here.

I'm glad it's getting warmer so that I can start biking again everywhere. I have definitely been doing much to drive less, not that I drive much at all. Hell, my '99 Golf just passed 50K only recently. Still, when it costs over $35 to fill up a tiny car like that, there is something afoot.