Gas prices

[mrmaczaps]

So Dromers, what're fuel costs around you & how much does that astronomically suck?

If you don't drive or pay for fuel for any regular usage just watch....

And remember, as fuel prices rise so does EVERYTHING else...

Gas in the dirty lew is, last I saw this morning, $5.09 a gallon at the 2 stations I go by daily. As someone on a fixed income that hasn't increased at the rate of 60%+ in the last 2 years, the price of fuel is killing me. Almost but not quite literally. And I don't usually go far at all... And have a motorcycle. [Currently thats broken down, with a full tank of gas mind you.]

This is the highest price for a gallon of gas I have ever seen in my entire 41+ years of life. In the last 90s when I started driving, gas was just over $1.25ish and got as low as 85-88 cents a gallon. I can only wish gas was that cheap today. Fill the bike for $2 and go ANYWHERE I want... that would be amazing.

Now, while the Pedo Pres is not directly responsible in total for fuel prices being so high at least 3 things he has signed or not signed, as the case may be, have directly caused the price of fuel to skyrocket. Not renewing the leases on two drilling locations and killing the pipeline day one of his disastrous installation.

I'm not actually looking to piss anyone off with this... but if it does that, I'm not going to cry about it. *shrug* Cry more.

[neatoman]

I don't care, I live a city with a functioning public transit system. I have never gotten a driver's license nor do I care about getting one.

[oldmanwinters]

$4.99 this week. Highest so far.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I don't care, I live a city with a functioning public transit system. I have never gotten a driver's license nor do I care about getting one.

Shhh. Not all of us have access to timely public transport. When they fail tho... "shrug"

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

$4.99 this week. Highest so far.

Insane huh? I used to drive an hour one way to work and spent most of my pay for fuel in those days. And that was under $2 a gallon. I'd have to live in my car these days... and that employer would have had my car towed... oddly enough.

[Jester]

Used my Kroger points to take my last fill up to $4.00 a gallon.

[IndigoErth]

Put in 5 gallons a few days ago at $4.79, the most I've personally paid. It has more or less been around $4.59 recently, but figures it went up when I needed a little.


You wanna talk about presidents, well since the last guy basically forced OPEC to cut production to increase prices because he felt that too low of prices was bad, that production cut was supposed to expire by the end of this past April, right? I'd really like to know if they are bothering to ramp production back up again and when that might help things at least a little.


Edit: Okay, I guess new info out there is saying they plan to up production for July and August. Though that would have been nice had they just done it once that deal to cut production expired instead of having to have talks and new deals just to produce more.... eesh.

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

I'm not actually looking to piss anyone off with this...

Cry more.

Make up your mind if you are or aren't.

[mrmaczaps]

Thanks to whoever keeps fixing my double posts into one...

Indigo, I'm not a fan of gun grabbing Trump.... cry harder. I did enjoy the low gas prices tho.

[sdp]

You should've invested in an electric car. Have fun paying high prices for your dirty fuel. #sorrynotsorry

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by sdp

You should've invested in an electric car. Have fun paying high prices for your dirty fuel. #sorrynotsorry

Your eco-unfriendly slave labor cars won't save you, jackwagon. Gasoline is far cleaner than your e-cars. Buy a clue. Do some research. How is your battery made? What happens when it stops taking a charge or gets damaged? Hows the child labor laws where they're made?

[Mayhem]

Just under $10 equivalent here right now. So you can't go bitching about high prices because the US is still some of the lowest in the first world heh. One thing I'll agree on, I've been driving nearly 30 years and definitely the most expensive I've ever seen it. I recall the horror and protests nearly 20 years ago when the price jumped about 33% in the space of a week, but even at its highest back then, it was still 60% of the price it is now!

[Leo656]

Let's Go Brandon.

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Let's Go Brandon.

'Brandon', and all the other corrupt politicians that are doing this worldwide. Tbh, I hate calling him Brandon. It feels like it's almost an endearing nickname at this point even if it's not meant to be. I hate his guts, along with all the scum that are manipulating the masses.

Oh, and on gas prices, it's almost $5 here for me. Not as high as other places, but it's still affecting my savings.

By the way, people, spare us the condescending 'just use public transit' advice. Not everyone can hop on a bus to take them anywhere and everywhere. It's not even ideal since public transit isn't even reliable. I used to have to take the bus to go to my work, and at one point, the bus would come way later than scheduled. I'd come in late to my job, to which my bosses got pissed at me, and didn't give a damn that it was due to my public transit bus being late. "Take an earlier bus" they'd tell me, even though the earlier bus was more than an hour early (even then, it sometimes wouldn't come on time either). It's more time consuming, unreliable, requires cash, won't take you to every place at any time, and more.

[Leo656]

NJ is absolutely terrible with public transportation. In this state if you don't drive you're effectively a prisoner in your own home unless you've got someone wiling to do you a ton of favors.

Even when I'd just be trying to get a Lyft or an Uber, which were provided for me through insurance while I was doing my outpatient treatments a few years ago, they'd tell me upfront "Expect them to be an hour early or an hour late." Tell them that's not gonna cut it, because A. This is a medical appointment, and B. Afterwards I go straight to work, therefore "just be an hour late" isn't gonna work AT ALL... they just say "Well, that's the way it works. Explain it to your boss." Oh, I did... how well do you think he took it?

Public trans is fine if you're in a city. Most of us don't have that luxury as an option.

Originally Posted by superstaff

I hate calling him Brandon. It feels like it's almost an endearing nickname at this point even if it's not meant to be.

I just call him "dickface".

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by Leo656

NJ is absolutely terrible with public transportation. In this state if you don't drive you're effectively a prisoner in your own home unless you've got someone wiling to do you a ton of favors.

Yep, learned that the hard way. I ended up taking taxis eventually ($7 one way). This was in 2009-2012 before Lyft and stuff existed. Which brings me to...

Even when I'd just be trying to get a Lyft or an Uber, which were provided for me through insurance while I was doing my outpatient treatments a few years ago, they'd tell me upfront "Expect them to be an hour early or an hour late." Tell them that's not gonna cut it, because A. This is a medical appointment, and B. Afterwards I go straight to work, therefore "just be an hour late" isn't gonna work AT ALL... they just say "Well, that's the way it works. Explain it to your boss." Oh, I did... how well do you think he took it?

Can I just say that taxi cabs are more reliable than Uber and Lyft? The drivers are also just the greatest. Some of the best strangers I ever met. One of them literally saved me because he explained some landlord-tenant laws to me that helped me avoid an illegal eviction back then. I feel like Uber drivers are just...ornery, and ready to pick a fight, at least in my few experiences with them.

Public trans is fine if you're in a city. Most of us don't have that luxury as an option.

Yeah, in my suburban neighborhood, there is ONE bus, and it takes you into Pennsylvania.

I just call him "dickface".

Perfection.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Just under $10 equivalent here right now. So you can't go bitching about high prices because the US is still some of the lowest in the first world heh. One thing I'll agree on, I've been driving nearly 30 years and definitely the most expensive I've ever seen it. I recall the horror and protests nearly 20 years ago when the price jumped about 33% in the space of a week, but even at its highest back then, it was still 60% of the price it is now!

I can and will complain if I wish to do so.

Originally Posted by Leo656

Let's Go Brandon.

Originally Posted by superstaff

'Brandon', and all the other corrupt politicians that are doing this worldwide. Tbh, I hate calling him Brandon. It feels like it's almost an endearing nickname at this point even if it's not meant to be. I hate his guts, along with all the scum that are manipulating the masses.

Oh, and on gas prices, it's almost $5 here for me. Not as high as other places, but it's still affecting my savings.

By the way, people, spare us the condescending 'just use public transit' advice. Not everyone can hop on a bus to take them anywhere and everywhere. It's not even ideal since public transit isn't even reliable. I used to have to take the bus to go to my work, and at one point, the bus would come way later than scheduled. I'd come in late to my job, to which my bosses got pissed at me, and didn't give a damn that it was due to my public transit bus being late. "Take an earlier bus" they'd tell me, even though the earlier bus was more than an hour early (even then, it sometimes wouldn't come on time either). It's more time consuming, unreliable, requires cash, won't take you to every place at any time, and more.

Originally Posted by Leo656

NJ is absolutely terrible with public transportation. In this state if you don't drive you're effectively a prisoner in your own home unless you've got someone wiling to do you a ton of favors.

Even when I'd just be trying to get a Lyft or an Uber, which were provided for me through insurance while I was doing my outpatient treatments a few years ago, they'd tell me upfront "Expect them to be an hour early or an hour late." Tell them that's not gonna cut it, because A. This is a medical appointment, and B. Afterwards I go straight to work, therefore "just be an hour late" isn't gonna work AT ALL... they just say "Well, that's the way it works. Explain it to your boss." Oh, I did... how well do you think he took it?

Public trans is fine if you're in a city. Most of us don't have that luxury as an option.



I just call him "dickface".

I call him JoePedo... like the dude who made Pinocchio... even tho Biden is the puppet.

There are almost no Ubers/Lyfts around here and as "public transport" they required useless & dangerous mask wearing in order to use. Same for buses, taxis and trains none of which were running through where I live or exist. Buses were mostly down, same for taxis and there are no trains for passengers in the area.

JoePedo is directly responsible for the EO from day one shutting down the pipeline as well as his EOs that shutdown US drilling & our self reliability for making fuel. This admin is making America more reliant on our ENEMIES... importing baby food? Importing other sh!t we should be making ourselves. America falls, so does the rest of the world. We cannot keep paying for everything by way of democrats writing EOs & sending money/arms to Ukraine. Fvck Joe Biden & his admin.

Electric cars are a non-starter around here too. There are no charging stations and come winter, they'd be stuck pretty much in the driveway. Talked to a police officer who was given one for work. He can take it the 18 miles from his house to his job, leave it plugged in at work all day long & then take it home. He has no charging station at home. If he goes anywhere else, it dies on him in his driveway. And its not even cold out. They're verifiably terrible for the environment as well. Slave labor to dig out the contents of the batteries. Also, more dead kids cuz doing that sh!t is dangerous to their health because they get no protective gear...

[AquaParade]

I feel really lucky to be working from home. I'd be pissed if I had to drive every day to get to a job that is barely covering the price of gas. That would have been me five years ago.

If any of you are dealing with that, you don't deserve it.

[Leo656]

My one buddy has a Tesla and he's on the road a lot. On average he spends an hour out of his day charging it. He swears it's awesome but to me that seems like a huge gigantic hassle. Like entire chunks of his daily life need to be scheduled around whether or not he can get to a charge station. Imagine telling someone you're gonna be 30+ minutes late to work because "I gotta stop and get gas"? They'll call you an irresponsible asshole with poor time management skills, and you'll be looking for another job in short order. But if you drive a Tesla and say you're gonna be 60+ minutes late for work because you need to 1. Find a charging station and 2. Sit there like a numbnuts until your car is sufficiently charged, it's "Oh, that's okay, just get here when you can."

I'm not up on the other Pros and Cons of electric cars, but as someone who's primarily motivated by self-interest I can say that I'm not interested purely due to the inconvenience factor. I'll be dead in 25-ish years, I could care less what happens to the planet after that.

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

Electric cars are a non-starter around here too. There are no charging stations and come winter, they'd be stuck pretty much in the driveway. Talked to a police officer who was given one for work. He can take it the 18 miles from his house to his job, leave it plugged in at work all day long & then take it home. He has no charging station at home. If he goes anywhere else, it dies on him in his driveway. And its not even cold out. They're verifiably terrible for the environment as well. Slave labor to dig out the contents of the batteries. Also, more dead kids cuz doing that sh!t is dangerous to their health because they get no protective gear...

The push for electric cars feels both like the wealthy/politicians pulling a 'Marie Antoinette', and also them trying to push an environmentalist/climate change agenda. I'm just frustrated that people don't seem to care. Where are the protests? Like, many people tend to say "well, the media doesn't televise those". But I've seen protests around for gun bans, Trump for 2024 (yep, a small group seems to gather to do this every weekend in a blue state), abortion (pro and against), etc... Not for inflation, gas prices, the fact they approved 40billion for Ukraine while not even attempting more 'stimmies' for those struggling in the US, and you see what I mean?

[IMJ]

I saw the signs of all of this coming a few months back and took a series of well adjusted financial steps.

I sold my Zl1 for a variety of reasons, none of which were that I couldn't afford it. Basically the used car market was/is on fire at the time and the car was blue booking for 60 grand. I had almost no loan left to pay on the car and I sold it for close to KBB, took the money and paid off a property. Doing this alleviated my mortgage, divested myself of the car while it had significant value and eliminated an insurance cost. All of that after I had ownership of the car for the last five years. So that was one step.

Then a couple weeks ago I cashed in 100,000 Speedway points for $100 of gift cards at Depot. I used those in conjunction with credit card rewards cashback to reduce the cost on a new DeWalt battery powered mower. So now no more gas for grass and my old mower can reside at my rental property now.

Next up is I begin lining up my shots to get one more year of use out of my daily driver (4 cylinder, AWD). By this time next year I should be in an electric vehicle outright without a car payment. Probably the Bolt unless I find a Tesla that I can't walk away from.

You've got to see these patterns and start lining your shots up to grow financially and mitigate the costs you foresee being out of control.

As for the upcoming food problems, the boss here and I are going to try our hands at growing some basic vegetables. I haven't had a garden of sorts since I was a kid with my parents. So it should be fun and maybe by the next few months I won't be buying Tomatoes, Cucumbers and I dunno whatever the other plant that she bought was.

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by IMJ

You've got to see these patterns and start lining your shots up to grow financially and mitigate the costs you foresee being out of control.

It's not easy for those of us who live from paycheck to paycheck.

As for the upcoming food problems, the boss here and I are going to try our hands at growing some basic vegetables. I haven't had a garden of sorts since I was a kid with my parents. So it should be fun and maybe by the next few months I won't be buying Tomatoes, Cucumbers and I dunno whatever the other plant that she bought was.

My neighbor has three huge gardens right now that she began 'just in case' (though she was paranoid that Covid would be the cause of an apocalypse, not inflation and food/supply shortages....). She has several vegetables and fruits growing from them. However...

Rodents and other wildlife get into them. Her own dogs dig up the gardens. In the winter here, it'll get too cold for any plant life to grow, and for the past two winters, she has had no more stuff growing in the garden patches. On top of that...if the chips are down, and sh*t hits the fan, her fence is small...and most people know (her garden is visible since we have chain link fences) she has a supply of food in her backyard. What do you think will happen?