A recent conversation with a neighbor inspired me to dig up and update an old spreadsheet on our gas mileage and consumption.
My neighbor suggested installing a K & N Air Filter to our cars for at least a two mile-per-gallon improvement. A Tornado mixer would add another 2 mpg. He’s installed them on all four of his family vehicles, and swears by the results. Given that he’s a confirmed gear-head, able to magically rebuild and restore vehicles from the ground up, I listened closely, and planned accordingly.
Back to the spreadsheet. Basically, it tracks the incremental costs we face with our two-vehicle “fleet” when gas prices jump from say, $2.49 to $2.79, or to the current $3.39.
The 101 Centavos Fleet
The end result is that we spend an extra $82 a month with current nose-bleed prices. I commute about 24 miles round trip, and the Mrs’s Corolla gets an average of 10 miles a day workout. Adding in our new driving habits, adding 300 miles per month to each vehicle by going out to Terra Farms on alternate weekends (140 miles round trip), and it pushes the daily averages to 36 miles per day for me and 23 miles/day for Mrs. 101.
For our income level, the incremental $82 is not that big a deal, and it’s a huge deal. Small potatoes, in that it means one or two less times we splurge and eat out. Huge in the sense that it’s a game of centavos, after all. A little money leak here, another little expense there, and it leads to less money to invest for our future.
The picture gets worse if I pretend that we were living on a smaller income, with a longer commute, and with less fuel-efficient vehicles:
Hypothetical Fleet
Is it conceivable that a person would commute 50 miles round trip in a 12-mpg vehicle? Yes, I know people that do just that. And his spouse does drive 50 miles a day, maybe more. Can you imagine what an additional $193 hit means, when you’ve got three kids to take care of on a $40,000/year take-home income? It means a whole car payment, or a missed medical bill, or no new school clothes. Harsh.
Historical Gas Prices in Oklahoma
Perhaps state and federal governments, in their professed concern for the little people, might volunteer to cut fuel excise taxes levied on each gallon of gas? Would they? Yes…. No…? Probably not.
Anyways, back off the soap box. I’ve listed a few stories from around the Personal Finance Blogosphere that I found to be interesting, worthwhile and profitable.
Good Eats
Penniless Parenting: Hearty Peasant Soup
Here’s two more reasons that Molly on Money is one of my favorite blogs. Stories like “Runaway Spinach” and “Rooster and Raccoons”.
Investing Around the World
Buck Inspire gives an overview of Taiwan
Buffet is Bullish on India, says MoneyCone
Squirrelers on trusting your instincts in investing: Learn from my Japan Investing Mistake. No question about it, timid dithering vs. taking bold action is many times the winning strategy.
Young and Thrifty has a nice post on a Canadian stock with a 7.2% annual dividend yield. What is it with all these Canadian companies paying out dividends? Don’t they know that it’s much better to invest into (stupid) acquisitions and pay out (outrageous) incentive bonuses to top management? It’s what we do here in the US, after all.
Personal Finance
Barbara Friedberg: “How Much Money Do You Need to Live On?”
Little House in the Valley: Will Debit Purchases be a Thing of the Past?
Jaymus @ Realized Returns explores the concept of Virtual Assistants with Outsourcing Your Life
Investing / Precious Metals
The Righteous Investor has a guest post @ Beating the Index: Why Warren Buffett Is Wrong on Gold. The comments section feature a lively back-and-forth
Another post on gold and gold speculating, this time at Darwin’s Money, with “Do You Actually Own Any Gold or Silver?”
Last but not Least
Retire by 40 is getting a chance to preview early retirement by taking three months off
My Own Advisor has a very nice post on choosing a new roof: metal vs. asphalt
The Biz of Life: “Who Says There’s No Money In Radio Anymore” Lowly ill-paid government employees…. right!
Invest It Wisely is hosting a one-year blogiversary giveaway! Congratulations, Kevin.
Crystal @ BFS is guest posting at Everyday Tips and Thoughts: “Not Enough Hours in the Day: An Example of Time Management”
First Gen American has a nice rant on need-based scholarships. Love the title: “All Poor People Aren’t on Crack”.
Opportunity of the Week
It’s worth a chuckle or two to spend some time in the email spam section of GMail. Here’s an incredible opportunity from Alice in Bourkina Faso:
Dearest,
I am writing this mail to you with tears and sorrow from my heart. My name is Alice akator, 25yrs old female and I held from Burkina Faso . My father was the former Burkina Faso road Minister. Him and the Assistant Minister of Home Affairs Lorna Laboso died as a result of Gassy Car accident along high way of Bobo doulasso the formal capital city of my country which is also my States Capital.
Interesting to speculate what is a actually involved in a “gassy” car accidents. There was a lot more to this story, involving crooked Italian businessmen and the opportunity to recover 40 million dollars in a long-lost bank account. Poor grief-stricken Alice will have to wait a while before I send her a response (and a $20,000 advance finder’s fee on that $40 million). Reminds of a couple of opportunities that were offered to Squirrelers some time back: Financial Windfall: What a Week!
That’s all for now. Thanks to all who take time to stop by and read my scribblings. I would be delighted if you would subscribe by clicking on the RSS feed.
I’m a total spreadsheet geek too; my wife just rolls her eyes. She doesn’t get it. They’re cool! Thanks for the link.
Darwin’s Money recently posted..Smokers and Obese to Pay More for Healthcare – Fair Sound Off
They are totally cool. How else could we project that adding those two gadgets to each of our vehicles might could possibly save us $242.46 in pre-tax income each year?
Mrs. 101 joins Mrs. Darwin in the eye-rolling camp…
Spreadsheets are great, except my doesn’t look as pretty. It does the job. Thanks for including me!
Buck Inspire recently posted..Sooner Rather Than Later
Function over form, when it comes to spreadsheets…
I just check the gas bill, no need for spreadsheetery.
Our gas bill went up about $10 a month since New Year. Hopefully, it has plateau now. Thanks for the mention!
retirebyforty recently posted..Spring 2011 Resolutions Update
By all the doomsday pundits, it may go even higher. In which case, little European diesels may make a comeback in North America. Markets respond to incentives.
I drive a diesel and am reeling from gas prices right now ($4.09/gal). I got it in part for the great gas mileage but my husband put me to shame by proving he could get as good of mileage from his car by driving like a little old lady. At least my car is prettier
BTW- Thanks for the links! It’s been quite a week. Our first baby chick hatched out of her egg yesterday!
Molly On Money recently posted..Runaway Spinach & Other Gardening Stories
I guess we shouldn’t knock little old ladies.
Plus they take care of their vehicles. For one fellow I know that makes a side income selling and trading in used cars, scoring a deal on a LOL cream-puff is a great thing.
Congrats on the chick!!
A spreadsheet like that could be really useful in other ways. If, for example, you were trying to determine if it would be a better financial decision to get another job that involved less commuting, but may pay less, too. Or if it would be worthwhile to move closer to work.
I’m very glad I can take public transit to and from my job and also telecommute (which involves no commuting costs)! My car has just over half a tank and it will likely take men another month until I need to add more fuel.
Can you shave off more fuel cost by driving the car with the better MPG more and the bigger vehicle less?
Linda recently posted..Odds and ends with food
Nice that you can use public transit in Chicago. Here in Tulsa it’s limited to sporadic bus service, not that the low density would be suited to mass transit.
To your point, we could of course switch vehicles, and do the frugal thing. But….. the Mrs. doesn’t particularly like driving the truck, and I like to smoke the occasional cigar in the truck. Plus, by reversing the mileage numbers in the spreadsheet, assuming I drove the Toyota all the time, yields an incremental savings of… $10.
The long term plan is to park the truck out at the farm, and get a new(ish) more fuel-efficient car, possibly a diesel, or maybe an NPG. Mrs. 101 however is agitating for something more on the “cute” side, like a VW bug in a pretty color.
Wow, just popped over to see what you were up to, and there I was. Thank you (so much for trackbacks) for the mention. The gas situation really stinks and I just wish this would be an impetus to work harder on alternative energy solutions.
Barb Friedberg recently posted..HOW I SAVED A TON OF MONEY AND YOU CAN TOO
Hi Barb, weird about the trackbacks, I don’t get them either half the time. For our next vehicle, we’re thinking hard about compressed NG like the Honda Civic. Love’s has announced they’re going to be adding it to all their stations in the near future.
I wish gas prices were $3.39 here. Adjusted it comes out to $5.30 us/gallon. And, this is small potatoes compared to European prices.
You’re just looking at gas prices here? I probably spend about $50 – $75 on gas a month but add another $100 or so for public transit, so $150 – $175 total.
About the air filters, I would have thought that more air would mean more power — since the engine is going to aim for an optimal air/fuel mix. This would in the end mean more fuel consumption. I haven’t taken apart and rebuilt cars though so I could be totally wrong — let us know how it works out!
Invest It Wisely recently posted..Stay at Home Dads and Suga Mamas- When the Woman Becomes the Primary Breadwinner
Just gas prices, no maintenance figured in, and we don’t have public transit to speak of.
The principle behind the Tornado is to create a swirling vortex, increasing fuel atomization and therefore better and more complete combustion.
The K&N filter’s trick is to increase air flow but with better filtration through its oil-soaked media.
I’ll have to post on it after making the switch.
I have an honest question… if one makes just $40,000 and has 3 kids… perhaps 1) kids are really cheap, or 2) he really makes much more than 40K?
Isn’t having a kid much more expensive than gas prices going up by 50%?
Financial Samurai recently posted..Gas Prices Are Out Of Control And People Love It!
If the ages are close enough, could be that the the third kid is cheap at the margin. $40K after tax goes a long way in a rural setting, but the price for transport energy is still a hard outside cost.