do you have anything else to cut back on....

[michelyn8]

to cover the increase in your fuel/utility expenses?

I watch the news while I drink my coffee each morning and they just did a piece on how prices have increased $0.19 in the last 3 weeks and are up nearly a $1 from this time last year. We are expect to hit $5/gallon by summer. The impact on the economy was mentioned as many will again cut back on extras like eating out. It was also mentioned that while some (like many on this board) have EF's to fall back on, others who don't may end up skipping the occasional electric bill.

For me, its extra travel, groceries and having a stylist color my hair (which I'm really going to miss). Fortunately, I want to grow it out between now and the end of June and DD2 doesn't mind letting hers grow so it won't hurt to much. However, I still don't know just how much these increases will increase my electric bill so I may end up in a bind because of that.

For those of you without EF's and who are still working on getting it together, do you have any place left in your budget you can cut back further?

[ssdawood]

I might get flamed for this , buy this is how I see it.

I drive a lot, 70 miles back and forth. I also drive every single day of the month. So in a month I drive 2100 mile. My car gives me 20 miles to a gallon so I need 105 gallons a month. Now if I assume gas price average at 2.70 a gallon and gas now being 4 dollars, I am looking at 1.30 more to purchase a gallon. For the month the amount is $136.50.

Now my wife drives the same so it costs her $136.50 a month more. So for a household you are looking at 273 a month.

Now Phil would argue that 273 a month times so many months equals so much in 30 years, but I am not going to lose sleep( I dont know if I used the correct lose here) over this.

Now yes this is less 273 in your pocket but why worry something you cannot control.

My answer might be biased because I do own a gas station. I had delivery two days ago for $3.82 cents a gallon delivered and I am selling it at $3.94 a gallon.

[constanz22]

My car gets pretty good gas mileage. I haven't noticed a huge difference yet. Gas is 3.75/gallon here. What I'm really concerned about is fuel oil. Even though the main heating season is about over here in the Northeast, my hot water heater runs off the boiler so I need fuel oil year round. I have about 1/3 of a tank and could probably go a couple more months before ordering more, but, thinking that it could be $5 a gallon then with a 100 gallon minimum delivery makes me want to vomit. Heck, thinking about paying what it is now, probably close to $400 for 100 gallons, not even a third of a tank, makes me want to vomit! I really don't have the extra money for that in my budget, but could pull it from the EF, I guess. It's always a gamble...I feel like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't.

I have already stopped making "extra trips" with my car. In fact, my car didn't leave the driveway from the time I got home from work on Friday until I left to go back to work Monday morning.

My budget is pretty tight since I'm still paying off debt, but, I could, and have, cut cable if needed. My grocery budget is only $100 a month so not a lot to cut there. I do have a huge stockpile from couponing so, in reality, I could probably get by for 6 months or more with only buying perishables.

[whoisjohngalt]

I said this in a different thread - I look at annual numbers vs price per gallon. I am also ultra-conservative in my budget. So far the ONLY item I've ever over spend on is food. It has always been food. I have no control over it. I like what I like

So, if the situation was that bad, I would do my hardest to buy only necessary food items and save money that way.

But I would probably look to increase our income first, bc a few hundred bucks/mo would not make us or break us

Lena

[Deleted]

I don't like paying more for gas (and I'm Canadian, you guys are whining over NOTHING ) but ya do what ya gotta do. I watch my overall budget and see in general where I am overspending but it's not so specific that I can say higher gas prices meant I have to cut this.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I take public transportation to work. I use my auto for pleasure driving and what not, going hither and yon. During the winter months I do not put much mileage on.
It is during the warmer months(April-Oct) that I drive back and forth to the shore, roughly 200 miles each weekend. I have a gas reserve that I pad during the winter. Back in 2008 when gas was at this price level, I was not really affected.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Snerd,
The avatar is "Savoir Fair", the 1960s cartoon character...and of course I have lots os 'savoir fair' myself...

[midjd]

SF, "hither and yon" cracked me up for some reason

DH and I drive about 3,500 miles a month in vehicles that get 35-40mpg. $4 per gallon (which it currently is here) isn't straining our auto budget, but $5 would start to. Not much we can do as far as reducing consumption other than skipping work/school - we already carpool as much as possible, combine trips, make sure the tires are properly inflated, etc. Luckily DH will be finished with school in 15 months and our monthly driving should decrease by about half. (Gas'll probably be back down to $3/gal by then )

The bigger issue for us is the one Constanz mentioned - fuel oil. Our house retains cold air much better than heat, which is great for the summer electric bill, but not so great in the winter... we kept the house a frigid 62 degrees and still ended up spending $500 from Jan - March. The thought of doubling that next winter makes me want to build a fire pit in the living room.

[michelyn8]

Apr 12, 2011 8:13:19 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

I take public transportation to work. I use my auto for pleasure driving and what not, going hither and yon. During the winter months I do not put much mileage on.
It is during the warmer months(April-Oct) that I drive back and forth to the shore, roughly 200 miles each weekend. I have a gas reserve that I pad during the winter. Back in 2008 when gas was at this price level, I was not really affected.

If public transporation were an option, I would probably strongly consider it. However, its not as I'd still have to drive 15 miles to the first stop and the last stop for them on my route is about 3-5 miles from work.

My daughter suggested I move closer to work but as I pointed out to her, doing so would put me in a bigger bind. Sure, I'd cut back on fuel but I'd have increased rent and additional utilities I currently don't have to worry with. Its less expensive to stay where I am and suffer the rising gas prices.

[Urban Chicago]

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

[michelyn8]

Apr 12, 2011 8:55:06 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

I don't see why you should be flamed - its a very reasonable question.

As I posted on another thread about considerations when looking for/accepting a job, I look very closely at my commuting expenses when looking jobs and a new place to rent. And no matter how I work it, the result is alway the same - its cheaper to commute than move closer "to town".

I worked in my county for 13 years with commutes running from >1/2 mile to 10 miles and did fine. Then my employer sold out and I was let go. Now, because of how few businesses there are here, if I want to make more than $10/hour, I have to drive 25-30 miles or more. But along with the higher salaries also comes a higher COL. What I pay for a 2-bedroom singlewide on an acre of land wouldn't even get me a decent one bedroom apartment in the less desirable part of town. Even moving 10 miles closer within my current county would cost me more because houses/apartments on that side of the County are anywhere from $200 - $500 more than what I pay now. Even if gas got to $5/gallon, my commuting costs would only increase about $30-$50/month.

[qofcc]

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

Yep. The fancy suburb where I work has comparable houses that cost double what mine is worth 25 miles away, plus their property taxes are 5% of the value because they are in town vs. 3% at my house because I'm outside of the village. Gas just for my commute is around $200/mo. It would have to go up to over $20/gal before moving would compensate for my extra gas cost. But my DH works <10 miles in the opposite direction, and his truck gets much worse gas mileage, so moving closer would increase our total cost, not decrease it.

We have friends who live about 35 miles farther south and we've talked about moving out there because we spend time there most weekends and we could buy a comparable house to what we have for at least 25% less and we like the neighborhood, but I just can't justify all of the extra money we'd spend on gas (not to mention an hour+ commute starting on a seasonal hill road in snow country). Of our friends that live there, a few drive company cars and the company pays for gas, a few car pool to the city or have local jobs and a few are retired.

[Gardening Grandma]

Well, when I tweaked our April budget, I added $100 to our estimated gas expense. I'm still gonna go over it - these days I'm driving 60 miles RT to pick up grandson from school and take him to the library to make sure he does his homework. That won't change until school is out. And I'm not going to ask DH to cut back his driving - he goes the opposite direction to a good friend's several times a week.

For now, I'll cut back on the money I was setting aside to pay off our tent trailer early. I think I can still get it paid off by Aug/Sept which is 6 months ahead of schedule, so although I'm annoyed, I won't lose sleep over it. I think gas is only going to go up. :-(

[HoneyBBQ]

Apr 12, 2011 8:55:06 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

You can't win. They get you one way or another. If you live in a big city, you usually have no choice but to move far away and have a long commute due to housing prices in the city. Not to mention (in general) good schools are in the suburbs. It's just the way it is. You either buy a half ++ million dollar house near work, or you commute half an hour to an hour. I would think by your user name you might know this...? (although Chicago has excellent mass transit, unlike Houston and many other large cities).

In Houston, I initially lived downtown in a townhouse. My commute was less than 3 miles. We eventually moved to the burbs though, and the commute was closer to 30-60 minutes. My 2 bedroom, 1200 sq ft townhouse sold for 250k. My sprawling house with 4 bedrooms, a pool, and backed up to a golf course sold for $140k. Such is the life in Houston.

In St Louis we bought a half a million dollar house in the city. We share a ride to work, and it's 3.5 miles each way. Now, I totally don't give a crap what gas prices are.

*shrug* Such is life.

[azphx1972]

Apr 12, 2011 8:55:06 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

People change jobs all the time so you can't always predict what your commute is going to be like. I'm four miles away from work right now, but they're talking about moving the office 10 miles away next year, and there's no way I could have anticipated that when I bought my house.

[midjd]

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

Yep... like others, our house would have cost easily twice as much if I lived 15 miles from work, rather than 45. With the horrible rush-hour traffic around the city, my commute is no longer than those who live just on the outskirts. Worst-worst-case scenario, gas is $10/gallon and I book a room in the extended-stay hotel across from work M-R (we actually have a couple of contractors who do this)

[jeffreymo]

My wife and I work fairly close together, so we will be carpooling more often - 4 or 5 days/week vs. 2 or 3 days/week. Since one of us will usually be without a car, it's more convenient for us to pack our lunches which provides some savings also.

If it got to $5/gallon we could eliminate eating out - it would be difficult, but we've done it before when we were engaged while trying to pay off credit cards. After that we could cut out cable, and maybe reduce our cell phone services, but both of those would come with an up front cancellation charge.

[family legacy]

Gas is $4/gallon here. On a normal work day I put about 55 miles on my car including only my commute and daycare. I already drive a fairly fuel-efficient car. I have cut back by eliminating mid-week grocery shopping trips to get just a few items, thus limiting my errands to once a week per store. I still shop at several stores, though, as I can find really good deals through couponing. I also now drive 5 under the speed limit on the highway and the posted speed in town (used to always be 5-10 over).

I'm not sure what my breaking point would be as it's not a real problem just yet, but carpooling would be an option (no public transportation available) before I'd cut things like cable. We don't really have a lot of extraneous expenses in our budget right now, and watching sports and brainless shows on tv is one of the few pleasures we are still enjoying. We do visit our families (1 hour away) monthly, sometimes bi-weekly depending on parties or whatever. Cutting that down to less than monthly would require gas prices to be much higher (I'm guessing $7-8/gallon).

[Tiny]

I use less than 50 gallons of gas a month. So every time gas goes up .10 I have to come up an extra $5.00 or so for that MONTH I think since gas hit the $3.50 point (last summer) I've cut back mostly on food... one $2.00 cup of joe a week here, not buying a $1.50 "dessert treat" from the Office Cafe a week there... maybe NOT buying a box of dry cereal ($3.50) and instead eating the oatmeal I already have at home...

Gas prices haven't changed my lifestyle much... I already try to drive as little and as efficiently as possible - always have.

[Deleted]

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

If I remember right. I think gas was about $1.30/gallon when I bought my house outside of town 12 years ago.

Gas isn't killing us yet, but we're always eyeing the budget for what can go. We're talking about getting rid of direct TV when our contract is up in August and gas prices could definitely influence that decision. The truck is for sale as it's too expensive to use as a daily driver and worth too much to just take up space in the garage to be used only occasionally, we can cut back on saving, and if it was up to me we'd get rid of some of the animals, but that's not worth the fight with DH or the kids. Other than that, we could cut back on driving and there's a possibilty of car pooling, but it would be inconvenient.

[trytofindbalance]

Great thread.

"I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house? "
I have a long commute (@30 miles each way, takes between 45 minutes and hour to get back and forth). We used to live about 5 miles from my office. We didn't love the house and the property taxes were outrageous and climbing.

We made the decision to move about 30 miles from my office. We really wanted to have a significant amount of property and we couldn't afford it any closer. We fell in love with the house, the property and the area. We also have many friends that live out by us. We made the decision to sacrifice the time and a little bit of money, to enjoy where we lived. Our home is very important to us. We enjoy spending time around the house, working on the property, sitting on the back deck watching all the wildlife, walking in the woods, etc.

Gas prices really do make a difference, as I fill up about every 4 days to the tune of $50 - $55 each time, but I think it was worth it. We would have paid at least double for the house and our property taxes would have probably been 2-3 times more had we purchased something closer to my job. DH has to travel for every job he does, so it really doesn't make a difference where we live.

I'm not sure that the rise in prices has changed my behavior that much, but I try to be a bit more conservative with extraneous driving and run my errands right on my way home from work. If anything it cuts into the "extra monthly spending" portion of our budget, so it means more at home movie rentals and pizza's instead of expensive dinners/entertainment out. So far we've been able to absorb most of the costs, but I know that at some point we will feel the sting as grocery prices and heating oil prices jump. We'll just have to adjust as we go and hopefully it won't affect our savings rate too much.

[illinicheme]

Apr 12, 2011 8:55:06 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

In our case, we were thrilled just to manage to solve the two-body problem within 60 miles of each other. We ended up buying a house roughly in the middle. (DH counter-commutes 20 miles north, and I vanpool-it 40 miles south in the main commute direction.) At this point, I don't see how we could realistically improve upon our commute situation, and still have both of us in jobs that we enjoy. (We're both over-educated PhDs. One in academia. One in industry.)

As for the rising price of fuel, I'm just glad we don't live in New Jersey and have to purchase fuel oil anymore. Right now our spending on gas is increasing, but we're still got plenty of wiggle room.

[pig]

I'm considering getting a motorcycle to commute to/from work from spring to fall. At my current gas usage of 300 a month on gas for just me it would pay for itself in about a year. And I HATE motorcycles.

[8 Bit WWBG]

I "could" cut anything that I have direct control over. Food and entertainment would provide the biggest benefits from cutting. Anything else, I'll deal with when I have to. My electric bill is low already so I'm not sure whether my effort is well spent there. Even if I never run air/heat, I still have a fridge and a water heater that need to be on.

[Sum Dum Gai]

There's still plenty that could be trimmed in our budget to make room for increased gas costs. Besides, the hike in gas prices is nothing compared to needing to cough up money for braces.

[Angel!]

I guess I am lucky, I only use 30 gallons/month - mostly because I drive a hybrid. So every 1.00 increase in gas only costs me $30/month. Considering my utility bill just went down by $59/month, I can afford a $2.00 increase without really changing a thing.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Apr 12, 2011 8:55:06 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

My wonderful DH doesn't have a really huge commute (25 miles roundtrip ~ all the way across town) .... but we really didn't even consider buying a home near his work (at the airport) because those neighborhoods aren't safe and (in my opinion) weren't really desirable places to live.

[Sum Dum Gai]

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

I put 1700 miles a month on my car, but that's only 51 gallons of gas. If gas goes up $1 a gallon, it only costs me another $50 which you won't see me complaining about.

In our case we didn't buy a house near work because I don't work in the close major metro area. I found a decent job in a nearby city, which is great and all since it gives me a reverse commute, but I'm not buying a house out here because if this job ever goes away I'd be looking in the major metro area and have a disgustingly long commute. I'd rather live closer to where the jobs are long term and buy gas than have to potentially sell a $300-400k house and move into the city when I leave this job. The transaction costs of buying and selling an expensive house are WAY more than I'll ever spend on gas with my commute right now. We also have kids, so I don't want to be potentially uprooting them every time I change jobs. We aren't down with the starter house and trade up every 3-5 years thing. We bought a house near good schools, and we aren't moving until the youngest finishes high school, at the earliest. If I have to drive a bit in the mean time, so be it.

Like I said though, you won't see me complaining about gas prices. We made our choices, and we knew that they included a commute which costs some money. We're fine with that.

[Deleted]

Apr 12, 2011 8:55:06 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

I'll probably get flamed for this, but didn't anyone consider how a big commute might affect them when they bought the far-flung house?

I considered it when I got the place close to work, does that count?

[CarolinaKat]

Apr 12, 2011 10:19:33 GMT -5 @illinicheme said:

In our case, we were thrilled just to manage to solve the two-body problem within 60 miles