Curious about gas prices around the country

I suspect everyone who is like me with just a SS check for income is suffering. It doesn't help me that the nearest large grocery store is only a Walmart and it's still a 40 mile drive each way.

I call my truck a gas guzzler but it's really a very small Nissan PU with a 142 hp 4 cylinder engine. I cannot imagine if I had a big engine...

Gas now consumes nearly a quarter of my income, and Yes, I do drive more than I absolutely must. Like driving to the GARU and the TNRU, but I consider that expense as necessary for my mental health.

Terre - I think the three months figure is that it takes three months of peak prices before people who are buying new cars adjust their behaviors (maybe opting for a smaller or more efficient car over a gas guzzler) - not that people change the cars that they have. Like considering a Toyota Prius over a Corolla, etc.

Butter is now $4.00 a lb. here, CHEAP coffee is skyhigh, Milk is $4.00 a gallon, Beef has doubled in price, so has chicken. Pork is the only thing that seems to stay low, and I don't really care for pork! Everything at the store is expensive now - our grocery bill has nearly doubled in one year.

What is unfortunate, is there are many unemployed people, and those employed aren't getting raises because of wage freezes, so they can't afford this increase in cost of living.

Looks like we're switching to margarine for awhile. I love real butter, but at that price, from one of the most subsidized industries, they can keep their butter! :)

Milk prices to soar just as ice cream cravings hit.

May 5, 2004, as reported by just-food.com: Ice cream lovers should brace themselves this summer as higher temperatures are bringing with them higher milk prices. The cost for a gallon of milk will increase dramatically this month, 50%-higher compared to a year ago, and all other dairy products can be expected to follow.

The milk shortage is being attributed in part to BSE closing the Canadian border to live cattle, according to The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The import restrictions have limited this year’s dairy cows. In addition many farmers sold their cows for slaughter during record low milk prices in 2002 and 2003. Also, feed has been expensive, scarce and of poor quality because of drought.

The CDFA predicts prices will fall later, saying the price rise will boost farming profits to a level where lenders are more comfortable investing in expansion plans, increasing US dairy supplies.

If you guys live in a state which has Aldi Food stores or similar bag-your-own grocery stores, check this out!
http://davesgarden.com/t/421376/

One note on comparing our prices to European prices--the economies and infrastructures of European countries and the US are so radically different that saying our rising gas prices are just barely approaching normal over there (and therefore shouldn't be so bad here) is not valid logic. (i.e. Three pounds of feathers harvested from three hundred million hummingbirds is no harder on the birds than three pounds of feathers harvested from same number of geese would be.)

Hmmmm . . . on another note: from what I gather, gas isn't sold wholesale & retail like other goods are. It's more like a consignment deal, and the value of the gas in the holding tanks goes up and down just like the stock market. The price of gas continues to change until it has actually made it into your gas tank, just as the only price that you'll pay for any given stock is the one in effect when you actually make the transaction--not the price five minutes ago, or five minutes after you buy or sell. I had always wondered about that. That would explain why gas station owners can't really use competition effectively to undercut their neighboring stations. It sounds like corporate pretty much sets the price, and the locals have to pony up.

Imagine yourself as one of the price-setters at the corporate level, with a HUGE computer that crunches all the numbers for cost of living, median income, dependence on vehicles (rural vs. urban), etc. You are (of course) working the system for all it's worth, making as much as possible. Only trouble is, there is little or no way for the end users to actually make an impact on the price because the prices are fixed. (Unlike in, say, the computer hardware industry, where about $1,500 will get you a nice, poweful computer setup whether you spent it in 1994 or 2004.) The stock market doesn't work directly on the principles of supply and demand--and neither does gas, it seems. Somebody please refine this analogy, if you know better than I do. (About gas, that is. DH is a software engineer, and I'm a certified computer geek-ess, myself. :o)

BTW: Gas here is 2.16.9 for lowest grade unleaded. Butter is 2.49/lb. at Costco when you buy their brand in four pound bulk packages. Needless to say, I buy my butter at Costco! (Wal-Mart had their brand butter today at 2.87/lb, but I don't like the "natural flavors" they add to their stuff. Yuk.) Haven't been back there to Costco for a month, though, so I don't know what their gas prices are right now.

Andalee - good points. It's becoming painful everywhere. I was shocked when I was back home in NY a couple of weeks ago - seeing the prices. I've only lived in Ireland a month and a half and am still reeling from price shock.

I'm actually debating about riding my bike to the office and renting a car on weekends for jaunts to the countryside. It'll be quite the sight riding along in a black suit, computer bag over shoulder and dodging buses, but I'm thinking of giving it a try - and one nice thing here, rush hour doesn't start until after 7:30 am so there are safer commute times.

I think one of the things that amazed me here was the cost of used cars - before arriving here leasing a new Mini Cooper sounded fun until price sticker shock, then finding out that used Peugeots cost almost as much as new cars back home - then factoring in insurance, road taxes, etc. - and now weekend rentals (at 20 a day inclusive) are starting to look pretty attractive! ;-)

Prices are all about what you need, % of disposable income and whether you have substitutes. And I think that is one of the bigger challenges back home in the states - there are fewer substitutes for transportation and very few short-term alternatives.

I truly hope these prices stabilize in the states - there's such a ripple effect into all sectors.

One of our local gas stations dropped its price to $1.85 this weekend...

saves on gas and get the yard fertilized at the same time

Found gas today down from $194.9 gal (reg) to $1.83.9 gal (reg)...yeeppeeee!!!! Could this be a good sign?

Yippee here, too. Maybe it's just Holiday Politics but gas in Ga, just 10 miles south of here was down to $1.95!

1.82 at walmart with 3 cents off gas card. This was on Friday.

Wow, Vic... I need to stop by wherever your Walmart is, next time I go to Boone!

I paid $2.07 (reg) today at Cumberland farms. I had 1/2 tank, figured best to get today before the price increase tomorrow. Seems to happen 2 to 3 times a week.

It was $1.89 at one station in Brandenburg last night. I meant to get gas there today and forget so took another way home to get gas and there it was $1.91 today....

Yesterday I drove to Frankfort, KY and on I-64 at Waddy exit, the Pilot station had regular unleaded for $1.83 a gallon.

Noticed it as I was passing by :(

Paid $1.83.9 today at Sam's ;o)

2.18 this weekend!

Yeepeee...Gas today $1.79.9 gal (reg).....Milk down to $2.99 gal......

Now thats what I wanna see...PRICE DROP!!!!


Carol

Gas is $1.83.9 today in Brandenburg.

Gas was $1.81 in Silsbee over the weekend.

I saw a station in Muldraugh, KY where the gas was $1.79.9 over the weekend.

And I've noticed that several of the Marathon stations in our area have gone even lower, I'm sure to regain customers. They lost a lot of business when they had too much sulfur in their gas recently and people's gas gauges were failing. It cost over $400 to replace them. It seems the gas was destroying them.

Andalee, what Costco do you go to? CdA? That is quite the drive isn't it? But I guess if you are going to really stock up it would be worth it.

Gas was $2.16 per gallon here today.

This message was edited Jun 8, 2004 3:06 PM

Just returned from KC Mo. area, paid $1.70 at the Flying J in Peculiar, just S of KC. It was $1.99 just a few miles down the road!

Flying J ROCKS. Usually we don't see 29-cent savings, even there. Wow!

$1.80 here today. :) Of course vitamin D milk is running $3.09 a gallon! Geeze.

We're still at $1.88 cheapest I've seen. They tell me it is because they have to reduce the octane for altitude. Yeah right.

I saw $1.75.9 yesterday in Muldraugh, KY.

1.97 today-but just wait till morning

$2.00 today at the Jewel, $2.03 at the Citco and $2.13 at the Phillips 66.

Such vast differences!

Isn't that amazing? But then the cost of living is different in so many places, as well as wages.

The Mobil station across from the Phillips is $2.19 and the BP (formerly Amoco) was $2.24. All within a few miles of each other! Plus there is a Speedway at @2.08! I'm anxious to see what today's prices are!

Instead of going south I went east of Woodville to Jasper (Super Walmart). Gas was $1.839 with the discount at the Walmart. Guess it is going back up! Jenny

I think we should ride our bicycles to go out and find out what today's prices are! :)

Went to Racine Wisconsin Friday and filled up at a BP station for $1.94. Today we drive into Chicago, north side, there was a Citco for 2.29! I can't believe the difference!

Found Gas today down again from $1.79.9 gal (reg) down to $1.77.9 gal (reg) Yeeppeeee....


Carol

It seems to be within 2 to 3 cents here - they must be staying on top of it here???????? Love to find under $2.00 and get a couple HUGE Barrells full for our boat for the summer! I'll let you know probably after this weekend how much they are charging at the lake - most likely over $3.50 (they love to soak us boaters).

Gas here has dropped over 20 cents a gallon in the last week. I don't check the news... any reason for the drop? I doubt it will stay.

Our local Hess in town is $2.14.9 and most others are about the same. The little out in the country one stop on our state highway is $2.25.9. Needless to say we drive to town, Penn Yan, when we want gas. Even the BJ'S 25 miles away is 2.09.9. New York must be one of the highest priced states and our county the highest in the area and we are a little farming county.

Karrie20X, we leave the bike riding (and horse & buggy) to our large Mennonite community!! ;) We live at least 8 miles from any town with more than a mom & pop grocery in it.

Joy

It is $1.73.9 in town now :) Every day, another penny less. Wonder how low it will go?