Annual fuel cost per household

[dmccarty]

This thread brings up an interesting point which may be a bit of a hijack. Many people have jumped to a new car that gets better gas mileage thinking to save money. One has to weigh in several factors....

A few years ago when fuel prices were higher, a TBNer started a discussion on buying car to save money on fuel compared to his truck. I ran the numbers and there was no way he was saving money on the car. He kept the truck but bought the car.

I have a log book for the truck and tractor. Without checking the book, I would guess I spend $300-350 a month just on my truck. Even though I have a F350, I get 22 mpg during the summer and 20ish during the winter.

While I drive longer distances to work compared to living in the city, my time spent driving is about the same due to less traffic. While I now pay more in fuel costs, not as much as one would think because of the better mpg, we pay about half in property taxes. The savings in property taxes buys quite a bit of fuel. We are certainly ahead money wise because of the decrease in property taxes.

Later,
Dan

 

[JDgreen227]

A few years ago when fuel prices were higher, a TBNer started a discussion on buying car to save money on fuel compared to his truck. I ran the numbers and there was no way he was saving money on the car. He kept the truck but bought the car.

I have a log book for the truck and tractor. Without checking the book, I would guess I spend $300-350 a month just on my truck. Even though I have a F350, I get 22 mpg during the summer and 20ish during the winter.

While I drive longer distances to work compared to living in the city, my time spent driving is about the same due to less traffic. While I now pay more in fuel costs, not as much as one would think because of the better mpg, we pay about half in property taxes. The savings in property taxes buys quite a bit of fuel. We are certainly ahead money wise because of the decrease in property taxes.

Later,
Dan

Thanks for sharing your input, looks like you took a careful look at the BIG picture. When I lived in the city, I drove 6 miles one way to work, and it took the same 20 minutes it took after moving to a rural area, mostly because the 14 miles one way to work were half freeway with few traffic lites. One day we made it in 13 minutes because we caught all the lites just right !! Driving to work in town gave poorer fuel mileage and didn't fully warm up the engine of my commuting vehicle...severe service, requiring more frequent oil changes. The tax benefits and most of all, the PRIVACY of rural living are hard to put a true price on.

 

[andrehoude]

Our local paper has a story today that claims the average household will spend $4155 on gasoline this year. Although my primary vehicle is a 3/4 ton gas sucker, being retired means I drive very little compared to those who commute to work5 days a week. I keep careful records of my fuel purchases, and right now both my car and truck are full, and I have 15 gallons of gas stored for my snowblowers. My Deere is full, and I have 12 gallons of diesel stored.

Total gasoline costs for this year...$753. Probably $43 of it was for lawn mowing, my rototiller, weedeaters, snowblowers, ATV, etc.

Total diesel costs for this year....$284. I have kept careful records so far this year my Deere has logged 122 operating hours. At the local price that has averaged about $3.75 per gallon this year, I purchased just under 76 gallons. Fuel consumption works out to .623 gph...:thumbsup: And yes, I figured in the 12 gallons I have stored.

Do any of you guys keep records of how much your fuel expenses are?

We have a Chevy truck tractor Atv suv snowmobile golf cart and 2 vans for the. Business. We send close to 9000$

 

[andrehoude]

We have a Chevy truck tractor Atv suv snowmobile golf cart and 2 vans for the. Business. We send close to 9000$

I just calculated it on avrage it's close to 15 000$ I forgot to put in the disel for the van and truck since that's on the business

 

[pilot-werx]

I burn that in less than a week in my turbine beaver....

 

[clemsonfor]

Our local paper has a story today that claims the average household will spend $4155 on gasoline this year. Although my primary vehicle is a 3/4 ton gas sucker, being retired means I drive very little compared to those who commute to work5 days a week. I keep careful records of my fuel purchases, and right now both my car and truck are full, and I have 15 gallons of gas stored for my snowblowers. My Deere is full, and I have 12 gallons of diesel stored.

Total gasoline costs for this year...$753. Probably $43 of it was for lawn mowing, my rototiller, weedeaters, snowblowers, ATV, etc.

Total diesel costs for this year....$284. I have kept careful records so far this year my Deere has logged 122 operating hours. At the local price that has averaged about $3.75 per gallon this year, I purchased just under 76 gallons. Fuel consumption works out to .623 gph...:thumbsup: And yes, I figured in the 12 gallons I have stored.

Do any of you guys keep records of how much your fuel expenses are?

MAN you really dont move around do you! You also dont cut much grass! Driving the saturn to work which i do to save money i use around $100/month in gas. If i drove my ranger that would be 50% higher. My wife uses around $150/month in fuel and i have used way more than that in gas to mow grass. I am not as bad as others but i have used a few hundred $ this last year in boat fuel and maybe $50+ in deisel fuel!

 

[JDgreen227]

MAN you really dont move around do you! You also dont cut much grass! Driving the saturn to work which i do to save money i use around $100/month in gas. If i drove my ranger that would be 50% higher. My wife uses around $150/month in fuel and i have used way more than that in gas to mow grass. I am not as bad as others but i have used a few hundred $ this last year in boat fuel and maybe $50+ in deisel fuel!

I DO cut a lot of grass, have a 5 acre yard to mow plus several miles of ATV trails on our back 6 acres.

 

[clemsonfor]

When we bought our NICE car the 01 highlander (over 2 years ago, yes we bought an older usd car, i buy what i can pay cash for and thats all i could get). Anyway we kept the 97 saturn she had, which was worth maybe $1500ish. It had a salvage title on it already. I had a deer run out of the woods and slam into the front driver quarter, dented hood , busted mirror off, and door trim , split the door skin. That amount of damage totaled the car about 3 yrs ago. I paid a local guy $800 to fix it and today i still drive it.

This topic is the reason we did not sell anything. At that point my daily driver was the 1990 ranger. I only drive 50 miles/day for a cummute but the 22-24MPG of the ranger compared to the 33MPG of the saturn has paid for not selling one or the other. I figured it up i save a bit over a thousand dollars a year by driving the saturn over the ranger. If we have to go to town 19miles we will drive the saturn to put miles on it. If i have to run to the bigger towns one 45 mins away and the other a bit over 1 hour we will drive it to save money. It has its little engine mgt sensor quirks (little wires GM used wear out and make bad connections) but runs fine and we will take it on 3 hour trips no problem.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I burn that in less than a week in my turbine beaver....

I was thinking the same thing. My airplane burns 252 gallons per hour and I have put just over 400 hours on it this year. That is about 101,000 gallons for the year at just over $5.65 average per gallon. My fuel bills total right around $600,000 for the year. Glad its all on my company credit card.

Chris

 

[JDgreen227]

I was thinking the same thing. My airplane burns 252 gallons per hour and I have put just over 400 hours on it this year. That is about 101,000 gallons for the year at just over $5.65 average per gallon. My fuel bills total right around $600,000 for the year. Glad its all on my company credit card.

Chris

Chris, I recall quite a few posts back you were telling us about your annual fuel bill with your truck , the Beemer, your boat, etc. Seems a little strange you made no mention of this additional 101,000 gallons in that post....:laughing: