Right time to buy bulk fuel

[prosperity]

Cash will probably get you a better price since they don't have to pay the CC company a slice. Depends on the deal you can get them to agree to. Around here, I don't think it is reasonable to expect $3.00/gall for heating oil. I think the lowest it got last summer was in the $3.6x/gal range.

With all the fluctuations going on, I'll be quite content if I can get it for $3.15 like I paid last June.

I went to town yesterday and see that regular gas is still $3.86 and on-road diesel is $4.26 - doesn't seem like either is dropping very fast.......

 

[TCJatko]

I too buy in bulk, maybe 700 or so gallons at a time each winter. I just watch prices; typically it seems like August is when the prices dip to lowest. My supplier also offers a 10-cent discount for deliveries over 500 gal., plus a 2-cent discount for us geezers over 62. You might want to check those angles as well.

 

[varmint]

They just approved expanding the LNG terminal on the Chesapeake Bay, which was built for imports, to also handle exporting gas (from the fracking boom) which will mean that gas prices will be determined by world markets, since exporting gas to Europe and other places is going to be easier. Fracking was promoted as a way for us to have plentiful, cheap gas... BS. It's just another way for the 1% to enrich themselves, screw us and the natural environment. I am not hopeful to see cheap energy prices long term.

 

[prosperity]

I too buy in bulk, maybe 700 or so gallons at a time each winter. I just watch prices; typically it seems like August is when the prices dip to lowest. My supplier also offers a 10-cent discount for deliveries over 500 gal., plus a 2-cent discount for us geezers over 62. You might want to check those angles as well.

Years ago that was my rule of thumb to buy in August. But there was no method to that madness - I just picked August for some reason without doing any research. Of course back then the interwebs wasn't around much and just had to call for prices and couldn't see any trends. When I look at the historical graphs now, they seem to show June as the lowest with July and August very close.

And yes, I'm going for any discount I can get. I will pay cash, and buy ~600 gallons. I don't qualify for senior status yet, but maybe if I cry disability?

 

[prosperity]

Well pulled the trigger this morning. I needed 425 gallons for my heating tank (have 500gal left over) and wanted 75 gallons put in my skid tank for my tractor. That caused a little confusion but ended up great - the lady I talked with was very nice and helpful.

She said that they can't put heating oil in a farm tank, but they can put farm fuel in a heating tank. But, there is sales tax on the farm fuel and not on the heating fuel. Then to add to the confusion, the farm fuel costs less than the heating fuel. And through all this I verified with her that it is the same fuel. It will be delivered by the same truck but with 2 separate tickets. She figured it to just do the farm fuel for both tanks, but the sales tax made the overall price more.

So with the cast discount, and discount for over 400 gallons on the heating oil I will be paying $3.43 per gallon. She did say that if the price is lower on the day of delivery that I will get that lower price. That makes me feel better than watching the stupid speculators and watching the price jump up and down everyday.

The farm fuel is $3.31 plus tax for the 75 gallons being put in my farm tank.

Heating oil $3.43
Farm fuel w/tax $3.51

The price is up from the $3.15 I paid last year for the heating oil - but whatever - it is what it is!

 

[Dingeryote]

Don'tcha just love all the stupid regs and tax inconsistencys?

Farm fuel should be tax free, and can be. The Distributors just don't like to deal with the liabilitys other than waiving the road tax, leaving you to claim the tax later.

I'm glad I snagged our fill when I did. It's gone up and down since then, but not enough to make me resent it yet.
Oil hit 107 a barrel the other day, so fuel wont be going down any time soon.

Just got to get past Fertilizer costs, and the major outlays for the year are done.
The way things are going, fertilizer should be a heck of a lot cheaper but is going the other way.....
I gave up on even trying to pre-buy after getting burned a couple times.