fuel

What will you do when gas drops below $1.50 a gallon?

Posted November 11, 2008 - 10:15 by Paul Michael

Personal Finance, Frugal Living, Consumer Affairs, Cars and Transportation

Gas is so cheap

Several months ago, I wrote an article asking what you would do when gas prices skyrocketed. Now, the price of gasoline is in freefall. It’s already dipped below $2/gallon in some parts of my state, and I’ve heard it has already gone as low $1.67 in some parts of the country. The question is, will this change anything for you?

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Rural living in a world with expensive fuel

Posted June 1, 2008 - 02:59 by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living, Lifestyle, Cars and Transportation

Rural living

Rising fuel costs are hard on everybody, but one group gets hit especially hard: Rural folks--especially rural folks who work in town. On my previous posts on expensive fuel, commenters have said that, even after doing all the stuff I talked about, they still can't make ends meet. They've got a point.

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What if energy costs keep rising?

Posted May 9, 2008 - 05:15 by Philip Brewer

Budgeting, Cars and Transportation

Last year's gas prices

I don't know if energy costs will keep rising.  Nobody does.  Even with recent growth in China, India, and elsewhere, the US still consumes 25% of the oil produced world-wide, so a severe recession in the US could easily cut total demand enough to bring the price down.  Recession or not, I think the medium-term trend in energy costs is up.  Just in case I'm right, you ought to have plan for that.

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What will you do when gas hits $4 per gallon?

Posted April 6, 2008 - 18:53 by Paul Michael

Cars and Transportation

death by gas

The image you're looking at is a classic VW ad from 1979, a response to the gas crisis at that time. I just filled up my tank, and 16 gallons of Plus Unleaded cost me over $52 here in Colorado. If you're in California, you're paying more. Use diesel? I already feel for you. So the big question is, what are you going to do when regular gas hits $4/gallon this summer?

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As the Wood Burns: The Top 3 BioMass Heating Sources Revealed

Posted December 15, 2007 - 16:18 by Linsey Knerl

Frugal Living, Green Living

fire

CNN predicted a 22% increase in the cost of heating oil this year. Boston was named by Forbes.com as this year’s “Most Expensive Place to Heat a Home.” Everywhere you look, there’s just more bad news on how expensive it will be to heat your home, and frustrated homeowners are turning to alternative heating fuels to help ease the burden of their heating bills.

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Why is bread so expensive?

Posted November 7, 2007 - 12:40 by Philip Brewer

Food and Drink

Graph of rising price of wheat

Having given us some good tips on dealing with the rising cost of bread, Myscha asked me to provide a bit of analysis on why bread has become so expensive. Oddly, the reasons behind the rise in the price of bread are almost the opposite of the reasons behind the rise in the price of nonfat dry milk that we talked about a couple of days ago.

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Fix energy in tangible form

Posted August 20, 2007 - 16:25 by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living

Windmill pump

They key problem with energy is that it's really hard to store--it's tough to buy energy now and use it later, and most energy storage techniques lose a large fraction of the energy they start with. The only really efficient way to store energy is to go ahead and use it to create something of lasting value: invest in things that embody stored energy.

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Rolling Stone article on ethanol

Posted 2 years ago by Philip Brewer

Filed Under: Extra Commentary

Corn truck

In my recent post Plan for expensive fuel, I mentioned sustainable fuels in a somewhat dismissive fashion. I'll have more to say about that eventually, but in the meantime, I wanted to link to Rolling Stone magazine's excellent article on the limitations of ethanol as a replacement for fossile fuels:

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Plan for expensive fuel

Posted 2 years ago by Philip Brewer

Filed Under: Budgeting, Cars and Transportation

Gas station sign

Does your budget include a contingency for fuel to get much more expensive? Because it ought to.

I learned about the need for contingencies early. My first attempt at setting up housekeeping took place in 1980-1981, right at the peak of an inflationary spurt that saw the consumer price index grow at 14%. My budget was completely destroyed by prices that went up by more than 1% per month.

So what's your contingency for a spike in fuel prices?

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