fuel costs

Rural living in a world with expensive fuel

Posted 7 weeks 2 days ago by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living, Lifestyle, Cars and Transportation

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 10 weeks 4 days ago by Philip Brewer

Budgeting, Cars and Transportation

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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Fix energy in tangible form

Posted 48 weeks 1 day ago by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living

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 50 weeks 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 51 weeks 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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