Fuel Prices

[rubato]

"...

Now about the price of things here, this will make people roll their eyes at me, no doubt, but I never pay the slightest attention to what stuff costs at the grocery store. If I see something that looks good or I need it- I buy it. I pay with a debit card and just don't pay close attention to what the total is.

I expect if I did pay attention I could scream at myself.

I'm with you. The reward for being fiscally responsible is not to have to think about money.

I'm amazed by people whose lives and minds are sacrificed by hours each day to discussions of how much things cost when they have no reason to fret about it.

But east coast produce being better? You're getting fresh arugula, brussels sprouts, artichokes, butter lettuce, are you? I don't think so.

yrs,
rubato

[Sue U]

I got asparagus last week for $.99/pound, and it's just the beginning of the season! At this time of year, we have asparagus nearly every day...

Over the winter the asparagus in the grocery store was from Peru; this week it's from Mexico. I haven't seen any Jersey asparagus yet, it's still a few weeks off I think. With the increased South American trade it's now an affordable year-round delight.

I'm wondering about the $1.99 strawberries. Last ones I saw were $3.99, but might better be called fresas.

The package says "Produce of USA" (the brand is Berry Boss out of Dover, FL). I had a bowl for breakfast and they were delicious; I'll have some more for a snack shortly (I bought 2 lbs).

A quick shufty at Coles website tells me that in most cases we're paying more than twice as much as that for groceries...

My average weekly grocery bill for a family of five runs between $125 and $175, depending on extravagances (e.g., rack of lamb will set us back an additional $40).

The reward for being fiscally responsible is not to have to think about money.

Horseshit. Being fiscally responsible means always thinking about money. We make decent money and live within our means, but we still have kids to send to college, aging parents to plan contingencies for and a retirement of our own to fund. In this economy, it ony takes a little bit of bad luck or an unguarded moment to lose everything.

[dales]

[rubato]

...

The reward for being fiscally responsible is not to have to think about money.

Horseshit. Being fiscally responsible means always thinking about money. We make decent money and live within our means, but we still have kids to send to college, aging parents to plan contingencies for and a retirement of our own to fund. In this economy, it ony takes a little bit of bad luck or an unguarded moment to lose everything.

The thing about voluntary slavery, is that it is voluntary.

Life is short.

The hours in your life are fixed. The dollars in your wallet can expand and contract.

yrs,
rubato

[SisterMaryFellatio]

Your petrol and asparagus are cheaper in Canberra! Havn't had asparagus under $2.50 a bunch this year!

[Gob]

It's all part of our evil scheme to cow the rest of Aus into submission you know...

[Lord Jim]

In the past 3 weeks, the cost of the cheapest gas at our 76 station, (which consistently has been amongst the lowest priced in The City)

has gone from $3.34 per gallon to $3.93 per gallon....

Middle of last week, I drove downtown to run some errands...thinking I would fill up on the way home....at that time the price was $3.57 per gallon...

In the two and a half hours I was gone, the price per gallon went up 16 cents per gallon to $3.73...

It gave me an appreciation for the frustration one must have experienced in Wiemar Germany...

The last time I've seen prices go up like this, was back during the Carter Administration....

When the inflation was so bad, I'd see three numbers stamped on a can, while the price went up while it was sitting on the shelf...

[Gob]

[dales]

The last time I've seen prices go up like this, was back during the Carter Administration....

Those were the days

[Big RR]

I remember gas prices soaring (if you could find a station with it) during Nixon/Ford as well.

[Scooter]

Hello? No one remembers gas prices going thru the roof a few years ago when oil was pushing thru $150 a barrel?

[Daisy]

has gone from $3.34 per gallon to $3.93 per gallon....

Sorry. Still NOT feeling your pain Jim!

Standard unleaded here at £1.30 per litre converting to $7.95 a gallon.

Feel THAT pain.

£65 ($105) to fill my tank that gets me about 380 miles if I'm being frugal. I used to buy 98 RON, but that's now £1.40 a litre ($8.55)

Gideon says he's gonna do summat about petrol prices in the budget later this month, but I doubt it's going to be anything more than a token gesture, why stop milking the driving cash cow whilst it's paying the treasury so well?

[rubato]

Gas prices peaked above this level back in 2008, as the total disaster of Republican government was becoming obvious to even the very very stupid.



yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Hello? No one remembers gas prices going thru the roof a few years ago when oil was pushing thru $150 a barrel?

Perhaps, what I DO remember is oil priced at $5/bbl and 20 cents per gallon cost for regular leaded gas.

[Jarlaxle]

Hello? No one remembers gas prices going thru the roof a few years ago when oil was pushing thru $150 a barrel?

I recall being surprised to see gas under $4/gallon during one Power Tour (2008, IIRC), just before the economy collapsed. That was depressing as hell. (Especially since I had just filled up for 25 cents/gallon more!)

According to my boss, we spent about $13,500 last week on fuel for the trucks.

[rubato]

Please please please, let it hit $5.50 this time, $5.75. So all the idiots who live in cities and suburbs stop buying SUVs and trucks to haul 25lbs of groceries.

Buying more fuel-efficient vehicles is the single most important thing people can do to reduce the trade imbalance.


yrs,
rubato

[dales]

I'm sure if fuel went to $10 a gallon there are those that could afford it.

[Scooter]

Oil companies have become quite skilled on pushing prices on an upward trajectory in such a way that consumers have become accustomed to them without adopting meaningful cuts in consumption. Eventually they will wean us toward $10 per gallon gas without any appreciable decline in the number of SUVs on the road.

[Long Run]

The recession was fed in part by the last surge of gas prices in 2008. I hope this rise is a short-term blip. The market for oil is a bit more complicated than some, but it seems that when there is the possibility that there could be an interruption in oil production, prices spike and we feel it at the pump well before there could be any impact in the supply chain. Then, when the fears subside (assuming there is no interruption), the prices only come down gradually. A person might think there was some collusion without being labeled a conspiracy nut.

[Scooter]

Commodity prices in general tend to be hypersensitive to risk - their prices rise out of all proportion to the actual threat to supply and it tends to take awhile for calm to descend and bring prices down. Oil is the example that we tend to see the most because the oil market is one of the most publicized and price changes tend to manifest themselves more obviously to the consumer, but wheat, copper, etc. go thru the same convulsions in reaction to, for example, weather forecasts.