This morning I drove Linds car to work. You see, Linds drove her car home last night on empty and then ask to drive my truck this morning. This however is not the point of this blog.
I crossed my fingers and drove to the gas station this morning on my way to work. After arriving without pushing the car, I started to pump gas at a rate of $3.62 per gallon! Now, Linds' car gets much better miles per gallon and has a smaller tank than my truck, but it still took just under $60 to fill the tank.
I am not that old and have only been driving since 1996. However, the per gallon price of gas in 1996 was $1.23 on a national average. If this number was adjusted for inflation, it would be around $1.78 in today's dollars. Looking at the inflation adjusted number, that is an increase of 203%. As most Americans are not making 203% more in income from 1996, this puts a larger dent in the wallet.
Having an office very close to my house, I am sure that I drive much less than the average person. In a given 7 day period, I drive around 120 miles. This is if we use Linds' car for much of the weekend around town driving. This works out to be around $125 per month on gas. Most of the time, it is more like $200-$225 with random around town driving or weekend trips. In 1996 inflation adjusted dollars, my gas expense would only be $57.60.
Do you smell that? Yes, so do I. A Challenge!! I wonder if over the next 30 days, I can spend only $57.60 on gas? In order to do this, I will need to reduce my weekly mileage to 55.38 miles. Wow! That is not that much. Friday is my big mileage day. I take R to school and then drive to work. If I go home for lunch, I will drive 36 miles on Friday.
If I take this on, I will start on Monday the 20th. as it is easier to start something like this at the beginning of the week. I will blog again on Sunday and let you know. Until then, I will lay off the Mexican food to reduce my gas!
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. ---e. e. cummings
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