Typical Murrican Family Spent Over $4000 on fuel in 2011

[eco_generator]

About $3,000 for ~31,000 miles. Hmm, never stopped before to add up all the numbers...

[slowmover]

"Know" your cents-per-mile for fuel. If mine is currently 15-cpm, then predictions about how far for how much is easy. A wholesale change in my life has driven it up to 18-cpm. But planning for the long-term (plus changes to the truck) will bring it back down a ways.

My fuel log shows, roughly, 41k miles at nearly $6k. 14.6-cpm fuel cost over about four years, IIRC.

Fewer miles to accomplish the same work is the first goal. Then driving the remainder of miles better than before is the second (route-planning plus hypermile techniques).

There comes a point where discipline in the day-to-day helps underwrite the fuel cost of vacation, leisure, etc. While I can also do better than before in that scenario it is a comfort to understand that I have made payment in advance on such.

Fuel cost is a small part of vehicle ownership, but telling when we plan for the long-term.

.

[nemo]

Given the volatility of current fuel prices an estimate window would be helpful. Say use the past 12 month high plus a percentage for future cost increase and low price plus the same percentage (as prices a are not likely to retreat long term) to determine future fuel costs.

[Frank Lee]

Gas Prices Rising As Americans Spend Record Amount On Fuel In 2012

Numbers for '12... quite different than before.

As interesting as the article (if not moreso) is the slideshow on what people cut back on...

[razor02097]

2011 statistics...

$2,455.89 for fuel
10,540 miles traveled
average price paid per gallon of fuel $3.466
average MPG 15.36 MPG
Vehicles driven = 1998 Jeep XJ Cherokee, 1994 Chevrolet Camaro


2012 statistics....

$1,794.74 for fuel
10,403 miles traveled
average price paid per gallon of fuel $3.602
average MPG 18.77 MPG
Vehicles driven = 1998 Jeep Cherokee, 1994 Chevrolet Camaro, 1982 Suzuki GS300



I am hoping to cut the fuel bill in half as I want to more than double my average MPG from last year. I also now have a decent bicycle so I won't need to fire up an ICE to go to the corner store anymore. I am going to keep track of miles traveled on my bicycle and how much electricity used to charge the batteries (using a kill-a-watt). If anyone wants to know the app I use to keep track of my statistics is acar for android.