What about buying more gas at low prices?
What if you recycle all those oil bottles and buy more gas when prices are low? Whenever you top up, you could also fill those bottles. You could label them with the prices you paid and keep it in an open or ventilated room. A dry powder extinguisher located close by.
You could either monitor WTI prices or use whatever app available to predict the next oil price. Instead of relying for pump prices, you could use up your stock when prices hit high. Or at least paying less than what you could have. This is what oil traders do. They either own or lease huge tank farms to fill up with crude and sell at higher prices. This could also mean less trips to gas stations. |
My time is worth more than would ever be gained by doing such. And besides, gas has a short shelf life and i like it as fresh as possible.
If you want to do this, buy some oil drums. At least it might make it worth the effort. I'd still not want to store that anywhere near me, though. A seperate, fire-resistant building, perhaps. |
Above ground storage tank. You'd want to make sure it is shielded from the sun and had some kind of expansion area so it wont draw in moisture or vent off the gas.
Here in america just about every farm has above ground diesel and gas fuel tanks. |
Diesel yes.
Gas no. I saved diesel back in 2006 in oil barrels, kept it until I got ready to move in 2011. Ran great. |
Between home and work I have about $0.25 difference in gas, home to closest station is 10 miles. Sometimes I fill a 4 gallon boat tank when I fill my car, with a $8 electric fuel pump and jump pack I pump it into the Rogues. Saved $1 in the price of the gas and 20 miles (2/3 gallon) to go to the gas station.
I'd like to find a bigger tank on a second one cheap. |
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...3-100-0884.jpg
Here's what you want; the NATO/USMC gas can. Note the lever on the left one, it has to be turned and pulled before the lid can open. |
I buy diesel 500 gallons at a time, when prices are cheap. I store them in 2 above ground containers. Diesel isn't volatile (evaporative), so it doesn't degrade over time. The water that accumulates is heavier than the fuel and isn't absorbed, so it can easily be drained off. The real enemy of diesel is micro-organisms that can grow in it given enough sunlight.
Gasoline is volatile and does absorb water (especially the ethanol part), which makes it a poor product to store for more than about a year. I think I last paid $2 /gallon for my diesel. Cheap, but at 500 gallons, I still spent $1,000 |
Well I am currently self employed and do odd jobs. For a week in a month I go cutting grass with a 30cc two stroke weed cutter. Its been raining almost every other day so the grass grow faster and I am kept busy.
So the small amounts of fluctuations do matter. I prefer using a detergent softener bottle as the threads on the cap is longer. I think the longer thread gives better seal against water vapor ingress. As vapor pressure increase, it tends to tighten up the tolerance on the thread. I put a piece of folder paper to the cap to add to the protection. I tend to think bigger containers are both more hazardous as the vapor builds up more. So I use lots of 5liter bottles. These are used softener/lube oil containers and it helps to recycle them plus I don't have to pay for anything. Currently gas pump prices are at its lowest this year so I am stocking up. |
I once traveled in a country where the highways were lined with kiosks like a farmer's fruit stand, except the shelves were lined with gasoline in whiskey bottles. :eek:
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gasoline becomes bad fast nowadays.
Especially with ethanol. I stored gas over winter in a shed, the cutters won't run with it, unless wou "water" it out with new gas. |
The real problem here is how do you tell when prices are cheap? For instance, not that long ago it was around $4/gal, then dropped to $3. That's cheap, right? So if you bought a bunch of cheap $3 gas, you'd have missed out when it went below $2.50.
OTOH, if you really can reliably forecast price changes, you should get a job on Wall Street and not have to worry about the cost of a few gallons of gas :-) |
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You can see price movements on the web such as CNBC Quote Modules From that chart you could see next week prices are going to soar. Or a simple one but a day late such as Crude Oil Price, Oil, Energy, Petroleum, Oil Price, WTI & Brent Oil, Oil Price Charts and Oil Price Forecast I think in the US there are apps where they can tell you what current prices are at where you live. Its like Waze for gas. Countries outside the US would also have to look at currency exchange rates. I typically use XE - The World's Trusted Currency Authority These two variables are the main indicators for pump price fluctuations. The other being refinery profits but that is a bit harder to find out. You just need to have a glimpse of the charts to get an idea where its heading. |
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As you point out though, buying physical goods as an investment is dumb when you can buy futures instead. |
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An ammo can of nickels, by my calculation, would be worth about $40. Just sayin'. Try smacking someone upside the head with your paper futures. https://www.google.com/search?q=debased+nickel |
How do those gas pump operators set prices in the US? I know prices in and around Houston, TX are typically the lowest. I know its supposed to be an unregulated market. But what stops them from charging highest possible? Is it just 'competition'? Is there a state predetermined max ceiling on prices?
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Nothing stops them from charging as much as they can. Generally gas is just to get you into their convenience store anyway, and when there's a gas station on every corner and idiots who'll drove across town to save a buck on a 20 gallon tankful, they can't be out of line with the other stations in the area.
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Capitalism is a race to the bottom, in this case it's a good ting. |
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...and I'm not sure if you imply that the metal in the nickel is worth more than it's face value, but it's illegal to destroy US minted currency. Quote:
... and I once heard that gas stations have an average mark-up of about $.05 per gallon. They aren't making much on the fuel; it's those 5hr energy bottles they sell for $5. Amazing how someone figured out how to market a product that normally comes in a bottle of 200 pills for $3, into a product that comes in 1 serving for $5. There is nothing special about the caffeine in 5hr energy that makes it last longer than any other caffeine source. (as a tangent, 5hrs is the average half-life of caffeine in the body) |
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No need to melt. Although, I do have a nickel-plated brass hot tank that could stand refinishing. Hoarding Nickels as Metal Prices Soar Quote:
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Which at hindsight would be good as we could rewrite everything. Yet we keep doing the same thing over and over again. Nothing has been fixed. As we approach the 10th year anniversary of the Great Recession, would we flailing the same banner? Again? The idea of a free market is great as long as you accept the other half of the equation; failures should be left on their own. Every time the GOP runs out of money, Congress says ok to raise the ceiling. And a defence contractor seals another billion dollar deal. Nobody is willing to let failure happen. So we cannot say free market is practiced because there is always a safety net. |
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So the question is how do you replace the engine while you're barreling down the freeway. Interestingly, it only became possible to talk about commerce via TCP/IP in 2008 (Satoshi_Nakamoto) Examples of a free market in action: MTG Gox, The Top 5 Cryptocurrency Failures of All Time |
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There should have been a stipulation that if a bank accepted public bailout money, that the shareholders must fire the entire executive management and hire new people. Heck, if I was on a board of directors and was lead off a cliff by reckless behavior, I'd send the idiots packing with no severance pay. Don't even list me as a reference for your next job as Walmart middle-management. It makes sense that if people are allowed to make unlimited profit, they should also bear the consequences of financial collapse. Freebeard- Bitcoin is a horrible currency, and I can't wait for it to collapse. It takes an exponentially increasing amount of computing power to calculate the transactions, which means enormous amounts of electricity are being consumed. I'll point out that anything with an exponential rate of growth is unsustainable. Finally, Bitcoin is mostly used for illicit transactions and has little purpose outside of that. All of the recent news about ransomware is only made possible by this untraceable currency. ...and now this thread is completely off the rails. I suggest a lounge thread if there is any value to continuing this discussion. |
I'd follow you there. :thumbup:
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I am guilty as charged to let this go that direction. I do not think any amount of discussion would change things as it is beyond any of our control. I am merely suggesting ways to play with cards dealt on the table.
Though if this pops up in the lounge I'd definitely subscribe to it :D |
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I'm fascinated by the way intent, functioning on the quantum level steers the physical world. Like, cars replaced horses on the street of New York City in ten years. I guess things moved slower then. :) |
Gas Pump Price Composition
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If we go down to talk Economics, I would fear it would alienate some people from the whole idea of this post; reducing operational costs.
Therefore, I found this piece of information from EIA https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/ Which is a current survey and not a prediction of gas prices. If you look at the gas pump graphic, it shows percentage of composition of gas prices. A lot of these variables can be known; Crude Oil Price and Taxes. As I look deeper into other sources, Refining margins seem set but they allowed variation with season especially with the ethanol mix. However, the Crude Oil aggregate is the bigger component. Now as we now head into $50 per barrel territory, which is the highest in three months, I wish you all a pleasant summer. |
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When you think about it, bicycles predated automobiles on the streets. :confused:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...t-100-0381.jpg I'm in the process of moving from 'clear' premium gasoline to [bio-]diesel. Am I doing it right? |
I am also thinking of moving to bio-diesel.
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