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Americans spent $4,155 per family on gasoline in 2011. How much did you spend?

dante

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
9
looking for classic NE singletrack
Noticed that there are several news stories out about how Americans spent a record $481b on gasoline in 2011, and that works out to an average of $4,155/family (including *all* families, even the urban ones who don't own a car and spent zero). So since we only use one rewards card for gasoline and it has a handy "year-end review", I checked and found out that we spent ~$1,000 including a road trip back east to see family. Without that we probably would have been closer to ~$750.

I guess all of the bicycle commuting really does pay off? The wife logged over 2,000 miles this year, and that was still only about 1/2 the time, with the other half being weather-related or out of town for work (I probably logged as many "commuting" trips, but my commute is closer to 2 miles instead of 12.5).
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
41,147
13,319
Portland, OR
I haven't driven my truck since May and I haven't ridden the moto since October. I would guess between me and the wife, we spent about $1500 max.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,098
1,144
NC
I'd estimate that Jenn and I spend a little less than half that total, combined - including our big road trip once a year that puts about 2500 miles on the car in 10 days.
 
Quo Fan

Quo Fan

don't make me kick your ass
Mar 31, 2006
5,909
36
Here. I'm just not sure where "here" is.
Mileage on my truck is down this year, but I've been driving a rental for work, and the company has been picking up the gas.

Mileage in general for the wife and I has been up, due to both sets of parents being elderly and ill.
 
syadasti

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
I drive about 4-5K mi. a year (31/19/25 mpg - 305HP V6 RWD drivetrain, around 23-24mpg actual overall- mostly city driving so about 200 gallon/year - about $750/year). I bike commuted to work for a few years in my prior job but not anymore.
 
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narlus

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
i average around 13K per year...i average around 36 mpg and if gas is $3.25 i spent just under $1200. my wife drives about the same but w/ far less mpg (civic vs odyssey). so figure half the mpg and twice the cost. still under at $3600.
 
woodsguy

woodsguy

gets infinity MPG
Mar 18, 2007
1,083
1
Sutton, MA
Here are my 2010 numbers:

2005 Honda Crv
16,648 Miles
25.14 Average MPG
27.54 Best MPG
21.80 Worst MPG (lots of slogging through deep snow)
661.248 Gallons
$2.783 Avg. Cost/Gal
$1,838.14 Total Cost

I usually let it run down to about 1/4th tank and top off it everytime (average fill up was at 308.3 miles). I then write the odo # on the receipt and enter all the info in an Excel spreadsheet. I even record the station and notes like oil change, tire change, long road trip with bikes on the roof etc. (Oddly enough some of my worst mileage number are with Hess gas). I'm way behind entering the data for 2011.
 
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mandown

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,243
7,773
Transylvania 90210
Well, since July I drove 2,000 miles and get about 24 miles per gallon, so about 83 gallons. At $4.00 a gallon as a rough average estimate, that says $333, and annual would be closer to $700. Seems light. I could also estimate it at about a $35 fill up every 2 weeks, so closer to $900.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,396
20,187
Sleazattle
I've currently got half a tank and have spent less than $160 in gas since the Middle of September. I have had to spend a few hundred in replacing worn bike parts.
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,298
16,738
Riding the baggage carousel.
According to Quicken we spent $1834.61 on gas last year. My record keeper/accountant (wife) doesn't have it broken down by vehicle but most of that must have been in the subie. I literally filled the jeep once during the summer, never spent more that 12 dollars filling the motorcycle, and never did that more than once every two weeks. I did put on probably close to 1500 miles on the single speed commuting to work last year.
 
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stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,596
7,245
Colorado
$2850 on my Forester. This includes a trip to and from Colorado and a trip back towing a trailer. I average 20.8 mpg in that car. $2264 in Wifey's Forester. This includes on trip from CA to CO. The car also averages 20.8 mpg. Both are turbo models requiring premium fuel. Since we moved to CO, the mileage on both has gone up 2mpg and keeps climbing.
 
dexter

dexter

Turbo Monkey
Sep 23, 2001
3,053
99
Boise, Idaho
On fishing trips towing my boat around montana or without it- easily 8-10k

In my company car working and fishing- about the same
 
KavuRider

KavuRider

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2006
2,565
4
CT
Cool thread.
No idea how much I spent. For the first 6 months, I was driving my Econoline which would get 10mpg tops...but I didn't drive it that much. Commuted to work as much as I can. Sold that in May, so I was without a vehicle until August and used my bike exclusively.

Bought a new car in August that gets around 25mpg, and had a lot of traveling/family in town (I was their chauffeur), so I burned a lot of gas (7K miles in 5 months, ouch).

I typically only drive a max of 5K a year, if that even. Hoping to get back to that figure this year.
 
S

SacredYeti

Monkey
Sep 12, 2011
156
0
San Diego, CA
Spent just under $4k this last year @ 28,000 miles on a '05 Celica GT-S. Took trips to Denver and Boston so that kinda offset the bills.

Without extravagant road trips, about 20k miles a year.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,413
9,424
MTB New England
The wife and I put upwards of 50,000 miles on our vehicles combined each year, due in large part to the 70 mile round trip commute for each of us. The price of gas isn't a big enough concern for us to do anything about it. I estimate that gas will have to get up to about $8.00/gallon for it to force me into finding a job closer to home.
 
JetTeach

JetTeach

Monkey
Aug 18, 2011
511
0
Pretty sure we spent waymore than that. In fact, I probably spent at least that much by myself.
 
eaterofdog

eaterofdog

ass grabber
Sep 8, 2006
8,293
1,537
Central Florida
I commute. Quick calculations show I spend about $2,340 on gas annually (@ $3.50 gal) to commute. Since I own the car, only keep liability ins and get 35+ miles a gallon, my other expenses are relatively low.

My commute is pretty sedate. Country roads and quiet part of the interstate until I get close to work.
 
kickstand

kickstand

Turbo Monkey
Sep 18, 2009
3,441
392
Fenton, MI
I drove 56,000 miles last year.

20,000 in my truck at 17-18 ish mpg average = $4,433 in diesel (3.99/gallon)
36,000 in my car at about 27 mpg = $4,666 in gas ($3.50/gallon)

sweet. :(

My girlfriend drove another 20-25k in her car.
 
dante

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
9
looking for classic NE singletrack
KavuRider said:
No idea how much I spent.
Click to expand...
If you primarily used one credit or debit card it's easy to see how much you spent, just go to the card's website and look around for a year-end summary of some sort. We got a Costco AmEx in February, and since they have 3% cash back on gas we stopped using *any* other card for gas. Now at the end of the year we can just log in to our AmEx page and they have a handy summary that tells what you spent for the year on the various categories.

:)
 
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