On my way home from SC this weekend, we stopped in Georgia (Exit 29 on I-95). We paid $2.77/gallon. My mother wanted to take a picture of it. She mentioned framing the receipt.
yes! yesterday i passed several gas stations that offered 2.77 a gallon as the cash price. it was 2.99 if someone used a credit card. at least some things are headed in the right direction. now if only people will hang on to the behaviors that helped to cause the price to drop, maybe then it will stay around a bit. the biggest spike in prices ive seen lately, aside from those fuel prices, had been food costs and the reasons cited had to do with energy. maybe now we can see a drop in those too. my biggest energy expense has been electricity. the electric company has a usage fee which is how much electricity youve used and then they have a generation fee which is how much it cost them to produce that energy and that gets passed onto the consumer and its roughly the same amount as the bill so basically we all get double charged for the electricity. i was at the BIG E a few weeks ago, thats a regional fair in these parts, and one of the booths was an energy conservation booth and the guy said that there were programs in place where solar installation and parts were reimbursed thru some govt program. then all hell broke loose with the big bailout so i didnt persue it. i would like to see if i can install some solar panels or a windmill or something that would generate the power i need. he also mentioned that if you generate excess power you can sell it back to the utility.
On another note, Psych, I don't know anything about fuel hedging, which is why I didn't reply to your first post on the subject.
one of the buddies stopped by yesterday and she was telling me that she nearly locked in her oil this winter at 4.59 a gallon. i said thats the price of a gallon of oil these days? i was shocked! last time i heated a home with oil it was like 80 cents a gallon and id have to fill the tank 2 times a year to the tune of like 200 a fill up. that was a long time ago but i had no idea that oil prices had gotten that high. she said she turned that down because someone she works with said he had locked in at 3.69 a gallon. thats where the hedging comes in. its like a gamble really. if she had locked in shed be kicking herself now, tho maybe not the winter hasnt begun and prices could rise again i suppose. shes hoping that they will go down to the 2's. we all have chuckled at her in the past because she keeps her house at 50 degrees all winter and uses one room with a space heater to stay warm. literally you have to wear a winter coat when you visit but at those prices i get it now.
thats a good question. id heard on the news up here that we should be seeing prices in the mid 2's in the coming weeks. heres what i am wondering tho. if transportation costs lower, food prices should follow and home heating prices? maybe this big economic crisis isnt the bad thing weve been led to believe it is? i hear ya on the slow downturn tho it sure does come down a whole lot slower than it goes up. here comes a cloud in louisiana quick, get the ladder, change the sign! lol. id heard there was some shortage in the south after the last hurricane. might that be causing your higher prices? usually we lead the nation in high fuel costs. its nice to not be at the top of that list for a change
On my way home from SC this weekend, we stopped in Georgia (Exit 29 on I-95). We paid $2.77/gallon. My mother wanted to take a picture of it. She mentioned framing the receipt.
I also heard about the gas shortage. I think that has been resolved by now. We have some areas that have higher gas prices, and others that have lower prices. I'm seeing prices in the lower priced stations down in the $3.1x numbers. It's encouraging.
On another note, Psych, I don't know anything about fuel hedging, which is why I didn't reply to your first post on the subject.
this is not the same thing as the hedging....but i am wondering why, in october, 2007, when a barrel of crude was between $72-77 a barrel and gas prices were between $2.58-2.77 a gallon, and now, in october, 2008, reports are that a barrel oil is $77-78, our gas prices (at least here) are between $3.31 and 3.24...(altho i did see one station at $3.21)?...yes i am glad that the prices have dropped from the $3.90 or so we were paying...but the price per gallon is still over-inflated if compared to the numbers from last year.......
thats a good question. id heard on the news up here that we should be seeing prices in the mid 2's in the coming weeks. heres what i am wondering tho. if transportation costs lower, food prices should follow and home heating prices? maybe this big economic crisis isnt the bad thing weve been led to believe it is? i hear ya on the slow downturn tho it sure does come down a whole lot slower than it goes up. here comes a cloud in louisiana quick, get the ladder, change the sign! lol. id heard there was some shortage in the south after the last hurricane. might that be causing your higher prices? usually we lead the nation in high fuel costs. its nice to not be at the top of that list for a change
this is not the same thing as the hedging....but i am wondering why, in october, 2007, when a barrel of crude was between $72-77 a barrel and gas prices were between $2.58-2.77 a gallon, and now, in october, 2008, reports are that a barrel oil is $77-78, our gas prices (at least here) are between $3.31 and 3.24...(altho i did see one station at $3.21)?...yes i am glad that the prices have dropped from the $3.90 or so we were paying...but the price per gallon is still over-inflated if compared to the numbers from last year.......
i see in the headlines that oil has dropped to 78 bucks a barrel. that seems like good news eh? and yet i guess its not since its an indicator of global confidence or in this case lack of confidence in a booming economy.
when i was in the corporate world fuel hedging was a big thing. the idea is that you make a best guess on where oil will be over the next year and you buy it at that rate. there are several groups that do this as a matter of course manufacturing, airlines and people who heat their homes with oil. ive heard that southwest hedges 85-90% of its fuel cost. in recent years theyve come out on the good end of this tho that amount of hedging is kind of extreme. most of the other airlines hedge at far lower percentages. theyve prolly set this for somewhere between 45 and 50 bucks a gallon which, if oil continued its ridiculous climb, would have been wonderful but what happens if it drops to say 30 bucks a barrel? same with homeowners who have perhaps locked in an oil season price of 3 dollars a gallon or whatever the projected rate was for this winter? what if it drops to a buck a gallon? do people have to honor those hedges? i dont have oil heat so i dont know how this works tho i am curious. the good news tho is that for the first time in i dont know how long, gas prices dropped below 3 dollars a gallon. that seems like a good thing too, doesnt it? for most of the summer the local grocery chains all had gas promotions. for every 50 dollars spent you saved 20 cents a gallon on their gas and you could stockpile the discounts. i got 3 completely free tanks of gas this summer and it was a cool thing to stick the grocery card under the scanner and see all the numbers roll back to 0. i wonder what they will come up with now if gas drops back to 150 a gallon? maybe a free vacation to tahiti or something! im wondering what would happen if people and companies stockpiled the oil when it was cheap to use when it isnt cheap? is that possible? these are strange times arent they?
