Do You Really Know Your Annual Cost Of Gas?

As the price of gas has steadily increased so has your annual gas expenditure. It has gotten to the point that it has become a major part of your family expense. But do you really know how much you are spending per year on gas? Most drivers know what it costs for a fill up but not many can confidently state how much they spend per year.

It is easy to figure out and only takes a few minutes. That being the case one would think that most drivers would take the time to work the calculations and determine their annual expense. But most don't. If they did they might realize how important it is to their financial health to do something about it.

Almost every day, we see the increases to the price of gas. $3.00, $3.19, $3.39 per gallon, even $3.49 and $3.59 per gallon are costs that we have seen this year. Not long ago $3.00 for a gallon of fuel seemed high. Now $3.00 looks like a bargain.

The American Automobile Association uses 15,000 miles as an average amount of miles traveled per vehicle when they calculate costs. If you on average travel 15,000 miles a year in a vehicle that runs at about 20 miles to the gallon, you will purchase around 750 gallons of gasoline per year. If the price is $3.00 per gallon that equals $2250.00 per year.

If you have a two car family and both cars average 15,000 miles per year you will use 1500 gallons of gasoline annually. 1500 gallons costing $3.00 per gallon equates to $4500.00 in expense per year.

If the price of gas is $3.49 per gallon of course the results are significantly higher. If you are a one car household utilizing 15,000 miles per year you will have an expense of over $2600.00 annually. If you are a two car family your yearly costs will be over $5200.00 annually. That equates to $437.00 monthly. You are likely spending more for fuel than you spend on a car payment.

Every time the price of fuel goes up at the pump by 10 cents, the yearly increase for your two car household is $150.00. When the price of fuel jumps 20 cents in a single day, understand that it will increase the cost to you by about $300.00 per year.

When you consider the yearly cost of your gasoline it is staggering. When you consider that you may be spending $5200.00 per year just for gas it could well be time to seriously look at ways to lower that cost. As you figure out the 20 cent increase at the pump today will really cost $300.00 this year it becomes a great motivator to do something about it.