How long do you have to work to pay for your gas?

[warramra]

This is an interesting interactive site that figures out how many hours you have to work to pay for a tank of gas:

Hours for Gallons

I figured out that my DH has to work one eight-hour day each week just to pay for his gas to get him to and from work for that week. Additionally he has to work a little less than 2 hours each week to pay for the gas in the van.

It will get better when we get his commuter car, but this is eye-opening just how bad it is already. No wonder we are struggling more than we ever have, even if we are "making more."

[frugalfoster]

And isn't that just ridiculous. The formula for affording a house is supposed to be 25% of your income. How can a person survive if they have to pay 20% of their income for gas? Between the two it would be about 1/2 your paycheck. How are you supposed to pay for groceries, insurance, and utilities? The whole situation is out of control and it makes me really angry! The so called experts say the the numbers coming out this week in the stock market will eventually show that the US experienced a "mild" recession. Tell that to the average person who is experiencing the brunt of it all. It's insane!

[Neeley]

DH's annual salary + 15 gallon tank(his car) + $3.70/gallon = he works 1.15 hours for a tank. A tank lasts him 10 days.

DH's annual salary +20 gallon tank(my SUV) + $3.70/gallon = he works 1.53 hours for a tank. A tank lasts me 10 days, also.

Basically, he works one 8 hour day to pay for all of the gas we use in a month (105 gallons of gas - 45 gallons per month in his car and 60 gallons for my truck.)

The average amount each month we spend on gas(approx. $388) comes to a little under 4% of his salary.

[qtkitty]

I would have to work 9.11 hours to fill up my car ( the estimated 15 gallon)

But i give myself $20(3.2 hours) a week for gas, which is more then i need for 4 days of work.. i used to use $10 for 5 days of work when it was around $3.20... i live aprox 5 mi from work

[TheRootedNomad]

We've been keeping tabs on this. Gas is running us between 8% and 9% of our take-home. This works out between 6.8 to 7.2 hours a week of working for gas money.

[Jskell911]

I have to work 4.88 hrs for a full tank. This is for a 16 gal tank and I use about 20 gal just for getting to work and back each week.

[LexTysMommy]

Wow intersting. I use $120 a month or $30 a week in gas. Sounds like not a lot but I work from home. And it is $80 to fill up my tank.

I do not get set amount a week (do daycare) but it is about 5% of my income monthly and have to work about 8 hours to fill up a tank.

[Frugal Nurse]

As I read how much the gas on the car eats up your take home pay... I am really saddened.

I must work 1.5 hours to fill up my tank that gets filled once every 2-3 weeks. This amounts to about 1 percent of my income.
Then I thought.. wait! should I count the "CharliePass" (which is my monthly public T pass) in the equation? Suuure!
My work pays for half of the pass, I pay the other half. Total pass: $163/mo I pay $81.50 (which is tax deductible).
If you add the (avg) 20 fill-ups/year ($60 each) and the $980/yr tax deductible T pass = $1200 commuting costs. (I wouldn't even call that communitng cost. The bulk of my gas consumption occurs during non-commuting time.

I could drive to work instead of walking/public transportation and fill my tank 1-1.5 times a week. But that wouldn't be good because then I'd have to pay $1300/year for parking.

If I drive my car: 78 fill ups/yr plus the $1300 parking spot = $5980. That would be like 5-10 percent of my income.

Phew! just checking.. I'm still ahead of the game.

That was fun!

[emily_hope]

This would be hard for me to really know because I work strictly on commission. I would say that I have to work 6 hours to buy a tank of gas for my Explorer.

[FrugalMomof3]

Wow it would take my DH 1.95 hours to fill his trucks 12 gallon tank, he does a fillup atleast 1.5 times per week. YIKES!

[warramra]

After I posted this I double checked my figures because it does seem high, but it is pretty close. I only use a tank and a half each month in the van (~ $90/month). DH works 35 miles from home, about 3 times a week he puts $45 in which doesn't fill it up. Approx each week he spends $135, or $540 a month and that equals 17% of our take home pay each month - just for his commute.

A few years ago we looked at moving closer but it just wasn't feasible and with his parents getting older we are better off where we are. We would replace a very manageable mortgage (less than 25% of our income) with something closer to 30% of our income.

We are smack-dab middle income, at least according to government levels. This year DH got a 3% raise, last year there were no raises. Gas and food are taking bigger and bigger percentages of our income every month. I only wish that we could use public transportation, but it isn't available. The best we can do is that we are buying a 18-year old Honda Accord for DH to use to commute, and are hoping that it will reduce his gas by nearly half.

DH and I made decisions regarding our careers/family knowing that we were limiting our income levels, but living frugally we have always been able to break even. But, the rising gas & food are burdens the poor and middle class don't have much more room to absorb. We may actually purchase less gas than those with more income, but as you can see we can also spend three times more of our income (percentage-wise). Every day I find myself racking my brain about what we (DH & I) can do better and am pretty much out of ideas.

[Marie78]

I have to work 4.78 hours to fill up my gas tank. I rarely fill up my gas tank though.

[LuvMyHubby]

Interesting concept:

I use approximately 20 dollars worth of gas every two weeks as long as I don't have to make any extra trips out of the norm. I would say that I work 1 3/4 hours for two weeks worth of gas.

[Bournecrazy]

i pay £35 ($70 approx) every two weeks for petrol which is about 7 hours work, and i work 9 hour days (5 days a week) so it not bad i dont think, over all i think it work out to be roughly 9% of my pay, which is actually a lot.. Eek. might have to see if i can cut down

[Dancing Lotus]

My dh has to work 3.39 hrs to fill my tank, once a week. Wow, I am glad we don't have to fill up his tank.