Yet, somehow lately as gas prices have surged, piling into the truck to go anywhere -- food shopping, the movies, the mailbox -- seems to be painful, with a full tank hovering in the vicinity of $90, leaving my wallet gasping and my middle class income panicked.
According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of gas has reached$3.83, up 72 cents a gallon from just two months ago and up almost $1 from a year ago when I bought my SUV. With a 24-gallon tank and three to four fill-ups every four weeks, that's nearly $100 more a month for fuel than originally planned. Life is getting tight, and some changesmay need to be made.
Had my father bought a truck like mine when I was born in 1972, he would have paid a whopping 55 cents per gallon, thus forcing him to squeeze $13.20 from his pocket. I know it's all relative, but that number floors me, especially considering you can barely see a movie for that tonight in Manhattan, a place where a gallon of premium gas goes for $4.97 as of today.
So, with regular folks' budgets getting stretched, leaving many wondering how to find those extra dollars, the question that arises is unfortunately simple: when will you have to make changes in your life to offset the price of gas?
Brooke Eliane, a sixth-year special education teacher in Norwalk, Conn., realizes that the weekly trip to the pump has made other choices in life more difficult. "There's a lot less eating out, a lot less extras. Now I need to see where each dollar goes. I can only image what's next."
Like most Americans, Eliane has concerns about the future. According to a Gallup Organization poll, 20 percent of people believe that we will see a $5 gallon of gas. Five percent also predict a $6 price tag thereafter.
Let's hope not. My SUV will then drink $144 a week, $576 bucks a month. If this happens, I'll have to sell my house, and we'll spend our evenings huddled in the truck sipping Ramen Noodles and sharing crackers ... without the engine running.