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 fairly simple to figure out and only takes a few minutes to calculate it. Even so, most drivers don't take the time to work the calculations and determine their annual expense. If they did they might look at economizing their gas usage a little more seriously.

We see it almost every day, the increases to the price of gas. $3.00 per gallon, $3.19 per gallon, $3.39 per gallon even $3.49 and $3.59 per gallon are prices that we have become familiar with this year. Not too long ago $3.00 per gallon seemed high. Now $3.00 seems almost a bargain.

The American Automobile Association generally figures 15,000 miles as an average amount of miles per vehicle per year.They use that figure when they do cost calculations. If you on average travel 15,000 miles a year in a auto that has a fuel economy of 20 miles to the gallon, you will purchase somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 gallons of fuel per year. If the price is $3.00/gallon that means an expense of $2250.00 per year.

If you are part of a two vehicle household and both vehicles average 15,000 miles per year you will use 1500 gallons of fuel annually. 1500 gallons at a pump price of $3.00 per gallon is an expense of $4500.00 per year.

At $3.49 per gallon the numbers are considerably higher. If you have one car at 15,000 miles per year you will spend over $2600.00 per year. A two car family would spend over $5200.00 per year. That equates to $437.00 per month. You could easily be spending more for gas than your monthly car payments.

Each time the price of gasoline goes up at the gas pump by 10 cents the annual increase for your two car household is $150.00 per year. When the price jumps 20 cents in one day, realize that the 20 cent increase will cost you $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.

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Scott Siegel is the author of a 143 page book of industry insider information on saving gas and dollars at the pump (beatthegaspump.com). Visit us to learn how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to increase gas mileage.