MY YEAR IN PETROL

i think it's fair to say that in the past year we've seen more fluctuation in gas prices than ever before. but i think it's interesting that while we all seem to grumble about how much it costs, few of us really know what percentage of our income we spend on gasoline.

its for this reason that i decided to keep track of my gas usage. as many of you may know, i keep my receipts after filling up at the pump. the united states government has a website for people like me. it's called www.fueleconomy.gov. it lets me put in the details from my gas receipts and graphs my gas mileage. i decided to take these numbers a bit further so i pulled out the calculator and crunched some numbers. here's what i found:

1998 subaru legacy outback
2.5 litre engine
gas tank capacity: ~15 gallons
average miles per gallon: 22.23

average miles driven per year for the life of the car: 13,506
miles driven in the past year: 9,533

number of fill-ups in past year: 41
average cost per fill-up: $27.93
average miles driven per day: 26.1
average gasoline cost per mile: $0.12
average cost for gas per day: $3.12

most expensive fill-up: $53.04
best mpg per tank: 30.1
worst mpg per tank: 13.1
highest price i paid for gasoline: $4.20/gal
lowest price i paid for gasoline: $1.36/gal

total spent for gas in the past year: $1144.94


i don't know about anybody else, but i'm pretty blown away by that number. especially so because i didn't use my car to get to work. i can't imagine how much people that commute an hour each way must spend over the course of a year (or even scarier... a lifetime). it must be ridiculous. it brings up a good point as well. those people might be able to afford it, but is it fair that they're using up more than their fair share of the worlds non-renewable resources? maybe i'm outta line but it seems that there should be some type of compensation for those who choose to conserve.

so, what can i do to conserve more next next year? i'll start by trying to work near my home (or live near my work). i will be happy if i can find a job that lets me commute using public transit or bicycle. in addition, i'll try to ride my motorcycle or bike when i can to avoid driving my car.

the bottom line for me is that knowing how much i spend should help me better budget my gas usage in the future. I also want to point out that it wasn't difficult at all to track. i just print a receipt every time i fill up (best if you fill up all the way) and write down my odometer reading on each one. i stash the receipts in my console and every few months i log onto the site and enter in the info. i hope i can inspire others to give it a try.

AMAZING INFOGRAPHIC

so i found this through word of mouth. it's probably one of the coolest interactive graphs ever created and what makes it even cooler is that it represents data on movies! check it out. be sure to click on the different movies to see more detail.