$3 Gas is Back

I stopped at a near by Valero station this morning to fill up my car and I didn’t need the $40+ receipt to remind me that 3-dollar-per-gallon gas is making a come back. Actually, gas price has been rising quietly lately. Less than a month ago, I could still get a full tank for under $40, but now it’s approaching $45. Though I am living in a low-gas price state (New Jersey that is, as the following plot from GasBuddy.com shows), it’s quite pain to see that little by little, the cost of driving every day starts to have noticeable impact on our monthly bills.

I don’t know exactly what cause the upswing of gas price. These’s no disruption of the supply and oil price now is not higher than a month ago. One explanation could be that it’s just a seasonal pattern as we are entering the summer driving season and people are expecting the supply of gasoline will be tight between now and Labor Day.

For us, most of our drivings are to and from work that we can’t cut. We don’t have any long distance travel plan for the summer. Even if we do, it won’t be affecte because it will cost more to drive now. It’s the daily commute that makes my wallet thinner, not a one-time trip. That said, if I do have to pay more and more gas everyday, it does make it less desirable to have a long trip that requires more financial resources.

Like it or not, there’s nothing we can do but live with it.

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