How are you handling the energy issue?

singpraiz4hym · 10-04-2008

Fuel and Its Cost...

I know world over the energy fuel issues are disheartening and of concern.
How are you battling the energy issue?

HisServant77 · 10-06-2008

Well I Really miss those $1 per gallon times

Sure did rise fast didn't it?!

I travel less . . . and am selling my car but not for the fuel reasons lol

Also, I look for carpooling options

But at the same time, I haven't changed anything because I've always done that lol Ever since I started driving, I could always go about a month on a tank of gas because I didn't drive a lot. The biggest drives were the times of cleaning up for Hurricane Rita, and going to curch and back again.

SharonMarie · 10-07-2008

Fuel costs have always been a lot higher here anyway, $1 a gallon? No, it's over £1 a LITRE here and has been for a number of months. (Rough conversion that's £6 a gallon and in dollars that's a whopping $13 a gallon!)

I'm a low mileage driver (less than a 1,000 miles a year) but I still use car less and I drive "fuel wise" ie try to make better use of the gears, brake and accelerate less harshly, drive for longer in a higher gear (which is hard because we have no straight roads here, they're all bends and twists and hills, you are up and down the gears all the time) and be less fuel consumptive.

HisServant77 · 10-08-2008

Wow Sharon, I'm guessing that a lot of people use carpooling or they walk where you are?

Well the $1 per gallon here hasn't been for quite a while, now it's about $4 a gallon or so. Though . . . wow that's nothing close to $13 a gallon!!

It wouldn't be so bad though, if the area, or nation in general, were built and laid out better to accomodate other ways of transportation such as walking. I would absolutely love to be able to walk where I need to go, more than drive. Yet with the way things are with traffic and how far apart things are, it'd be . . . quite difficult to do that haha.

SharonMarie · 10-08-2008

I don't know anyone who car-pools, most people just put up with the cost and try to save money somewhere else in the budget, not put on the central heating, buy less groceries, things like that.

I walk to work but then I only live a short distance away, the IOW is a good place to cycle, I know a lot of people who get to work by bike, lots at work and my brother does.

HisServant77 · 10-14-2008

Sounds awesome to be able to bike to places you need to go like work

That's how I wish we could do it here

totallyforgiven2 · 10-25-2008

We can not really cut back much, we don't waste much gas as it is, we do right together when we can, we both work the same place, but my wife works monday through friday, and I work 8 days on, 2 days off, 7 days on, 4 days off, so there are some days it doesnt matter. We dont go shopping everyday, we try to stock up when we do go, so we dont have to go again.

newtronical1 · 10-26-2008

Well for starters, I have moved closer to work which I think everyone here knows. Instead of traveling 55 miles one way, I now travel 30 which is a great big blessing for me.

I didnt take any summer road trips this year as I usually do. we pretty much sat at the house and did what you would usually do with 3.5 acres of land...YARDWORK!

I am grateful that the fuel prices have declined in the past weeks. Its hard to believe that in September it was $4.00 a gallon and now it is around $2.50 a gallon. They are saying that it should go below the two dollar mark but not by much before it starts to rise again. Praying it does. My new riding lawn mower is a fuel drinking beast with no conscience...lol

wabbitwady · 10-26-2008

We do all our errands by areas. Not to waste any miles. Our cars are old but seem to do pretty good on gas mileage. We are at 2.25 per gal. now....which is awesome!

totallyforgiven2 · 05-05-2009

I got rid of my "piece of junk" 2007 Torrent, which in the 1.5 years I had it, had been in the shop at least 2 dozen times, and GM did not care. Not to mention it was suppose to be getting 19 MPG in the city and 27 MPG on the highway and I only got 20 MPG on 1 tank of gas, when I traded the piece of crap in, it was getting 18 MPG. I know why GM is in such financial trouble, that is because they do not care about their customers and do not take pride in their vehicles. I told GM, that when the 2009 vehicles come out that I would be trading in my Pontiac Torrent and I would NOT be buying another GM vehicle ever again. I bought a 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid and I love it, I have had it for 6 months and I have not had any problems at all and guess what!! Because it is a hybrid, when it gets warmed up, most of the time when you are under 40, it is running on electric, no you do not plug it in, it charges the battery, from the energy of when you use your brakes, when you slow down, the energy from the motor charges the battery. It is suppose to get 27 MPG on the highway and 29 MPG(after all it is an SUV), 3 weeks after I got it, we took it down to my family in the state of Indiana, it is a 6 hour trip one way and I was averaging 28.5, and 5 of the 6 hours is on interstate. I am averaging around 32-33 in my area. You know, when I had the Pontiac, it didn't matter whether you took off slow or speeded up like you were racing, the gas mileage stunk, with my hybrid, you can tell the difference in the mileage by how you drive which makes you more conscience of how you drive. I am very happy with my Hybrid. Actually, my Ford got around in the snow better in the winter than the torrent, even though my Ford is a touch smaller than the the torrent

As you can see, I am getting almost double the mileage on gas which is saving me a lot and the fact that gas is around $2.09 a gallon helps too.

View Poll Results: How are you handling the energy issue?
Walking, bicycling, alternate non-energy using transportation	2	25.00%
Less traveling, making trips count, sold my vehicle	3	37.50%
Turning down the thermostat, turning off A/C	2	25.00%
Co-Sharing energy using activities, ie carpooling, shopping with a neighbor, etc.	1	12.50%
Wearing more/less clothing	1	12.50%
Not a thing, life as usual	3	37.50%
Other, share them with us!	2	25.00%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 8. You may not vote on this poll

10-04-2008	#1
singpraiz4hym Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Central Wisconsin Posts: 1,903 Rep Power: 1	How are you handling the energy issue? Fuel and Its Cost... I know world over the energy fuel issues are disheartening and of concern. How are you battling the energy issue?

10-06-2008	#2
HisServant77 Psalm 119:125 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Louisiana Posts: 4,011 Images: 1 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? Well I Really miss those $1 per gallon times Sure did rise fast didn't it?! I travel less . . . and am selling my car but not for the fuel reasons lol Also, I look for carpooling options But at the same time, I haven't changed anything because I've always done that lol Ever since I started driving, I could always go about a month on a tank of gas because I didn't drive a lot. The biggest drives were the times of cleaning up for Hurricane Rita, and going to curch and back again.

10-07-2008	#3
SharonMarie Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Isle of Wight, England Posts: 1,302 Images: 4 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? Fuel costs have always been a lot higher here anyway, $1 a gallon? No, it's over £1 a LITRE here and has been for a number of months. (Rough conversion that's £6 a gallon and in dollars that's a whopping $13 a gallon!) I'm a low mileage driver (less than a 1,000 miles a year) but I still use car less and I drive "fuel wise" ie try to make better use of the gears, brake and accelerate less harshly, drive for longer in a higher gear (which is hard because we have no straight roads here, they're all bends and twists and hills, you are up and down the gears all the time) and be less fuel consumptive.

10-08-2008	#4
HisServant77 Psalm 119:125 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Louisiana Posts: 4,011 Images: 1 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? Wow Sharon, I'm guessing that a lot of people use carpooling or they walk where you are? Well the $1 per gallon here hasn't been for quite a while, now it's about $4 a gallon or so. Though . . . wow that's nothing close to $13 a gallon!! It wouldn't be so bad though, if the area, or nation in general, were built and laid out better to accomodate other ways of transportation such as walking. I would absolutely love to be able to walk where I need to go, more than drive. Yet with the way things are with traffic and how far apart things are, it'd be . . . quite difficult to do that haha.

10-14-2008	#6
HisServant77 Psalm 119:125 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Louisiana Posts: 4,011 Images: 1 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? Sounds awesome to be able to bike to places you need to go like work That's how I wish we could do it here

10-25-2008	#7
totallyforgiven2 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 928 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? We can not really cut back much, we don't waste much gas as it is, we do right together when we can, we both work the same place, but my wife works monday through friday, and I work 8 days on, 2 days off, 7 days on, 4 days off, so there are some days it doesnt matter. We dont go shopping everyday, we try to stock up when we do go, so we dont have to go again.

10-26-2008	#8
newtronical1 Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Alabama Posts: 1,870 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? Well for starters, I have moved closer to work which I think everyone here knows. Instead of traveling 55 miles one way, I now travel 30 which is a great big blessing for me. I didnt take any summer road trips this year as I usually do. we pretty much sat at the house and did what you would usually do with 3.5 acres of land...YARDWORK! I am grateful that the fuel prices have declined in the past weeks. Its hard to believe that in September it was $4.00 a gallon and now it is around $2.50 a gallon. They are saying that it should go below the two dollar mark but not by much before it starts to rise again. Praying it does. My new riding lawn mower is a fuel drinking beast with no conscience...lol

10-26-2008	#9
wabbitwady Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 209 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? We do all our errands by areas. Not to waste any miles. Our cars are old but seem to do pretty good on gas mileage. We are at 2.25 per gal. now....which is awesome!

05-05-2009	#10
totallyforgiven2 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 928 Rep Power: 1	Re: How are you handling the energy issue? I got rid of my "piece of junk" 2007 Torrent, which in the 1.5 years I had it, had been in the shop at least 2 dozen times, and GM did not care. Not to mention it was suppose to be getting 19 MPG in the city and 27 MPG on the highway and I only got 20 MPG on 1 tank of gas, when I traded the piece of crap in, it was getting 18 MPG. I know why GM is in such financial trouble, that is because they do not care about their customers and do not take pride in their vehicles. I told GM, that when the 2009 vehicles come out that I would be trading in my Pontiac Torrent and I would NOT be buying another GM vehicle ever again. I bought a 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid and I love it, I have had it for 6 months and I have not had any problems at all and guess what!! Because it is a hybrid, when it gets warmed up, most of the time when you are under 40, it is running on electric, no you do not plug it in, it charges the battery, from the energy of when you use your brakes, when you slow down, the energy from the motor charges the battery. It is suppose to get 27 MPG on the highway and 29 MPG(after all it is an SUV), 3 weeks after I got it, we took it down to my family in the state of Indiana, it is a 6 hour trip one way and I was averaging 28.5, and 5 of the 6 hours is on interstate. I am averaging around 32-33 in my area. You know, when I had the Pontiac, it didn't matter whether you took off slow or speeded up like you were racing, the gas mileage stunk, with my hybrid, you can tell the difference in the mileage by how you drive which makes you more conscience of how you drive. I am very happy with my Hybrid. Actually, my Ford got around in the snow better in the winter than the torrent, even though my Ford is a touch smaller than the the torrent As you can see, I am getting almost double the mileage on gas which is saving me a lot and the fact that gas is around $2.09 a gallon helps too.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)