Poll: Fuel cost for ground transportation as % of annual spend

[Midpack]

1.72% but I don't know how the metric has any meaning since there's almost nothing we all have in common WRT spending including our driving habits...

 

[jebmke]

~ .6%

 

[ivinsfan]

1.72% but I don't know how the metric has any meaning since there's almost nothing we all have in common WRT spending including our driving habits...

Well I think in the opposite of our normal polling it's get to...mine is SMALLER then yours. By itself fuel costs is part of auto cost so what does it matter.

 

[Car-Guy]

1.72% but I don't know how the metric has any meaning since there's almost nothing we all have in common WRT spending including our driving habits...

+1, I was thinking pretty much the same thing.

 

[pb4uski]

Gas prices are always a popular topic and something people seem to follow. Curious, what % of your annual spend goes to fuel for ground transportation?

Since prices have been increasing, use trailing twelve months.

3.75% here but that includes gasoline for towing our camper from New England to Florida and then Florida to Arizona and back ot Florida dn then back to New England.

I find it funny that so many people get all bent out of shape about the price of gas but if they sat down and figured out the miles they drive divided by average milse per gallon time the cost of gas that it is usually a very small part of their total budget.

 

[Dtail]

At around 3.5% of total costs using gas and tolls as the numerator.
I use a decent amount of gas traveling to play competitive pickleball.

 

[jim584672]

0.4%

 

[aja8888]

4%

 

[Jerry1]

3.75% here but that includes gasoline for towing our camper from New England to Florida and then Florida to Arizona and back ot Florida dn then back to New England.

I find it funny that so many people get all bent out of shape about the price of gas but if they sat down and figured out the miles they drive divided by average milse per gallon time the cost of gas that it is usually a very small part of their total budget.

I worry about it more because of the impact it has on everything else we buy. Transportation costs are a significant contributor to inflation.

 

[MarieIG]

3.75% here but that includes gasoline for towing our camper from New England to Florida and then Florida to Arizona and back ot Florida dn then back to New England.

I find it funny that so many people get all bent out of shape about the price of gas but if they sat down and figured out the miles they drive divided by average milse per gallon time the cost of gas that it is usually a very small part of their total budget.

Probably it's not so funny if you are a low income worker with a long commute; and that's stacked onto an increase in rent, food and utilities.

I was not low income, nor did I drive a gas guzzler, but when I was filling up once or twice a week, I did notice/feel increases in gas prices.

 

[jazz4cash]

I actually keep track of that because we always use our PenFed credit card for gas to get the 5% cash back. That card gets used for almost nothing else, beyond an occasional parking meter. So I can say the annual total for our two cars is about 1%.

Same here but I don’t track it. Penfed sends me an annual spending summary. Last year it was 1.6% (higher than I thought it would be but I’m not sure what to use for the denominator in the calculation). It’s only 30% of what I used for my ER Budget Plan. This year we are driving more so it could be double.

 

[RobbieB]

I don't know and I don't care. I have gas apathy!

 

[Exchme]

Best I can estimate, it's maybe 1-1.5%. Day to day, we don't drive much since commuting to w*rk ended. Once a month or so, we go visit family, we kind of have to rotate which car we use to burn up the oldest gas.

FWIW, the EIA figures show US gasoline consumption peaked in 2018 and so far this year is running 5% below those peak levels.

 

[scrabbler1]

For me it's about 2.5%, on the cusp between two of the survey's choices. It's not because I spend a lot for gas (once a month, about $45), though, it's because I spend so little on everything else.

 

[rk911]

i've never bothered to calculate the % we spend on fuel but it is extremely low. and since we are selling our motorhome (which hasn't moved since May of 2020) our gas bill will stay very, very low.

 

[ncbill]

fuel costs for passenger vehicles tends to be a small part of the overall expense versus maintenance & depreciation.

fuel costs are much more important for fleet vehicles.

 

[PatrickA5]

Exactly 1%. Two cars. Our trailing 12 months expenses are high, so I'd say in a "normal" year (if I ever have one of those again) we'd be around 2%.

 

[Jerry1]

I looked it up last night an my percentage is just over 3%. Part of that I’d that my overall spend this year is down. ($1,800/$55K). Also, I did take one long trip in the spring that ran about $500 in gas. Either way, not concerned about the total gas expense but am glad the price has moved down from $5.

 

[jollystomper]

Quicken is always my friend for this type of data .

Last 12 months: 2.4%

Since retirement (after June 2018): 1.4%

Last 10 years of work: 1.7%

Last ten years of commuting work: 2.0%

of course, with lower taxes in retirement, and our big retirement expense (vacation expenses, not counting gas) smaller due to the pandemic, that makes gas a bigger percentage of our expenses.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, Quicken makes it super-easy to look up.

For the last 12 months, it's 1.4% of total expenses. Without RV'ing, fuel cost does not amount to much for us.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

I'm aligned with most the comments here. Less than 2% in our household, although we do have a sizeable budget with two houses. I rarely know the price of gas, but do know the stations that historically have a good trend of fresh gas and competitive prices.

Does make me wonder how the gas thread gets nearly 500 posts and 27k views.

 

[USGrant1962]

0.85%

Like many polls here the categories are not well spaced/scaled. Based on intuition and replies to date, I suspect that most ERs and retirees are <1%. And only special cases like motorhome travelers are any where near 5%+.

 

[kgtest]

0.1%
I love driving an EV

Did it push up your Car insurance and electrical costs as a % of overall budget at all?

 

[kgtest]

Mine is a bit less than 5% of our total spend...but my wife puts on a LOT of miles for work, and is reimbursed for the work miles she drives, and I also fill up for business use (ethanol free for chain saws and small engines I use for my tree business, diesel for the 2500HD hauling tree debris in the trailer, and fuel to drive to estimates and job sites). So SOME of that is tax deductible, some of it is reimbursed...

and that doesn't include vehicle registration, insurance, oil changes, car washes, vehicle maintenance costs, uber/lyft fees, car rental costs etc.

IF I had to dive into transportation as a whole, including all the above line items, my guess is it would be close to 10%.

I will have a much closer and accurate number closer to fiscal year end as I do my year end taxes. I will be forced to dive deeper into the line items at that time.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

0.85%

Like many polls here the categories are not well spaced/scaled. Based on intuition and replies to date, I suspect that most ERs and retirees are <1%. And only special cases like motorhome travelers are any where near 5%+.

Poll categories were sized in respect to other “price of gas” thread with >20k views. The savvy folks on this forum wouldn’t spend that much time in their day talking about <1% of their budget. I was expecting to hear from the >5%’rs where 50% swings might be relevant.

Still confused why price of fuel is such a popular topic.