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

[WhenIsItTime]

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.

 

[Aerides]

Overall fuel or overall transport?

As in... percent of the car cost, new tires, oil changes, washes, maintanance...+ fuel? Eh sorry I don't keep track to that degree.

But a swag on how much I fill my tank + the typical cost / weeks...1% ish?

 

[Car-Guy]

I don't keep track of such "details" but I'd guess/estimate over the past 12 months it's been ~8% of my total annual spend. I drive a lot (more than usual in the past 12 months) and of course fuel prices have been high. And a lot of my driving is with vehicles that require the use of higher priced premium gas.


An outlier around here, no doubt.

 

[Alan]

I have actually been tracking my car fuel costs this last 3 years and it was 1.86% of total annual spend last year. This year it will be about 2.2%

 

[REWahoo]

1.9% for us. This is down considerably from our RVing days when we spent as much as 5.0% (2011).

 

[Zathras]

0.1%
I love driving an EV

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Ours is so low it is insignificant. I must admit I did have to look though. I calculated it for 2021 @ ~1%

 

[CRLLS]

I don't track expenses by category. I do an annual review of the total spent vs planned. However, I do budget by category. Currently, vehicle fuel is budgeted at 5.7% of all planned expenses. By comparison, all vehicle expenses including fuel, insurance, registration and service is 9.8% of our total budget.

Edit: According to our SWR calculations, we could spend more than we are. This would lower our fuel cost percentage and the total vehicle cost too. So, I'm not sure what this is all about.

 

[Jerry1]

Fuel cost is not that big of an issue. I’ll see if I can calculate it later. We just don’t drive much anymore. However, that doesn’t mean I was happy about filling up my truck and it costing over $100. It’s a little better now, but again, the total cost is not an issue. Frankly, the total cost is more of an issue. With insurance and maintenance, keeping two cars running is more expensive than it’s worth, but I’m not ready to go down to one car.

 

[braumeister]

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%.

 

[marinauser]

1% of total expenses for the last 12 months.

 

[Winemaker]

We have 3 vehicles, I luxury that takes premium, a daily driver SUV, and my small 4x4 pickup. We have received 1 free 30 gallon fill per month since 2013 (except once) due to grocery store reward points. So about 0.1%.

 

[38Chevy454]

Like many others I do not track that as an individual item. But in my head calculation numbers say fuel cost is around 2% for all vehicles (daily drivers, RV, classic cars, lawnmower). At recent gas prices I spend about $20/mo for lawnmowing! I am sure my total fuel cost would be much higher if I was still commuting.

 

[W2R]

I've only got gas twice so far this year, for a total of $95.

So, it's less than 1%, I guess more like 0.35%. This is NOT due to any great virtue on my part! It's just that everything I need or want is close by or available from Amazon or other online sources. Also we don't travel. So, our gas usage is pretty minimal.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

Not a penny.

2 EV's.

Free chargers are scattered all over the area.

Last time I bought gasoline was 2018.

 

[MRG]

I'll buy a couple tanks when the snow gets deep.

 

[Cobra9777]

Ours is 1.8%. Half of that is for several trips in our new Class B RV. We plan to travel more/farther in the Fall than we have so far this year. So it will probably go up a bit to around 2%. Then again, gas prices have come down a lot compared to what we spent earlier in the year. In any case, it's completely immaterial in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Gumby]

Less than 1% of our annual spending goes for gasoline. We spend almost twice as much on haircuts

 

[karen1972]

3 road trips across 11 states pushed it up to 3.3%, without the road trips, I was at 2.2%.

 

[ERD50]

Not enough to worry about, and what difference would it make to me?

I only drive as much as I need/want. I don't decide to just drive around for the heck of it when gas prices are low, and I don't really modify my driving habits when gas prices are high, since I do so little 'discretionary driving'.

If measuring it isn't going to modify my behavior, I don't see the point. I do watch my car's mpg figures, just to be sure nothing's out of whack (though that would generally trigger a Check Engine Light).

-ERD50

 

[MichaelB]

1.9% for us. This is down considerably from our RVing days when we spent as much as 5.0% (2011).

Sounds like the RV paid for itself that summer.

 

[rodi]

Ours was 5%. But we bought a beater van that we partially converted for camping (no kitchen or toilet, but nice sleeping area and we can camp with the dog.). Last year was our first empty nest school year so we've been taking it out a lot. The van only gets 13mpg... so it ate gas. And two of our recent trips were during the current high gas prices.

Add to that the deal I have with older son - when he comes to visit, I fill up his tank before he leaves... He drives a beater Ford F-150. So that's $80-100 a shot.

And we've had several trips associated with dropping off/picking up younger son from college 6 hours away.

If you take away vacation trips in gas hogs (vs our rav 4 which sips gas) it would be 1%.

Edited to add: I also live in SoCal which has some of the highest price gas in the country...

 

[Teacher Terry]

I use one tank of gas a month for 55 and prices are very high.

 

[MarieIG]

IDK. I don't drive much post retirement. DH is driving a lot due to the grands and has a big vehicle that fits three car seat. This week he will be driving DIL and grands down to Jacksonville where DS has been sent for training. (DH is now driving hour and a half each way to pick up medical supplies for DGD as she could not wait for delivery tomorrow.)

Our electric bills however are quite high. We had a run of almost 100 degree weather last month; and this month I got a nasty-gram-report-card from the utility for using too much electricity due to AC. The house is not large and we do have one of those ECO thermometers. . .

 

[Sunset]

Not enough to worry about, and what difference would it make to me?



I only drive as much as I need/want. I don't decide to just drive around for the heck of it when gas prices are low, and I don't really modify my driving habits when gas prices are high, since I do so little 'discretionary driving'.



If measuring it isn't going to modify my behavior, I don't see the point. I do watch my car's mpg figures, just to be sure nothing's out of whack (though that would generally trigger a Check Engine Light).



-ERD50

+1
While I noticed the high gas prices, I only drive for a purpose.

I do recall 60 years ago, my parents would go for a, Sunday drive, just to drive. Seems so odd now.