Procrastination (But I Digress)

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Ten Thousand Miles

My car shows 10,000 miles on it. That means that I drove an average of about 1,000 miles per month. I get between 42 and 46 miles to the gallon, so that means I've used 227 gallons or about 23 gallons per month. At an average of $2.85 per gallon (I'm guessing--it is closer to $3 now, but I'm thinking it has been as low as 2.65), that is $65 per month for gas. Darn, it felt like a lot less than that. I thought it was only $10 a week.

Before I got the prius, I was getting very picky about driving anywhere. I thought twice about going to the grocery store, making sure it was either on my way or extremely necessary. But now, I always offer to drive in any car pool situation and when something seems far away, I think to myself, well, at least I get good gas mileage. It is a slippery slope. Hopefully this little math exercise will remind me that good gas mileage doesn't mean free.

10,000 miles. I think that means that I won extra points at millebourne (or was that 700 and 1,000 for extra points?)

2 Comments:

  • At August 11, 2009 at 5:00 PM, Blogger Marcel said…

    When something is cheaper we tend to use more of it, an old lesson in Economics. That is why entrepraneurs try to get their price down as low as they can consistant with a good profit yield. The cost per mile declined with your Prius and you took advantage of that lower cost.

    Environmental people make the mistake of believing that better gas milage will lower the carbon put into the air. It will do that but not when there is a dynamic that propels a person to automaticly drive more miles.

     
  • At August 12, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Blogger KathrynVH said…

    I would have to drive more than twice as many miles to have no savings. I used to spend at least 45 per week, now I spend 65 a month. That's still a huge savings, I am just aware enough (because of environmentalists) to know that I could do better. And I will.

     

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