Cheapest Fuel seen

[Calaber]

people cry a river right now when it bumps around a bit, they freaked out when they thought it was going to jump to $2 from $1.20 - honestly, you should factor that in when you own a vehicle.

Fuel doubling in price isn't the end of the world unless you are living on the edge of your budget, week to week so to speak.

Right now I could easily go up to $2 a litre (I already buy 98 @ $1.60+ or whatever it is on the down cycle). I'm not rich, just realistic.

You don't need to be driving a V8 to feel the pain of fuel increasing as was talked about. It might not hurt you but many people who are not "living on the edge" would feel real pain if fuel rose to that price, even if their cars were economical buzz-boxes.

 

[mpower]

You don't need to be driving a V8 to feel the pain of fuel increasing as was talked about. It might not hurt you but many people who are not "living on the edge" would feel real pain if fuel rose to that price, even if their cars were economical buzz-boxes.

If you can't afford things going up your budgeting is completely out of whack.

More to the point as demonstrated earlier when you factor in inflation fuel has been incredibly flat. Look back 10 years and fuel was the exact same price as today.

 

[Mike Litherous]

I would prefer expensive fuel as it would reduce the traffic. Although $2ltr wouldn't do much for the resale value of v8's.

I don't get why people think that the times in the 70's-80's were better. Now days as a young male you get females sending you there naked pics straight to your phone. As a young chap in the 80's we come of only dream of such wonderful things.

 

[Wozza]

I never understood all this chancing fuel prices thing, ppl driving 1/2 way across the state to save 2 cents a lt is madness(then they will spend 4$ on a can of coke at the same station ...nutters) . I always put 30$ in and drive till its almost gone and put in another 30$..... siiiimples... sometimes Im up sometimes Im down.... meh suppose Im lucky as I only do 8km a day to work and back and 30$ of fuel normally last me a fortnight....

 

[Wozza]

Now days as a young male you get females sending you there naked pics straight to your phone.

WTF have to get me one of those pc walkie talkies in the olden days we use to drive around and yell out flash ya tits

 

[Calaber]

If you can't afford things going up your budgeting is completely out of whack.

What bullshit. Must be lovely living in cloud cuckoo land.

If you're fortunate enough to be able to live within your means, regardless of increases the cost of just about anything, good luck to you.

Plenty of prudent, careful and intelligent people have tried to do that in the past and been caught out badly.

Might even happen to you one day. Then you can come back to earth with a thump and live with the rest of us mortals.

 

[mpower]

What bullshit. Must be lovely living in cloud cuckoo land.

If you're fortunate enough to be able to live within your means, regardless of increases the cost of just about anything, good luck to you.

Plenty of prudent, careful and intelligent people have tried to do that in the past and been caught out badly.

Might even happen to you one day. Then you can come back to earth with a thump and live with the rest of us mortals.

I don't live in cloud cuckoo land, I live with the mindset that I need a buffer, that buffer should be able to cope with some wiggle room on fuel costs - and tbh it hasn't had to.

Hey, it's one of the reasons why I drive 14 year old cars.....!

I don't intend to come thumping down to earth, I do an old fashioned thing called living within my means, and saving!

But you bring up a great point - some people don't do this, they stretch every dollar then interest rates go up and the bank forecloses on their mortgage because they have no buffer. Lost their job and bang, homeless.

TBH fuel has been a great thing to myself and many others (without knowing) simply because it's pricing has stagnated, not that I'm complaining - it means I can drive a V8 to work and it's cheaper than public transport!

 

[Calaber]

If you're sensible enough to live 'WELL" within your means (which many can't), then it's reasonable to assume that you will be immune from the unforseen.

TBH, petrol price increases, which started this sub-debate, are piffling on the scale of things. Lots of families are going to dump private medical insurance this month because of recent increases. When commodities or essential services escalate beyond inflation rates and outstrip wage increases, hard decisions are necessary and something has to go.

Did you have a mortgage in the late 1980's? I did, and I guess I must have been like you, because when interest rates blew out to 17.5%, defaults on mortgages blew out unbelievably across the nation. The magnitude of the increase was beyond anybody's anticipation (it was the time of Keating's infamous statement that "this was the recession we had to have"). I was fortunate (or clever) enough to have kept the size of my mortgage well within my capacity to repay and the fortnightly instalments were pretty awful, but when the rates fell, I was able to maintain the repayments at the higher rate and the mortgage really started to decrease. If I'd listened to friends, or taken my wife's income into account when we took out our mortgage, we would have been in real strife. (Young people arranging mortgages these days can't even imagine interest rates of 17.5%, but during the early 80's, the average rate was around 11 to 13 percent and they hurt back then, too.)

More recently, the increases in electricity prices over a number of consecutive years has meant drastic cut-backs for many households and those on limited or fixed budgets like pensioners probably suffered the worst. Do you think they failed to prepare themselves? Hardly.

It's pretty easy to be dismissive of somebody complaining about the increases in fuel or food or whatever, but some things are not so cut and dried.

 

[Rajesh Koothrappali]

Fuel would have to be above $3.00 a litre before I start to even look at the price I pay at the pump. The only thing I ever go by is when my car needs it.

 

[mpower]

If you're sensible enough to live 'WELL" within your means (which many can't), then it's reasonable to assume that you will be immune from the unforseen.

TBH, petrol price increases, which started this sub-debate, are piffling on the scale of things. Lots of families are going to dump private medical insurance this month because of recent increases. When commodities or essential services escalate beyond inflation rates and outstrip wage increases, hard decisions are necessary and something has to go.

Did you have a mortgage in the late 1980's? I did, and I guess I must have been like you, because when interest rates blew out to 17.5%, defaults on mortgages blew out unbelievably across the nation. The magnitude of the increase was beyond anybody's anticipation (it was the time of Keating's infamous statement that "this was the recession we had to have"). I was fortunate (or clever) enough to have kept the size of my mortgage well within my capacity to repay and the fortnightly instalments were pretty awful, but when the rates fell, I was able to maintain the repayments at the higher rate and the mortgage really started to decrease. If I'd listened to friends, or taken my wife's income into account when we took out our mortgage, we would have been in real strife. (Young people arranging mortgages these days can't even imagine interest rates of 17.5%, but during the early 80's, the average rate was around 11 to 13 percent and they hurt back then, too.)

More recently, the increases in electricity prices over a number of consecutive years has meant drastic cut-backs for many households and those on limited or fixed budgets like pensioners probably suffered the worst. Do you think they failed to prepare themselves? Hardly.

It's pretty easy to be dismissive of somebody complaining about the increases in fuel or food or whatever, but some things are not so cut and dried.

Honestly I'm not trying to be dismissive even though I opened with flippant throwaway remarks - I am however amazed at how quickly people will gladly take huge devaluation hits on a vehicle and then turn around and complain about 10c rise at the pump. Pick one I say, not both. AND on top of that they drag their stupid shop a docket in to save less than $2 on a tank of fuel!?

I've seen people trade in cars and trot out BS like "my new car saved me tons of money on fuel" - yeah maybe a bit, but the new car is going to run thousands in interest payments and the old one just cost you thousands in devaluation - all so they can save $5-10 a week at the pump, it's crazy!?

Minimise the big hits and you can absorb the little day to day stuff with ease.

When I was poor my car cost $3k cash - I see people on the same money as I was then and they drive cars that are worth more than my cars are now - those twats cannot afford that car, but the bank gave them enough rope to hang themselves - I have no pity whatsoever when they hang, none.

Be an adult, have some self control and suddenly the world isn't as hard as it could be.