Latest Petrol Rises : How are you coping?

sreppaw

steady__eddie wrote: »

"
Does this mean that you will be pushing the bike the other half the time ? :rotfl: "

No, it just means I'll give it a miss when there is heavy rain or when I need to take more stuff into work.

Used to cycle all the time when work was 3 miles away, in the city centre, it was much quicker and cheaper and easier to park.

To the nurse here, you should be able to get 20p/mile for cycling for work. (Not to work though), if your employer doesn't allow you to claim through them, keep a record and you can submit it to HMRC through a self assesment form at the end of the year.

prettypennies

My school run distance is short but time contraints make it necessary for me to drive unfortunately. After dropping the kids at school, I have less than 10 mins to get to my school where I work and the same again at the end of the day(used to work 6 hours less a week which gave me the time to walk, but head keeps pushing me to do more and more hours :mad: ).

I would love to walk it, but it is not physically possible in the time.

I get most of my groceries delivered and try to stick to a meal plan to prevent unecessary trips to the shops.

I have a 1.4l petrol car and am using roughly £25 per week.

M-People

Because I live 50 miles from work, I get a monthly 'travel bonus' which essentially pays my petrol, but because my boss is rubbish with numbers, that bonus always comes out at about 3 times more than I spend on petrol in that month - and thats not just on journeys to work, so I now get loads!

Plus my car does on average 87mpg! :A
:T

C_Ronaldo

M-People wrote: »

Because I live 50 miles from work, I get a monthly 'travel bonus' which essentially pays my petrol, but because my boss is rubbish with numbers, that bonus always comes out at about 3 times more than I spend on petrol in that month - and thats not just on journeys to work, so I now get loads!

Plus my car does on average 87mpg! :A
:T

if your boss is rubbish with numbers how is he a boss

Sheepy1209

I saw the writing on the wall for fuel prices years ago, and decided to stick with a local job (ten miles away), live where we can walk for most things we need, and where there's a reasonable bus service. For once it looks like I made a sensible decision!

I also got a bike licence, planning to run something like a 125cc for my commute (90 - 100mpg). Trouble is I'm now running a 1300cc and getting less than 40mpg

My biggest expense is visiting my kids - they live 150 miles away and I've always gone there once a month - thankfully they're getting older now and I can cut out the occasional visit, but it's still a big hit. Mind you, some of them are now old enough to come and see me instead!

Unfortunately I think tinkering with fuel duty here and there is only a temporary fix; we've all adjusted to a car-based society over the last few decades, and it's going to take at least as long to change back. Fuel taxation is beginning to make that happen, but it's time to slack off a bit and give us time to re-arrange our lives.

sparrer

I've recently retired on basic pension so have had to pull my belt in, in all areas. I use the car perhaps twice a week, amalgamating all essential chores (shopping, meetings, appts etc) into one outing. I do however have a mother of 87 who lives 80 miles from me and visit her at least once a month. Whereas it used to cost me approx £23 it's now £30 + each trip. This weekend is hitting hard as it's her b/day on Sat so I have to go then, and on Tues I take her away for a short hol so have to make the journey again.

Unfortunately public transport isn't a possibility as I don't have a railway station nearby, and she doesn't have a bus stop. Oh, the joys of living in the country!

Oh, the joys of living under a Labour government :mad:

Annie021063

I have decided to spend the last eight weeks at school (I work in a school) cycling instead of taking the car. This will mean getting up earlier and DS also having to cycle but the benefits far outweigh the ease of jumping in the car.

• we will be fitter
• I will lose weight quicker
• it is cheaper
• it is better for the environment

I will also try and make those short trips on my bike if I have to. I have done 21600 miles in my car in 44 months which equates to 122 miles a week. Working at 50 mpg I equate that to 11 miles per litre (please correct me if I am wrong here) my 119 miles average is costing me £12.75 a week (rounded)
Wow!!!! that's £50+ a month on getting to work and running the kids about.
I'm going to challenge myself for June to reduce my costs to £15!!!!
I will edit this message on the 1st June with my mileage and we shall see.

Anyone want to join me please feel free

THXbob

I filled up with petrol at the weekend and it was just shy of £75!!!! I'm currently doing a 62 mile round trip to work through the Peak District so I don't have any option than to use my car (2.9 VR6 Corrado). Can't afford another car so at this rate my monthly fuel bill will be more than my mortgage.

Bob

Idiophreak

Starting not to cope very well with it, to be honest. I know it sounds stupid, but until recently I've never really thought that much about the cost of driving - if I wanted to go somewhere, I'd just go - but now it's so high you *have* to think about it...and that's bad news. I don't travel to see my friends so much, think twice about going shopping, playing golf etc. It's gotta be bad news for the economy - I'm not going anywhere to spend money - but worse than that, I'm starting to feel trapped and confined to my house. It's just miserable.

Annie021063

Idiophreak wrote: »

Starting not to cope very well with it, to be honest. I know it sounds stupid, but until recently I've never really thought that much about the cost of driving - if I wanted to go somewhere, I'd just go - but now it's so high you *have* to think about it...and that's bad news. I don't travel to see my friends so much, think twice about going shopping, playing golf etc. It's gotta be bad news for the economy - I'm not going anywhere to spend money - but worse than that, I'm starting to feel trapped and confined to my house. It's just miserable.

I can really understand you on this. I now think twice about whether a journey is necessary in my car, can I combine them? We do have the luxury of one of our cars petrol being paid for by hubbies firm but even they are making noises about stopping petrol allowance. We would be in serious trouble if that happened as he is using £50+ a week. I usually try and wait so I can use his car.