Gasoline Market Timing

All week I have been following the Hurricane Katrina coverage on NPR, Salon.com and the New York Times. It took a day or two for the magnitude of the catastrophe to sink in. I feel terrible for all those people who have lost everything and haven't been sleeping that well.

Of course, by Monday night it occured to me that gas prices would probably jump any minute. I started back at Case this week, walking to work all 5 days.

1. It gets me moving
2. It makes me feel more connected to my neighborhood and aware of the beauty I would miss if I drove
3.It saves the wear and tear of short trips on the car
4. My Case parking pass probably hasn't been activated yet anyway and I hate paying for parking
5. And not least, it's one way I can conserve energy and live lighter on the planet.

On Monday, the BP station I walked past was selling regular unleaded at $2.55/gallon, at least a dime cheaper than any other station nearby. Since I didn't drive that day, I didn't fill up and gambled it wouldn't be too bad Tuesday. With relief, I saw on Tuesday that it was still $2.57. I ran errands that evening, stopping on the way to fill my 3/4 empty tank. I was surprised there was no line. I remember right after 9/11, cars were lined up around the corner at every gas station.

The next day as I walked by and gasped when I saw the display sign--it was up to $2.99!! I had beat the system, saving about $4.00. I know, my tank is only 11 gallons, my car gets over 30 mpg, and I only drive 6000-7000 miles per year. I used to spend about $30.00 a month on gas, now it might be $60.00. The $30 extra isn't such a big deal for me, but I can't help thinking about those moms from all over suburbia driving their kids to ballet class in their SUVs. I just hope they don't decide to pull their kids out as a way of cutting back. I'm feeling like the NE Ohio recession, which lingered here for years before finally starting to lift only recently, might come back with a vengeance.

On Tuesday afternoon I went online to reserve plane tickets for our Houston trip right after Christmas. I wanted Paul to have a chance to check our flight schedule with his brother Peter before we purchased. The next day Peter sent us his itinerary (times were different than ours) with the idea that we could share a rental car.

So back to the Continental website I went, (I had just signed us both up for OnePass, since Continental is the only airline out of Cleveland that hasn't screwed us over,) plugging in the new times and cancelling the old reservation. Ack! Everything was over $100 more per person than the day before, including the same flights from yesterday's reservation! I was kicking myself for cancelling it so fast, since otherwise I could have bought it at yesterday's price, saving us $220.

But then I thought, let's check Expedia and Travelocity--maybe they haven't jacked everything up yet. And they hadn't! I bought those suckers fast, saving the $220, then emailed our itinerary to Paul's family members, advising them to book their flights ASAP before the prices go up. It felt so good to beat the system twice in one day!

This was probably my last chance to save big on gasoline-related expenses. From now on, I am even more motivated to 1. Walk instead of drive whenever possible, 2. Consolidate errands as efficiently as possible, and 3. Drive in as fuel-efficient manner as I can--stopping and starting as slowly and smoothly as I can get away with. I want to see if it makes a difference.