Tuesday’s Entry

Day 2 of my unemployment blog is here. I have noticed that the one thing that we have going for us is the price of gas. If we were out of work a year ago, this would have been much more painful. Hopefully everyone out there is getting a slight break from their gas costs.
Two months before I was laid-off, I bought a new Ford Focus for the gas savings. I was traveling about 80 miles a day to and from work and I was driving a Ford Mustang Cobra that got somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 miles to the gallon on the freeway and 13 miles to the gallon on side streets. So, I figured it was time to get rid of the gas guzzler (which was paid-off) and get myself a more fuel efficient car (which included a car payment) only to get laid-off two and a half months later.

Well its better for the planet in the end. I still have to pump money into our other car, which is a gas guzzling Ford Expedition. For that reason alone I am happy with the lower gas prices. I can now afford to fill up my Expedition and not have it cost me $100.00. Before the prices had come down so much, we would only drive the Expedition locally such as the store or to pick up my son from school. Without a job, you just cannot afford to drop $100.00 into the gas tank every week.
Instead, my wife and I would switch off cars when we had to go somewhere of any distance. My wife would take it to work on the days that she works since her work is almost 30 miles from home and when I was doing some contract work that I had, I would take it on the days I went in for that work.

For the most part it worked out well for us. I encourage everyone to try and save money by doing something like this if you can work it into your driving schedule. It will put more wear and tear on the one vehicle, but it will be worth it in the long run.