Gas Woes

I haven't really done a lot of complaining about gas prices on the blog, so I guess it's about time. Is anybody else having as much trouble as I am keeping track of what I should be paying to fill my car? There's one place on the way to work that's been the cheapest I've seen for a couple of days. In fact, they're said to be the cheapest in the area on the handy gas map (thanks, Stu!). You need to pay cash to get their lowest price, but this morning (and on the map), their price was $4.04. They've been up and down, though, and last week they were $4.20. The map's out of date already! There's another place that's not far away but that I don't go by terribly often, and they've been consistently a bit below everywhere else (although, I'm fully aware that we're only talking pennies per gallon). The last time I bought gas, they were still below $4.00. So tonight I needed to fill up, and I went by there to see what price they've got now. They were at $4.10 (The map had them at $4.14). I had some cash in my pocket, so I figured that I'd go to the lower place and fill up as much as I could afford. Unfortunately, when I drove by this morning, they were up to $4.16. Anywhere else I saw was over $4.20. I ended up being too fed up and didn't stop anywhere to fill up. That means I'll have to stop somewhere tomorrow on the way to work.

I understand that gas, like all other commodities, has fluctuations, goes up and down. But a 12-cent jump in so many hours? And does that mean every other gas station is going to rise accordingly? (Why, yes, it does). We've got a Volkswagen Jetta, not the largest car out there on the road. But I've got a feeling that tomorrow will be a momentous day. So far I've been able to hold my costs down below $50.00 for a tank of gas. Depending on how close I am to running on fumes, my streak (and it's been a lifelong streak, by the way) may be coming to an end.