Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Fill'er Up

If the women of my acquaintance are all up in my grill about buying bras for under $20, the men in my life have only one thought - and for once it's not about sex. Nope, it's that other main male concern, CARS. In particular, GAS. How am I going to fill up my gas tank with only $20? Especially nowadays, when gas costs a billion dollars per gallon (thank you so much Dubya)?

Here is the sad truth: I haven't put more than $20 of gas in my tank for years. This includes when I go on road trips. Why? Because when I got my first grown-up-brand-new-I-paid-for-it car (a green Chevy Cavalier, in case you were wondering), it cost only $20 to fill the tank. And I considered THAT highway robbery, because my previous car was a Honda - which cost only $15 to fill. Now I was wasting five whole dollars. Ugh. I could have bought a pitcher of cheap beer with that.

Fast-forward to 2005, when gas prices started to creep (i.e. shoot) up. Now it cost about $35 to fill my tank. Also, about the same time the new gas prices were causing me to experience fun-filled apoplectic fits, I bought a new car (another Honda, this time an Accord). The Accord has a much bigger tank than the Chevy did. So today, if gas is $2.99 a gallon, it cost me $45 to fill my tank. Sorry, not happening.

So I stick to $20 per station trip. This drives every male passenger in my car (clients, friends, etc.) to go insane.

"Just fill the damn tank already!" they yell. No, not gonna, can't make me. Nyah.

In a nut shell (a very large nutshell) that's how I can stick to my $20 experiment when it comes to gas. And we are all better people for knowing about my weird behavior, right?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, just a thought. Doesn't it defeat the purpose of only spending $20 if you purchased the 2 pairs of shoes at Payless? Because the idea of spending $20 is to spend less money, but since you had a rule to only spend $20, and to stay within the rule, you bought more items?

Just curious. I bought a small piece of chocolate today for $.35. I think that was a deal. And WELL below $20.

Anonymous said...

I went to Steve & Barry's and got myself a pair of jeans for $11, my husband a polo for $6.49 and a pair of khakis for $11 and my girls each got a $4.98 shirt. Then the Blonde One (my husband) and I went back to Steve and Barry's and got him six shirts for less than $48! I also got a cute summer dress for $13.99 and two tanks for $5 each at Old Navy. Bargain shopping is my favorite vice...wait, I think it's tied with Diet Coke.

Anonymous said...

I have to comment again...the Air that I BreathE...I hate everything about colored jeans, especially yellow ones...jeans = NEUTRAL...today = 2007, not 1987!

The Cheap Chick said...

Yo, HaC, get your own blog to write grammer posts on - I get enuf of dat from my Dad!!! Just kidding - at least I didn't talk about the HUGH savings I got. Sigh. This blog thing doesn't have grammar check like Microsoft Word, and CLEARLY I need it.
And I agree, down with colored jeans! Color destroys their whole jean-y purpose.
And Army Girl, are you questioning the rightness of buying more shoes???? Did you fall and land on your head???? Shoes always justify themselves. As does chocolate, Diet Coke, and movies with Daniel Craig.

Anonymous said...

All savings should be HUGH, HUGH I say!