You Budget How Much For Gasoline/Fuel?

I’ll be continue covering our budget this month. In this post, I’ll be discussing our fuel or gasoline budget. This one is a little tricky because it can vary a bit depending on a number of factors, such as the types of cars you drive and the number of miles driven each month.

Get to the point already!

Here it is – each month we budget $200 for gasoline or fuel. There have been periods of time where it has been more or less depending on what gasoline prices are. On average, $200 seems to cover it every month.

What do you drive?

We drive two different vehicles in our home, and they’re somewhat opposites when it comes to miles per gallon. Our first car, and the one driven the most, is a 2006 Toyota Prius and gets almost 50 MPG depending on the weather. It has over 200k miles at this point and continues to run well. I commute about 50 miles each day to work, not counting additional driving on the weekend.

Our second vehicle is a 2011 Toyota Sienna. It averages anywhere from 19-23 MPG depending on the type of driving that we’re doing. My wife drives it a varying number of miles each day. Some days that might be a lot, and other days it may sit in the garage.

What all does it cover?

Unlike the grocery budget, the gasoline category is pretty simple. It covers gasoline and fuel for our cars and lawn mower. There is one minor exception to this – vacation. If we’re driving somewhere for vacation, we tend to not use the fuel budget, but instead use whatever we’ve got budgeted for vacation instead.

Checkup

How much do you spend on gasoline each month? Do we spend more or less than you do? I’d love to see in the comments below.

Photo by Adam Hinett

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