Do you really know how much you spend on gas over a 12 month period? As the price of gas has grown so has your yearly gas cost. If you do figure it out you may very well be surprised and it won't be a pleasant surprise. Gasoline has become a major piece of your family budget. Do you really know how much you are spending for gas annually? Most drivers know much it costs to fill their car but not many can state with accuracy how much they spend per year.



It is easy to figure out and only takes a few minutes. That being the case one would think that most drivers would take the time to work the calculations and determine their annual expense. But most don't. If they did they might realize how important it is to their financial health to do something about it.

We see it almost every day, the increases to the price of gas. $3.00 per gallon, $3.19 per gallon, $3.39 per gallon even $3.49 and $3.59 per gallon are prices that we have become familiar with this year. Not too long ago $3.00 per gallon seemed high. Now $3.00 seems almost a bargain.

The American Automobile Association uses 15,000 miles as an average amount of miles traveled per vehicle when they calculate costs. If you on average travel 15,000 miles a year in a vehicle that runs at about 20 miles to the gallon, you will purchase around 750 gallons of gasoline per year. If the price is $3.00 per gallon that equals $2250.00 per year.

If you have a two car family and both cars average 15,000 miles per year you will use 1500 gallons of gasoline annually. 1500 gallons costing $3.00 per gallon equates to $4500.00 in expense per year.

Of course if the price of gas is $3.49 per gallon the numbers are much higher. If you are a single car household driving 15,000 miles per year you will have an expense of over $2600.00 annually. If you are a two car household your yearly expense will be over $5200.00 per year. That is equal to $437.00 monthly. You could likely be spending more for gasoline than you spend on a monthly car payment.

Each time the price of gasoline goes up at the gas pump by 10 cents the annual increase for your two car household is $150.00 per year. When the price jumps 20 cents in one day, realize that the 20 cent increase will cost you $300.00 per year.

When you consider the yearly cost of your gasoline it is staggering. When you consider that you may be spending $5200.00 per year just for gas it could well be time to seriously look at ways to lower that cost. As you figure out the 20 cent increase at the pump today will really cost $300.00 this year it becomes a great motivator to do something about it.