My husband and I live 162 miles away from where I work. He farms, and the farm can't move. I work in IT, and even though I CAN do my job from home, they won't let me. I drive to work Monday mornings and drive home Thursday nights. We just got married 3 months ago. It sucks.
I drive a F-150 pickup that gets 16 mpg. I don't want to get a smaller car because I drive past a lake for 20 miles of my "commute" and regularly see deer on the roads - even hit one, and though I had to get my bumper replaced, I didn't completely squash the car. I drive interstate for the other 142 miles and don't want to get squashed by a truck. My brother installs a component on vehicles that reprograms the computer that will lower fuel consumption. It will cost around $1300 and will improve the fuel mileage from 16 to 24. I spend around $500 in gas just for me to get to work each month. It will pay for itself in about 8 months. I think I am going to do this.
This doesn't count the farm diesel that he uses.
I have a very good paying job. If I was to try to get something around there, it would pay about 1/3 of what I make now. I am looking for a job that will allow telecommuting, but isn't everyone? Have had three jobs say they would hire me if I would move there. But I can't.
I think that the entire reason gas is rising is because our dollar is falling. Our money just doesn't buy as much as it used to. That is why commodities are rising too...other countries can now buy our grain for cheaper, because their money goes farther than our money does.
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