On January 3 I sat at the kitchen table with the spiral notebook from the Silverado's door pocket, a calculator and a cup of coffee that went cold, and added up every fill-up since March 1. The number at the bottom was $3,604.
That's gas only, for ten months, across three vehicles. I started the spreadsheet fresh when I started this blog in March, so this is March through December. The notebook goes back to 2016, but the older years are in my handwriting and I'd rather not relive them.
By vehicle
Here's how it breaks down:
- 2014 Silverado (my commuter): 9,200 miles, 609 gallons, $1,778
- 2011 Sienna (Tina's van): 10,600 miles, 609 gallons, $1,785
- 2012 Civic (Garrett's, since December 6): about 450 miles, 15 gallons, $41
Total: 1,233 gallons, $3,604. The average price I paid across the year comes out to $2.92 a gallon.
The first thing that jumps out is that the truck and the van used almost exactly the same amount of gas. I would have bet money the truck burned more. The V8 is the thirstier engine, no question: the truck averaged 15.1 mpg on my notebook numbers for the year, and the van averaged 17.4. But the van drove 1,400 more miles than the truck did.
Part of that is the school year. Part of it is that my truck sat at the body shop from the deer hit on November 8 until December 19 waiting on parts. Six weeks off the road did more for the truck's gas line than anything I tried on purpose.
Dividing dollars by miles gives the number I actually care about:
The Silverado cost 19.3 cents a mile in gas. The Sienna cost 16.8 cents. The Civic, in its short first month, came in at about 9 cents.
That Civic number is why we bought a Civic. Garrett's car gets around 32 mpg, so every mile he drives in it instead of the van saves about eight cents. That's not a reason to send him on errands, but it does make me less grumpy about it.
For my commute specifically, 22 miles a day in the truck at last year's prices ran about $4.25 a day in gas. When I worked it out last April at $2.89 and 16 mpg, I got $3.97. The difference is that real life includes winter warmups, a few weekend hauls and an on-call Saturday or two. The notebook is always a little less flattering than the plan.
By month
Ten months averages out to $360 a month. But it wasn't even.
August was the worst at $431. The van went about 1,420 miles that month with two schools, volleyball and a mowing route, and the truck did its usual commuting on top. Gas was also near the year's high, around $2.95 at times.
December was the cheapest at $264. The truck was parked at the body shop for most of it, and gas dropped to about $2.69 in town, the lowest we saw all year.
Summer in general ran higher than spring, partly because of prices and partly because the van's air conditioning runs from May to September and costs a little mileage. Missouri's gas tax also went up a step in July, which you notice in pennies, not dollars.
What I'm doing with this
A few things. First, I now know our gas budget for a full year is about $4,300 if nothing changes, and something will change, because Garrett gets his license this month and the Civic starts doing real miles. Second, I'm going to keep a separate line for the Civic so we can see what Garrett's driving actually costs. He's going to hate that, and he's going to learn more from it than from anything I say.
Third, I'm going to stop assuming the truck is the problem. The van is old, it's driven hard in town and it nearly matched the truck gallon for gallon. Next year I'll watch both of them the same way.
Tina's only comment on the whole report was, "So the van's not the cheap one." No, it's not. Don't tell it.