Coffee heat rising

Gasoline

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The latest Consumer Reports just arrived in the mail. Not surprisingly, it devotes lots of print to saving gas, most of which comes under the heading of conventional wisdom. Every now and then, though, CR comes up with something really original.

This time they’ve figured out how much a new car costs per mile-per-gallon. This is great stuff. They did it by dividing each car’s overall mpg into the price they paid for the car, as purchased for recent tests.

Seen in this light (the light of burning gasoline?), the Honda Fit Sport with manual transmission comes out on top. CR paid $15,765 for one of these; at 34 mpg, the thing costs you $464 for each mile per gallon.

Good grief! Makes riding the bus look pretty good, doesn’t it? Hey — it’s only two hours to work and two hours ten minutes back. Could be worth it.

The base model Toyota Prius, at $23,780, rates third in their list, fairly high despite the high price, because of the 44 mpg rating. Running one of those will cost you $540 per mpg. The Hyundai Elantra GLS, at the top of this month’s ratings among gas-saving sedans, costs $17,555 or $650 per mpg. Because the gas mileage is less than the Prius’s, the Hyundai theoretically costs more to drive even though its sale price significantly cheaper. The Toyota Yaris hatchback with manual transmission came up with the lowest price per mpg, a piddling $370, but CR tested this vehicle and found it wanting. As in “not recommended.”

If money is no object, the priciest cars CR tested are the Dodge Viper SRT10 and the Mercedes SL550, which will cost you more than $6,000 for each mile per gallon.

Moving on, among used cars, you can (theoretically) pick up a 2000 Honda Insight with manual transmission for under 10 grand and get 51 mpg. The 2001-02 Prius also supposedly costs less than $10,000; it gets 41 mpg (note that not every consumer review of this vehicle can be called “glowing”).

La Maya just returned from the Imperial Valley with reports of $4.19/gallon gas prices, headed upwards. Her California relatives expect gas to be selling at $5 a gallon before long. The four-hour drive cost her $200 round trip in a Toyota Rav-4. Lordie!

Now that I no longer need the gas-guzzling Dog Chariot (a 2000 Toyota Sienna), I guess I should start looking at more efficient cars. Trouble is, I’d planned to drive it 10 years; I hate to use up my car savings to buy a new vehicle two years prematurely. Also, truth to tell a vehicle with some serious cargo space comes in mighty handy now and again. And for my old age I really, really wanted a sporty car. These gas-savers are frugal, that’s for sure. But they’re also boring, boring, boring.

I think what I should do first is calculate the real cost per gallon for my present car, using the newly learned gas-saving driving strategies (you actually can use your cruise control on a surface street, provided traffic is light and moving steadily, and it’s possible, within limits, to use it on an urban freeway). If it’s getting less than 20 mpg, I probably ought to start looking for another ride.

2 Comments left on iWeb site

Rachel @ Master Your Card

I have a Toyota Prius and it has certainly saved us a lot of oney on fuel compared to our last car. I am not sure how it compares to other hybrids or more up to date models but I am happyw ith the saving we are making.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 – 06:35 AM

vh

Oh, how I covet a Prius! Want one of those things, want want want….

But I think I’d better hang on to the van for a little while longer, since I can telecommute and so don’t actually make that 36-mile (round trip) commute five days a week. Some people think those of us who have gas guzzlers had better dump them now or take out an application to live in the poorhouse. They may be right–in another couple of years the Dog Chariot may be worthless. But given the number of behemoths still lumbering around the street, I’ll bet there will still be some demand for a vehicle that can carry cargo and kids. I hope….

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 – 08:53 AM

R.I.P. Anna H. Banana

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This morning I finally had to give up the fight and take Anna on her final chariot ride to the vet. She was in so much pain, it just wasn’t right to continue trying to keep her going.

Even when I’d made up my mind and SDXB helped me get her there, I still wasn’t sure…maybe if the pressure sores were what hurt so much, maybe there was something else to try. The vet, Dr. Brooke Hoppe, examined the sore spots carefully. When she manipulated them, the dog evinced no discomfort at all—didn’t blink an eye.

Dr. Hoppe said the large sore on her right hip was not a pressure sore and that there really was no sign of infection in it. She concluded that it was a patch of somewhat inflamed skin, and that handling it did not cause any pain. That was why Anna could lay on the hard floor on top of it—because that was not what hurt. Ditto the elbow pain: her elbow patches were just the usual calluses. One had been a bit abraded, but it was not a pressure sore.

The pain was not on the skin: it was bone-deep. Her spine was effectively calcified into an inflexible rod, and her hips were becoming deformed from the arthritis and probably, too, late-stage dysplasia. She could no longer sit at all, and to lay down she had to cantilever herself halfway there and then slide to the floor with a thud. The hair on her hocks was dirty and worn where she’d had to slide to a down position. Dr. Hoppe said there were a couple of other painkillers we could try, since the Tramadol was doing little or nothing for her. But it was unlikely they would help much, and if they did, the effort would be strictly palliative: there was nothing we could do for the condition of her bones.

So, it was time.

It’s going to be pretty lonely around this place. While I was vacuuming out the double-sided dog door preparatory to sealing it into its burglar-proof mode, I looked up and expected to see Anna standing in the door to the room, where she would be watching me whenever I indulged any such behavior. And throwing away poor old worn-out Toy was pretty hard.

But on the other hand… Now I can go out of town for a weekend. I haven’t even made a day trip in longer than I can remember, or visited my friends on the far west side, because I’ve had to be back here by six o’clock to feed and medicate the dog. I have exactly no one who can be imposed upon to come over here and feed the dog twice a day and medicate her upwards of six times a day. By the time the end finally dragged around, I was giving her 16 pills a day, smearing two different ointments on her twice a day, and administering four eyedrops every day. No one is gunna do that so I can take off for Flagstaff or Santa Fe. Now I don’t have to scour dog poop out of the porous CoolDecking around the pool-almost every day!-and now I can take down the jury-rigged fence that kept her from falling in the drink. Now I can trade in the gas-guzzling Dog Chariot for a more fuel-efficient car. Now when I clean the house, it will stay clean for a few days. And now that I don’t need a big fenced yard, I can sell my house and move someplace smaller and easier to care for.

It’s amazing to think that dog has been with me through several major phases of my life. When I brought her home as a puppy, I was solidly middle-aged. Now I’m old. That was part of the dilemma about putting her to sleep. Hey! My bones ache, too—my back aches when I get up, and my shoulders hurt and my neck hurts, but I’m not ready to shuffle off this mortal coil because of it. Why should anyone think she would be? But I have to allow, I can get up, which she could barely manage.

Now what? On the one hand, I think no more dogs!!!!! On the other, it’s hard to imagine being without a doggy companion. I’ve had dogs—big ones, shepherds and retrievers and a dobe and a greyhound—all my adult life. If I get another dog, it can’t be another 85-pounder. It will have to be small enough that I can pick it up to get it into the car if it’s sick or hurt, small enough that I can pick it up to take it out of harm’s way (oh! the aggressive off-the-leash curs Anna and I engaged!). Since I don’t much care for little yappers, I can’t imagine what kind of dog that would be.

So for the nonce I’m done imagining.

I probably won’t post tomorrow. The rest of this weekend will be spent in a cleaning frenzy.

Later!

SUV-mania persists

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Gas was $3.57 a gallon at Costco yesterday afternoon, when I stopped by on the way home from work to pay our annual dues. Having heard during the morning commute that the average price is now $3.95, that sounded like a bargain, so I decided to top off the tank.

Lines were out to the street at every pump. Fifteen people were stacked up ahead of me, and I may have been the only person there who turned off the ignition while standing. Admittedly, it was a warm day and sitting in the car with no air conditioning was a little uncomfortable-far from unbearable, but not exactly brisk and cool. Most people let their engines idle, burning gas for the ten minutes or so it took to crawl up to a pump.

Directly in front of me was a brand-spanking-new, shiny Toyota Sequoia, dealer’s paper license still in the plate-holder. The thing is the size of a Sherman tank! Its 273-horsepower 4.7-liter V-8 must get all of ten gallons to the mile. Toyota must be giving the things away-surely the only reason anyone would buy such a behemoth would be a price tag somewhere near gratis. When it finally lumbered up to the pump, what should climb out of the passenger’s seat but a vast woman with Mma Ramotswe‘s “traditional build.” She must have weighed over 200 pounds…and her gentleman friend was proportionately well fed. Big car for big folks: the springs on a beast like that should hold up under their weight, anyway.

As I stood in line breathing exhaust fumes, I counted 10 SUVs and pickups and 5 regular passenger cars. Most of the SUVs were late models. None of the sedans were low-mileage vehicles.

Pickup trucks make some sense: they’re designed to carry cargo and most people who own them use them for exactly that. Being trucks, they ride like a truck, and so it’s unlikely that many folks choose to buy them for the around-town family ride. And I can understand how you would hang on to a gas guzzler despite high fuel prices-I sure can’t afford to trade in my 2000 Sienna yet. But to go out and buy a brand-new gigantic SUV that gets 13 to 19 miles a gallon, at a time when gas is headed north of $4.00 a gallon? Clearly, market forces are not discouraging Some People’s Kids from consuming large amounts of gas and pushing the prices up for the rest of us.

Less than a third of a tank cost me what a whole fill-up used to cost, just a few months ago.

IMHO, it’s time for some legislation, and not just in leading-edge California but nationwide. We need to do more than just “encourage” people to buy fuel-efficient vehicles by offering a few lagniappes such as small tax breaks and license plates that let you drive in the HOV lane. We need to make it against the law to sell a passenger vehicle that gets less than 30 miles per gallon. Period. Force manufacturers to take that junk off the market, and force used-car dealers to quit peddling the trade-ins.

And if you can’t fit into a Matrix or a Camry hybrid, folks, maybe it’s time to go on a diet.

Amazing Grace! Annual review miracle

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Great galloping zot! For this year’s annual review, my dean has given me an unheard-of 4.5 on a scale of 4.

What on earth could she be thinking? Whatever it is, let’s not anyone argue.

This is amazing. NO ONE gets a 4. I didn’t know a 4.5 was even possible.

More to the point, it means a) the flap over excising My Bartleby from our staff was not taken unkindly at all, and b) Bartleby’s efforts to undermine me, which were much more extensive than I imagined, failed. Hmmm. It may mean c) She Who Is in Power stays in power. But we’ll try not to think about that one.

In addition to engineering the exit of an incompetent employee, however, and through a couple serendipitous moments, I’ve managed a pair of coups that save my unit money and make my dean look mighty good. After Bartleby left, we proposed to replace her position with a fourth research assistantship. This scheme caused droplets of sweat to fly into the air around our vice-president’s head: an assistantship costs the university around 40 grand, far more than the 16 thou we pay a secretary. (Yes, true: for shame!)

As a place-holder until things could be shouted through and settled out, we hired a 50% FTE (full-time equivalent) hourly worker. For this position, we took on a graduate student who needed an internship in one of the College’s high-profile programs, with the understanding that she would be replaced with an RA in the fall semester.

Meanwhile, one of my existing RAs decided to quit the Ph.D. program, having seen the light and and in the clear white glare viewed…well, what back in the day we used to call sexism. This is a highly entrepreneurial woman who does not suffer fools (or foolishness) gladly, so she decided to walk with the master’s. Well set with a husband who earns more than enough to support her and her offspring, she proposed that I hire her in the 50% FTE hourly position; then the two of us would start working on building our own business on the side.

Hot dang. This is our workhorse RA, a person of exceptional competence and drive who could, in fact, run our office in her sleep. All by her little self. She carries a ridiculous workload as it is and thinks she’s not working very hard.

I now go back to Her Deanship and suggest that we not create a fourth research assistantship at all, but instead convert the hourly job to a 49% FTE editorial assistant. You understand, at 49%, pay is the same as 50% FTE but the university does not have to provide benefits. No health insurance. No pension. No nuthin’. Dance to spring!

What this does: it causes the job to cost the College about 30% less than it would at 50% time.

The deal is done. As soon as my RA finishes her last research unit (she defends in a week or so but will wring the last few pennies out of her assistantship by carrying research credits through the end of the summer), we convert her to an editor and fill her assistantship with a new worthy from said honored program.

Too amazing! Apparently the Dean thought so, too.

Karma is on my side, after all. The flies must have been Her idea of a practical joke.

4 Comments left on iWeb site:

BeThisWay

Congratulations!

I always knew you were off the scale!

Thursday, May 29, 2008 – 03:39 PM

Turn One Pound Into One Million

Well done, you obviously did something to deserve it!

Friday, May 30, 2008 – 07:06 AM

Heath Creative Solutions

What happens when Lady Luck does not smile so favorably?I’m sure you know that in the education industry there is so much backstabbing and cutthroat politics to make even the most die-hard for-profit company CEO blush with shame.Congratulations on your good fortune and your brilliant moves, but I hope you don’t expect that things will always turn out this well.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 – 06:16 PM

vh

Indeed. There was a reason I was concerned about this year’s review. Click on the link to “My Bartleby” for a clue or two or three. Credible word had it that Bartleby had been at the dean’s office complaining about me, on some occasions dispensing wild stories in those and other precincts. At one point, for example, she told a graduate student that she was the director of our office…that would be my job, I’m afraid.

Back-stabbing and vicious politicking are not exclusive to academia. But academics have strong skills in these crafts. The fact that I nailed the woman to the wall and came out with an astronomically high rating should give us some insight into how much “luck” was involved here….

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 – 07:39 PM

New! PF Buzz

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Check out the new social media site, Personal Finance Buzz. The creation of Moolamoney‘s Pinyo, it focuses on PF stories, “made by a personal finance blogger for personal finance bloggers.”

It’s handsomely organized, with forums, a blog, and a bunch of options. Don’t fail to visit, sign up, and participate.

Great activities for a modest budget

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FaM SupporterHere’s a post by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on the topic of business credit. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal e-mail address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

 

Some people think you can’t have fun if you’re trying to budget and save money. I personally feel that couldn’t be further from the truth. While having to save money makes some events more challenging, you can still have plenty of fun doing activities. It all depends on what you’re looking for, but if you make a budget, you can fit many low-priced activities into your weekly schedule.

Go to the Movies. Going to the movie theater occasionally works just fine, even if you’re trying to save some cash. The average trip can cost less then $10 for a matinee, even if you get something to eat. I wouldn’t recommend going every weekend, but the occasional flick can be a good time. If you are still worried about saving money, skip the popcorn and drink or sneak something in from home.

Rent Movies or Watch What You Have. Truth be told, going to the movies can get expensive. Deciding to rent movies or simply watching what you already own can save you big bucks in the long run. For people who are completely addicted to movies, Netflix or a similar rental service might be a great solution. With gas prices the way they are these days, staying home can end up saving you a significant amount of cash.

Decorate Clay Dinnerware, Cups, and Serveware. While some people may feel that they are above decorating clay and going to one of those “artsy” places, I think that it’s a great use of a little money for a fun activity. It depends on what you’re interested in having colored, but usually the cost runs only around $20 or so. If you are low on plates or mugs, you can kill two birds with one stone by having a great activity while making something useful. If budget is still a concern, opt for the smaller clay products to decorate.

Cook Something New. Too many people feel going out to dinner is the only way to truly have a special meal. I personally think that food you’ve prepared yourself tastes much more delicious than many things you order at a restaurant. There’s a satisfaction associated with trying to cook something you’ve never cooked before and succeeding in making a delicious dish. The activity itself can be fun (selecting what to cook, getting the ingredients, etc.), and it also is easy on your bank account. You don’t have to spend a lot of money at a restaurant to have a nice time eating.

Play an MMORPG. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) can be quite fun. The best thing about them is that they aren’t very strenuous on your bank account. World of Warcraft, for example, costs $15 a month. While at first glance this may seem outrageous, if you consider the many hours some people play, it’s actually a bargain. A two-hour movie may be around $10, but if you play an MMORPG, chances are you’ll spend more than two hours on it. Of course, you have to remember that these games have to be played in moderation. However, I know many people (husbands, wives, and children) who enjoy games like WoW as a family. If you’re looking for a fun activity that isn’t terribly expensive, then an MMORPG might be the ticket.

Enjoy Lower-League Sporting Events. Chances are that your city has a major sports team or many major sports teams. Chances also are that tickets to games might make Bill Gates blush. Sporting events can really give your wallet a kick in the stomach, but they don’t have to. I know many people who take their families to minor league games and have just as much fun. College sporting events are also a great option (depending on the school of course). Rather than going to an NBA game, give the college scene a try. Rather than going to your MLB team’s game, see what their minor league affiliate has to offer. You can have a really fantastic time watching the home team without having to go into debt.

Go for Walks. Too few people seem take the time to simply slow things down and go on nice walks. Walks are free, healthy, and can be quite enjoyable. Check out that park down the street you’ve always wondered about, or simply go to a street in your neighborhood that you’ve never explored. When it comes to walking, the opportunities are endless. I know many couples and families who find that walks are some of their most enjoyable activities together.

Play a Board Game. What with all the online games to play, fewer people seem to be playing board games these days. Board games are the perfect activity for someone who’s trying to save cash and interact with real human beings. Watch yard sales and shop thrift shops for gently used games. Even if you do have to a buy a new one, chances are it will be a lot less expensive than the price of a visit to an amusement park or to even a movie theater. Board games are fun, cheap, and a great activity that friends and family can enjoy.

So those are some ideas for the kinds of activities that will certainly be fun and won’t hurt your wallet. If you’re trying to save money, you don’t have to sit at home and stare at the wall all day. With a little creativity, you can have just as much fun as someone who can afford to go on exotic vacations constantly (well, maybe not just as much, but almost as much).