Whatcha doin with ur 18 cents, Mike?

Livin large with that 16 cents from Thanksgiving and 2 cents from gas in the last couple of weeks? lol

Remind me what you're talking about exactly?

The average Thanksgiving was 16 cents cheaper this year compared to last year.

Gas has dropped two cents nationally over the last two weeks.

I was joking about what you were doing with those 18 cents of savings. ;)

Oh, lmao. I had no idea. I've got no clue how Thanksgiving could possibly have been cheaper when you look at the costs of some foods recently.

ikr

Why any administration would gloat about those two things is beyond me. lol

I guess they need something to brag about.

I'm glad things have got cheaper for you two in the US. The opposite is happening in Europe, food prices have suddenly increased not sure what has caused this.

In my experience food prices are way up too. Meats and seafood especially. Steaks are out of control, and between last year and now I've seen the price of crab meat almost triple. A can of good crab that used to go for $18 I saw for almost $50 in the supermarket last week. Restaurants have all raised their prices like 20%.

Yeah, Dennis, like Mike said, its the same here. The sixteen cents on Thanksgiving items means nothing when basically all other food is up 50-100%. Two cents off gas in two weeks also means nothing when its up $1.50-$2.00 over the last 6-9 months.

Its why people laugh when the current administration here in the US posted graphs and propaganda to claim a win over 16 cents and 2 cents, respectively. Absolute madness.

It costs my dad almost $200 to fill up his big work truck, diesel is about $4/gal here now and we're about middle of the road in gas costs here in Jersey. Though I know some of the countries in Europe gas is like $6-8 a gallon, so $4 probably doesn't seem bad. But we've been having gas hover around $2.50 a gallon for close to a decade and a lot more people here rely on driving than in Europe. I think NYC is the only city/town/area in the entire country where less than half of total households own a car.

Cost of living has definately gone up considerably in Europe since Covid too. My wages don't go as far as they once did. When you see everything move up in price by a few cents those cents suddenly start becoming Euros and you begin to notice it.

In the UK there is a shortage of truck drivers who deliver food to supermarkets, it is not uncommon seeing empty shelves there when you go food shopping. That causes panic in people quicker than anything.

Buying anything outside of Spain now has suddenly become ridiculously expensive for me with import duties and taxes having increased substantially.

Same here, you see a lot of shelves looking pretty empty. The problem here is supposedly a lot of the ports are backed up because they don't have enough workers, so the barges carrying cargo are sitting in the harbors for weeks.

Gas is horrible right now. It was 1.50 when I moved up to Iowa last year to be near my folks, and now its 2.85. I live in one of the cheapest areas though, more like 3.50 in most parts. But I guess that is what happens when you close key pipelines. Oof.

Yeah, shelves are constantly bare here too. Very frustrating going to three or four stores to find what you need.

People here would be loving to see gas for $2.85 nowadays lol. Last year the average price was $2.30 now it's up to $3.42.

$1.50 to $3.00 is crazy here, especially for farmers and their larger equipment. Guess that's one explanation for rise in food costs.

Hopefully they get gas down, but I have a bad feeling it's going to keep going up and up.

How do gas prices work in the US? Is it by state or company. In Spain it's by company, the supermarket chains that have petrol stations outside their premises tend to be the cheapest. I don't look at the prices to be honest, when I need petrol I stick 20 Euros in, I have noticed it no longer fills up half the tank like it did before Covid.

Pretty much depends where you live. California is crazy, I think as high as $7-8 a gallon. Most states are between $2.75-$4.00 atm I believe.

Yeah, it's by state and also by company. I think there is a base price and then every state levies a different level of tax on it. Then after the taxes are set, each individual company is free to set the price to whatever they want within a range around that base. It changes daily. So you might go to one station and it'll be $3.13 and then a mile down the road a station has it for $3.09. Then the next day those numbers might be slightly different. There are also a few bulk "warehouse" stores like Sam's Club and BJ's that have their own stations and if you are a member of that store (that you pay a yearly fee to use) you can use their gas station and the gas is usually 10 cents a gallon cheaper.

California and Hawaii generally have the most expensive fuel, California is at $4.70 right now. The southern, more classically tax-free states like Oklahoma, and Texas usually have the cheapest. Oklahoma right now is at $2.91.

« Last edited by steelersrock01 on Dec 6th 2021 »

That's crazy, so the difference in petrol between Oklahoma and Los Angeles could be as high as $5 a gallon. Is there anything shopping haulage companies in Los Angeles getting their petrol shipped in from Oklahoma? $5 dollars a gallon is a massive difference.

Gas seems to be dropping in the last week here. I guess Biden opening up the reserves that Trump filled is the root of this, but I don't see it lasting once they are bone dry again.