racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Using simple math, what is the estimated cost of the weekly gas price increases for you?

For me, I use this computation:

• I load up about 35 liters of gas per Friday (since gas companies increase prices Saturday a.m.), which translates to my weekly consumption.
• Multiply this with the average increase of PhP 1.50 per liter each week. That’s PhP 52.50 in a week.
• Given four weeks in a month, the cost of gas price increases to my household is PhP 210 monthly.

We consider ourselves fortunate, because the kids’ school (and conveniently, where the wife teaches, too!) is just about 2.5 km from our home.

Our daily travel routine is usually this: I bring them all to school in the morning, and return home to do some work (home work or work work). Then I fetch them before noon, attend mass at the nearby University parish, and then we head home. We only go out weekends to dine out and/or buy groceries.

So in a week, we travel an average of 250 to 300 km. (My car’s mileage is pretty low, at about 7.5 to 8 km/liter.)

Others may not be as lucky, particularly those who have long commutes. At least the traffic situation in Metro Manila has improved because many are opting instead to take public transportation or carpool to save on gas. A reported rollback of prices by PhP 1 per liter might be good news, but we do need a longer-term solution to cope with rising costs of living.

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