Petrol Prices

[TwinklingFairyLights]

For the first time ever, I'm having to think about condensing journeys. So instead of popping to the supermarket on a Tuesday and Gym on a Wednesday, I'm combining them in to one trip. Petrol is just extortionate.

Remember a good chunk of the price is taxation. International oil prices are high and if you see what they do do to get the oil and refine it you would think it's cheap.

We’ve been doing this too. Also taking my tiny car on family trips rather than DHs much bigger one as we usually would as my car is much cheaper to run.

I've got a small car too. It cost me £72 to fill it up last week.

And the tax is where I think the government should step in to help out. Reduce / remove VAT on petrol, for example.

Wow! I think mine is currently in the £45-50 region to fill up. Not filled it all the way up for a while though so not completely sure.

we’re taking dd1 on a uni visit 3.5 hours drive away this month. We would usually take DHs car on such a trip as it’s a comfortable car for a long motor way dive. But this time we’re going to have to put up with my little granny car as it will cost literally half as much, still more than I would like!!

It is extortionate and we’re doing similar, but I think this is probably a good thing on the whole (not the price - the thinking carefully about car use). Too many of us (me included) have jumped into a car without a thought to do journeys that weren’t necessary, without consideration of the cost to ourselves and the environment. I feel that I should be more intentional about my car use.

@Ohhelpicantthinkofaname

I thought mine was cheap. It was always around the £40 - 45 mark to fill up. It's a Polo.

Mone hasn't filled on the £99 pay at pump limit the last few times I've been. 2nd time I put an extra £9 in and last week an extra £12.

I've always done stuff like that. Saves time as well as money.

If I knew I was going out on Wednesday and didn't need to go to the supermarket on Tuesday, I'd definitely just do both on Wednesday, especially if you can just walk to the local Co-op for milk in the meantime or whatever.

Quite surprised how many people don't seem to have thought of all this stuff before, it's second nature to me, always has been.

It's got to be hitting people who drive between jobs, cleaners, carers etc as I don't think they can claim back petrol.

It's at 183.9 per litre here for super plus unleaded, and 174.9 for the cheap stuff.

Carers if employed by a company can claim fuel money. But it’s never a very generous allowance. This will be hitting them really hard.

Meant to add that's the supermarket fuel. The shell garage is currently 190.9 per litre.

We are off to France soon, quick euro £ conversion and their supermarket prices are approx 20p per litre less than we are paying atm.

Boris is getting far more now in taxation than he was 12 months ago, so if he wants to boost his popularity and help us all out, why isn't he giving some of this back? and no, not a 5p pittance, which was rarely passed on.

Govt would to put in some law to make sure retailers do.

Its 25p per mile, in Cornwall... remember this is for running your own car.... so barely covers the fuel, let alone business insurance or damage wear an tear.

HMRC rates are always 6 months behind too.

We holidayed in Malta a few weeks ago. The price at every filling station we saw was the same. It cost the equivalent of £33 to fill a small Peugeot.

Here the price varies wildly in different parts of the country. It’s about 10p a litre cheaper 50 miles north of here. Why the government doesn’t set a national price for it, I really don’t know.

1.2 litre patrol car here. Cost £42 this morning to top up half a tank. We're going to have to look at reducing social use of the car I think. The car can do 400 miles on a full tank but I'm doing 100 miles a week and need to get to the end of the month on maybe another £20 of fuel. It's eye watering.

Yeah I know, I had that same argument with one of the operations managers when I was a carer years ago and they cut our fuel allowance. She was arguing that it more than covered the price of fuel, she didn’t like to be reminded that it’s also meant to cover the extra wear and tear and other accumulated costs related to doing more miles for your job.

it was 30p per mile for us then. I don’t know what it is now.

I think I used to get c 11p per mile. It's now more like c 18p per mile out of my car. If people can only claim 25p per mile back then they aren't getting much towards insurance and wear and tear.

I walk to work and two supermarkets are closeby, so I'm going to them 3/4 times a week rather than use the car for grocery shopping. Also, if we fancy going out for a walk and some fresh air, we're doing it locally rather than drive to the town's park or another area. Some of my friends live up to two miles away, so if I want to drop something off, again I'm walking from work as enroute or cycling.

Agree 25p isn't going to cover petrol, wear and tear, insurance, MOT, service.

25p per mile isn't good. Back in 2014 I used to have to use my own car occasionally. I could claim 45p per mile though. That was an office job and I occasionally had to drive to another site. At the time my car was getting about 11p per mile so 45p per mile seemed quite generous.

Dp has to do 2 transactions at the pump now - big tank, huge engine. We mostly use my car when out together as it gets almost twice as much to the gallon on the open road or we take the motorbike. So expensive. I'm currently thinking about getting my motorcycle licence and getting a fully electric commuter bike but management company needs to change the covenant so we can install an electric charge point

I just put £72 in to my 1.25 Fiesta.
I do home care, and it's a real problem. Shortish commute, but that alone is still costing me £50 a month, more. Then, my mileage rate is 11p per mile, which is no where near enough. It never did cover the actual miles I do between visits. It doesn't account for traffic, or having to use the bypass, rather than the High Street on Saturdays and market days. Or having to go the long way round to avoid the many, many roadworks and road closures.
The Universal Credit deduction rate, which went from 63% to 55% will just about cover the increased cost of working, but nothing else.

So you can only claim 11p per mile from your employer?

Yes 11p.