What are gas prices where you're at?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

It was $3.05 earlier this week.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Gosh - I've got no clue.  There's no gas stations on campus, and I haven't been off in a while.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

$3.71

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

$3.29 is what my mom paid when I called her on Monday.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

$2.33!

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

1.94!  Below $2.00 finally!!!

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I went to get gas to 7-Eleven tonight (usually get it elsewhere) and as I'm going to pay, the guy tells me that he had a surprise or something. He then told me that I'd be getting gas at $1.95 a gallon. I was the first person to fill up at that price at that location. This is the first time I've seen gas below $2 in PA in years.

You have to talk to a guy to buy gas?

A lot of places charge moreif you pay with credit, so I always go in and pay with cash.  I'm assuming that's why Phil does it too.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Just talked to my dad - gas is$1.69 back home.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

A lot of places charge moreif you pay with credit, so I always go in and pay with cash.  I'm assuming that's why Phil does it too.

That's incredibly inefficient.

Paying with cash?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Yeah.

How?  You save like 6-9 cents a gallon.  And you're going to have to pay the credit card fee later.  Wha'ss so bad about paying with cash and saving a dollar or so?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Carrying around cash for one. Wasting time in the store. Not being able to fill up and thus track gas mileage. Staying at the pump longer wasting other peoples' time.

And what credit card fee are you talking about?

Maybe they don't have it down in Maryland, but up here in Michigan, gas stations have a "cash" price and a "credit" price.  If you pay with credit card, it's normally 6-9 cents more expensive than the cash price.

I'd rather have to carry around some extra cash than pay more.  And you can still track gas mileage.  The only difference is that you're paying with cash.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

And, assuming you pay your credit card payment monthly and you get interest paid to you monthly (like I do at my credit union), you wouldn't lose any money from a loss sof interest.

You obviously have no idea what I'm talking about.

Lets say you get gas on November 15, your credit card bill payment period runs from Nov 14-Dec 13 and payment is due Jan 1. If you pay for gas on credit you won't have to withdraw the money from your account until Jan 1 earning you interest on that money at the end of each month. If you instead withdraw cash on Nov 15 and pay for gas with it you will earn no interest.

No, I understand.  You still earn interest (on the rest of your money in your account).  You essentially save that interest for an extra month.  But if you ever close that account or close your credit card account, the interest would catch back up.  You're still earning the exact same amount of interest, except that you're losing that 50 cents or so (from taking the money out and using it on gas) whenever you get paid interest (at the end of each month for me), instead of at the end of January.  Either way, you're still taking the same amount from your bank account.  Plus, most people pay credit card bills with a check, and those accounts (normally) don't earn interest, so if you use your checking account money to pay the gas (take it out at an ATM - you'd have to use that money eventually if you used your credit card anyway), it all balances out.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

No, I understand.  You still earn interest (on the rest of your money in your account).  You essentially save that interest for an extra month.  But if you ever close that account or close your credit card account, the interest would catch back up.  You're still earning the exact same amount of interest, except that you're losing that 50 cents or so (from taking the money out and using it on gas) whenever you get paid interest (at the end of each month for me), instead of at the end of January.  Either way, you're still taking the same amount from your bank account.  Plus, most people pay credit card bills with a check, and those accounts (normally) don't earn interest, so if you use your checking account money to pay the gas (take it out at an ATM - you'd have to use that money eventually if you used your credit card anyway), it all balances out.

None of that makes an ounce of sense. You cannot earn interest at the end of a month for money that you do not have in your account. So if you withdraw money from your account and spend it on gas, you cannot earn interest on it. However, if you use credit to buy your gas, you don't have to withdraw the money until your bill comes meaning the money is still in the account at the end of the month and you earn interest on it.

Say you spend $20 on gas in my scenario. If your account is earning 1% interest, you'd be forfeiting $0.20 in interest by withdrawing the cash rather than paying with credit and delaying the withdrawal of money until the next month.

What about that is difficult to understand?

And if you have your money sitting in an account that's earning no interest, that's stupid. Sign up for an interest earning checking account. They're not exactly difficult to get.

I said you'd earn interest on the rest of your money in your account (obviously, you'll still have money left in your account after you take some out to buy gas).

And in your scenario, you forfeit that $.20 in interest later when you have to pay your credit card bill the next month, but in addition to losing that $.20, you already lost $.60-$.90 when you used your credit card to pay (we'll assume, to make the math easier that a gallon of gas is $2, so you bought 10 gallons, so the higher gas price means you pay anywhere from $.60-$.90).

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I said you'd earn interest on the rest of your money in your account (obviously, you'll still have money left in your account after you take some out to buy gas).

Duh. What part of that was ever up for debate?

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No. God No. You do not forfeit the interest you earn when you pay the credit card bill the next month. You are merely $0.20 richer when it comes time to pay your credit card bill.

You also lose any cash back you earn by using your credit card. Those several percent earn you tens of cents per $20.00.

I meant that you lose the interest that you would've earned, but just a month later.

Not everybody has cash back programs.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Uh, you don't. At all. You don't lose the interest you already earned on money if you withdraw it from the account later. That's asinine.

I never said you did.  I said that you'll earn less later.

Look, it's clear that you're lacking basic knowledge of family budget principles, so I'm just giving up arguing with you.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I just got home and saw a lot of stations with $1.55.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

$1.55

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Back up to %1.88

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

$1.39

be jealous please.

Why?  I paid $1.33 at my last fillup

I thought NJ was more expensive than MI normally - you guys are WAY cheaper right now.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Apparently it just got to over $3.00 here.  Last time I got gas it was $2.80-something, but that was like 1.5 weeks ago.