'You're working for gas now'

6 Shooter · 03-24-08, 02:05 PM

CAMDEN, Ala. (CNNMoney.com) -- Corey Carter spends a quarter of his paycheck on gas.

The 30-year old Carter, who earns $7 an hour making car parts for a Hyundai factory near Montgomery, Ala., spends $65 a week on gas, double what it cost just a few years ago.

Paying $30 more for gas out of a $240 paycheck makes a big difference.

"Going out to eat, going to the movies, you can't do stuff like that," says Carter, filling up his Firebird at a BP station in Camden, a quiet southern town 80 miles southwest of Montgomery. "You're working for gas now."

Carter, and other residents that live around Camden, are having a particularly hard time - they devote more of their budget for gas than anyone else in the U.S.

So, like Americans everywhere, people here are cutting back on spending, and that's threatening to send - or has already sent - a shaky economy into recession.

Article

rrubel · 03-24-08, 05:17 PM

Restaurants are closing in record numbers here in Baltimore because people are going out to eat much less. Between the cost of gas as a percentage of their paycheck, and the cost of the gas just getting TO the restaurant, people are spending a lot less on entertainment now.
[RICHR]

jrose7004 · 03-24-08, 07:24 PM

Heck I remember when my car had gas and I didn't!

oceangal · 03-25-08, 10:00 PM

I think with my $600 the Gov't is sending me (aka my own money that they will tax me own again) I might buy a gas card :-)

ricersvette89 · 03-27-08, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrose7004

Heck I remember when my car had gas and I didn't!

That gas should fix our shortage!

MaineShark · 03-27-08, 02:45 PM

$2.999 per gallon here.

Still too expensive. I'm going to buy a diesel, and run it on waste veggie oil. Or maybe I'll brew my own biodiesel. Either way, for day-to-day transport, that's the way to go...

Joe