Petrol Price drops in New Zealand – well that didn’t last long did it???

January 23, 2009 by
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting 

For the forth time in a week – petrol prices here in New Zealand have gone up 5c a litre. For the usual excuses reasons: Cost of oil and the exchange rate. Humpf.

So any happiness we may have felt at prices being back down to the level they were about 3 years ago – was very short lived. I wonder if that had anything to do with Christmas and the big petrol companies not wanting to been quite so badly.

I mean – just before Christmas we were getting up to $2.20 a litre.
Over the holiday – it dropped to $1.33 a litre.
Now its $1.53 a litre.
(Prices for 91 Octane)
funny-pictures-orange-meh-cat

You know – the thing I hate most about this – is how on earth do you set a budget for the next years fuel costs? I’ve been happy as Larry this last month or so – because we have saved a good $300 in fuel bills, but that doesn’t look like its going to last long.

But how do I price up my proposed spending for the next year. I can’t bank on prices staying at $1.55. I at the moment – I’m looking at having to take my most expensive month from last year – and budget that amount every month for this year. I guess on the positive side – that should give me a nice bit of leeway – and if petrol prices don’t shoot all the way back up then we would have a bit of spare cash each month.

I just wish we could have had the cheap fuel a bit longer. I’m sure I can’t be the only one who was breathing a sigh of relief when the prices came down. It really does make a huge impact on the cost of living. We were paying about $30 less on a tank of fuel compared to when prices hit their highest.

That’s over 7 coffees.

And: while it’s not exactly a money saving tip – as you don’t really get “cheaper petrol” by going to a different station as much as you do in the UK, there is a website that keeps a track of petrol prices at different stations in your area.

Check out Pricewatch

Related posts:

  1. Avalon’s Money Thread – Is it cheaper to live in New Zealand?
  2. Are house prices in New Zealand really too high?
  3. Why our electricity bills are so high in New Zealand.
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Comments

3 Comments on Petrol Price drops in New Zealand – well that didn’t last long did it???

  1. » Petrol Price drops in New Zealand – well that didn’t last long did it??? on Fri, 23rd Jan 2009 4:32 pm

    2. [...] [Technorati] Tag results for finance wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptPetrol Price drops in New Zealand – well that didn’t last long did it??? January 23rd, 2009 For the forth time in a week – petrol prices here in New Zealand have gone up 5c a litre. For the usual excuses reasons: Cost of oil and the exchange rate. Humpf. So any happiness we may have felt at prices being back down to the level they were about 3 years ago – was very short lived. I wonder if that had anything to do with Christmas and the big petrol companies not wanting to been quite so badly. [...]

  2. Hubby on Sun, 25th Jan 2009 7:50 pm

    3. Cripes! I had a shock when I found out how much our fuel bill has been fluctuating. What I’ve not sat down to figure out yet is how much less fuel we used in the really high priced months, and we still ended up with a big fuel bill. I think we’re not spending much on fuel, since I’m not filling it up once or twice each day – as I used to in the UK. With four hours of driving each day for work, it wasn’t unusual to fill up at 6am to get somewhere, and then fill up at 8pm on the way home so I didn’t have to stop by the petrol station at 6am the next day again!! And that’s with a fuel efficient Audi A4 diesel!

  3. Avalon on Mon, 26th Jan 2009 7:48 am

    4. Sometimes – ignorance is bliss :)

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