Gas is expensive right now, but just how expensive? Some very basic back-of-the-napkin math shows the difference between commuting costs this year and last year are fairly stark.
At $4 a gallon, a sedan driver getting 25 miles per gallon commuting 20 miles a day from Kenner into the CBD five days a week is spending at least $45 dollars more a month than they were last year at this time when gas was only $2.60 a gallon.
That $45 balloons to at least $85 dollars a month for a Mandeville commuter driving into the CBD in an SUV getting 20 miles a gallon.
These numbers don't include traffic variations, wrecks, and other slowdowns impacting fuel mileage, or diversions, and even non-work-related travel. Obviously, the costs get worse for those with lower fuel mileage from older cars, as these numbers were calculated with newer models in mind. Those coming in from upper St. Tammany, the Bayou Parishes, or Tangipahoa? Good luck.
Gas is only part of the budget equation for most families right now. In 2020 the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the average American household spent about $412 a month on food costs. Food is up over 10% since then, meaning you can budget in at least another $41 a month in new costs.
UNO Economics Professor Dr. Walter Lane told WWL that as these costs continue consumers are going to start cutting back on the easiest expenses to reduce before having to make some tough choices.
“Extras like nights out at the movies, nice dinners at nice restaurants, I would expect those types of things to be cut back, and certainly clothing purchases,” said Lane. “People have been spending like crazy the last year because they had a lot of pent up money that they weren’t able to spend, they couldn’t get out and do anything so we are seeing a whole lot of spending the last year and certainly some of that is going to be cut back.”
Could this impact the recently rebounding New Orleans tourism industry?
“They might go for more local tourism instead of going a long way traveling by car to the Northwest or by plane to Europe and things of that sort, so New Orleans might not get hit too bad by that,” said Lane.
