Gas Prices
The Marathon station at five points shows prices are still on the rise with no relief in sight. Some students are struggling to pay for the soaring prices. Photo courtesy of Jolie Trimble.
Everyone knows that the price of gas continues to go up and down and back and forth. The price of gas skyrocketed at the beginning of 2021 shortly after President Biden’s inauguration. Many believe this is because of the president’s decision to shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline. Regardless of why the cost rose, it has not reduced since then.
Currently the prices of gas in Murray ranges from about $2.69 to $2.89 from day to day. Previously, gas prices in 2020 were just under two dollars. The spike in gas prices may have been expected by some, while others were completely unprepared, especially high school students.
A lot of students either work part time jobs making minimum wage or receive a meager allowance from parents specifically for gas. However, it doesn’t matter how they get their money because the cost of gas grew over a dollar in just the span of a couple of months.
Senior Mia Miles says, “I’ve been dealing with higher gas prices by trying to go out less and taking the quicker routes. I only get gas whenever I really can’t make it anywhere else. I also put aside money out of my paycheck that is strictly for gas every week.”
As someone who has to pay for their own gas, I also budget out money from paychecks to spend only on gas. I take advantage of reward points through apps in order to get cheaper prices at certain gas stations like Murphy’s. If I don’t have any points available, I just research and go wherever gas is most affordable.
The large increase in the gas can be difficult for anyone to keep up with. The parents who offer their kids gas money now have to make up the money for their own fuel and their child(ren)’s. As for the kids who are working for their money, it can still be difficult to keep up with the change because of preset budgets due to other finances that they may have to keep up with as well. Gas will always come up and down in prices, but it sure is nice when it is on the cheaper side.
