For Sarah Lawhun, the soaring price of gas means she’s eating one less meal a day.
A careful budgeter, Lawhun has spent nearly $70 more at the pump this month. She’s trying to offset the increase by skipping lunch at her job as an environmental scientist, saving her about $30 a week in homemade sandwiches and salads but leaving her feeling tired and hungry.
Compounding her stress are her fears that gas prices will remain elevated even after the US-Israeli war with Iran ends and will lead to higher food prices. She’s already cutting back on fresh vegetables and meats and shopping more at discount grocers to try to salvage her ability to save money and pay down medical debt.
“None of us needed gas prices to go up in addition to everything else,” said Lawhun, 31, who lives in a suburb of Albany, New York, and drives 50 miles roundtrip to work. “It’s really, really hard to get ahead.”
Lawhun is among the hundreds of people who wrote to CNN about the impact of higher gas prices on their household finances. Many said they are being forced to cut back on essentials, as well as on spending for trips, entertainment and other items that help fuel the economy.
The pain isn’t limited to those who were already struggling to make ends meet. Folks who consider themselves middle class and who say they have good jobs also told CNN they have to tighten their belts, especially after years of contending with high prices for food, utilities, housing and other essentials.
Nationwide, a gallon of gas cost an average of $3.98 on Wednesday, according to AAA. That’s up $1.01, or 34%, over the past month.
The Middle East conflict, which began at the end of February, has caused oil and gas prices to skyrocket after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which carries 20% of the world’s oil supply. But oil prices and gasoline prices fell significantly on Monday after President Donald Trump said the United States would postpone further strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Lawhun’s concerns are well founded. Once the conflict ends, the price of gas will likely ease by only 1 to 3 cents a day, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a price comparison site. Meanwhile, the higher prices will seep into other products that need transporting, including food, experts say.
Cutting into income
For some people, particularly delivery drivers and those who spend a lot of time on the road for their jobs, the spike in gas prices means that they are earning less.
Mark Hernandez, an independent contractor who delivers for Walmart, gathered his receipts and ticked off the steady rise in prices at the Sam’s Club where he fills up: $2.45 a gallon on February 24; $3.08 on March 3; $3.35 on March 10; $3.69 on March 17 and $3.83 on March 20.
At the same time, the El Paso, Texas, resident has also seen his orders and tips drop since the war began, slashing his weekly earnings by several hundred dollars. The combination has led him to apply for other work, including as a lifeguard, to supplement his income. He’s also searching online for positions that don’t involve driving. His ideal would be a work-from-home job.
Meanwhile, he is filling the tank of his 2008 Dodge Charger several times a week to try to get ahead of the price increases.
“I know gas is going up every single day,” said Hernandez. 42, who checks the price online every morning. What gives him “the most fear is not knowing from day to day how much you’re going to pay at the pump.”
The gas price surge has also thrown family schedules into chaos, with parents having to pull back on activities with their kids to limit their driving.
Filling up the tank now costs Dexia Billingslea at least $15 more a week, which means she only uses her Kia Telluride to take her kids to school and to get to her job as a security guard. She’s had to stop taking her 3-year-old son to the park, where he loves the swings. The disruption has prompted her son, who has autism, to act out more.
“I go exactly where I need to go, and I can’t go anywhere else,” said Billingslea, 35, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
Billingslea also couldn’t drive her 12-year-old daughter to her church group or take the family on a short road trip for spring break earlier this month. It hurts her that she’s disappointing them.
“I’m already trying my best,” she said. “I don’t want to let my kids down, telling them I can’t do something.”
Strict budgets
Some family obligations, however, can’t be postponed.
Patric DeStevens and his wife are driving 2,800 miles next week to their home in Vancouver, Washington, after caring for DeStevens’ terminally ill mother, who lived in York, Pennsylvania, and passed away in mid-March. They are setting a strict budget for food and lodging on the trip since they expect to pay $100 more for gas.
The gas price shock comes at a time when DeStevens took several weeks of unpaid family leave from his civil engineering job to care for his mother. Also, he and his siblings now have to pay for her funeral services, which he had not budgeted for.
Once he gets home, he’ll have to contend with higher gas prices at his local Costco. He’s been checking the store’s app and sees that price is now $4.79 a gallon, more than a dollar higher than when he left in late February – which he expects will cut into his ability to save and will add to his credit card debt.
“This is something that I was not anticipating to have to worry about,” DeStevens, 33, said of the price increase. “It’s very frustrating. I hate it.”
Mike Schentag didn’t anticipate that he would have to care about the cost of gas. He and his wife, Julia Renken, drive electric vehicles.
But, soon after the Middle East conflict began, he had to take his 2025 Rivian SUV to the shop to replace the suspension system, which took nearly two weeks. When he learned the rental car company only provided gas-powered vehicles, his first thought was, “Man, this is literally the worst time for this to happen.”
An engineer, Schentag tried to work more from home and use his wife’s EV for errands to minimize his use of the rental car, a Mazda 3. Still, he had to pump $52 worth of gas into it last week and another $53 on Wednesday before he returned it.
That compares to a $46 monthly tab to charge his Rivian at their Boulder, Colorado, home.
“One week of driving cost me more than charging for a month,” said Schentag, 35.
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