Have Falling Gas Prices Affected Your Lifestyle?

Falling gasoline prices have come as a welcome relief to many families, especially in the midst of the current financial and economic upheaval.  Since the middle of July, the price of gas has fallen from a record high of $4.12 to today’s price of $2.39 per gallon – a decline of nearly 42%.

While this decline is certainly very significant and has gone a long way to ease our pain at the pump, has it been enough to drastically alter your lifestyle and spending habits?

According to a recent poll on GasBuddy.com, the responses seem pretty evenly split between those who have been affected by lower gas prices, and those that haven’t.

The poll very simply asked: “Gas prices are falling.  Has it affected your lifestyle?”  Here’s how over 40,000 people responded:

• 43% said falling gas prices have affected their lifestyle positively.
• 3% said falling gas prices have affected their lifestyle negatively.
• 50% said falling gas prices have not affected their lifestyle.
• 2% said they didn’t know.

I was kind of surprised that more people didn’t say falling gas prices had affected their lifestyle.  After all, saving $10, $20 or more during each fill up has to quickly add up.

That being said, even though current gasoline prices are roughly 13% below where they were at this same point last year, historically speaking, they’re still relatively expensive for this time of year.

With regards to those who answered that falling gas prices had not affected their lifestyle, you can look at the response in one of two ways:

1. Prices haven’t fallen enough to affect the person’s lifestyle
2. High gas prices didn’t affect their lifestyle in the first place

So, where do you fall?  Leave your comments below!