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The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has been falling for the last few weeks. AAA says that average is about $4.16. That is still more than $1 more than it was before the U.S. and Israel started a war with Iran. Housing, food and utilities are not cheap either. NPR's Jennifer Ludden checks in on the trade-offs people are making.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Middle school music teacher Matt Keasal started a new job last year with a good pay raise. But then the cost of his hourlong commute from Mansfield, Ohio, doubled.
MATT KEASAL: Spending about $125 a week just in gas to get to work and back.
LUDDEN: He delivered pizza for a bit to make extra money, and he's ramped up his longtime side business - deep cleaning cars.
KEASAL: Usually for - if I was saving for something or if I wanted to go on a trip or if I wanted to do, you know, X, Y or Z. But recently it's been, well, OK. Now I need to do this so that I can pay bills (laughter). So...
LUDDEN: Keasal is glad summer break also means a financial break on the commute, and he's trying to get creative about cutting costs for next school year. He has siblings in Columbus, where his job is, and could stay over a night or two a week with them.
KEASAL: But then again, I'm away from my family, and I'm away from my kids and my partner. And I don't want to have to do that.
LUDDEN: He's also looking to swap out his SUV for an old hatchback with better gas mileage because he's not counting on prices coming down any time soon.
KEASAL: You're like, oh, $3.79? I better fill up. You know? And then you think, wait a second (laughter). Three or four months ago, you would have been, you know, laughing your way out of the gas station.
LUDDEN: For some people, gas prices are making it hard to get to work at all.
ALEM BESHIR: Good morning. Thank you for calling 211. This is Alem.
LUDDEN: Alem Beshir takes calls at the United Way helpline in Baltimore.
BESHIR: It's rough out there. A lot of people are not working. The people that are working - they're not making enough money.
LUDDEN: In February, there was a one-time grant for people behind on their utility bills.
BESHIR: The day that that program went out, our system crashed because of how many people called us at the same time.
LUDDEN: Recently, Beshir's gotten more callers struggling with gas prices. One woman said she'd not been able to go to work for two days and was afraid she'd lose her job if she missed a third.
BESHIR: Because, you know, she couldn't pay for her fuel for her car.
LUDDEN: Beshir tried to get free bus tokens for the woman, but funding for that program had run out.
In rural South Carolina, Mabel Lago and her husband are retirees on a fixed income. They moved there from New Jersey in January to be near their son and love exploring.
MABEL LAGO: My husband and I like to walk different paths in different parks. We've had to cut back on that because of the price of gas.
LUDDEN: They limit trips to save money, and they've put on hold plans to travel a lot in retirement. They really want to see the Pacific Northwest. The idea is to drive because her husband doesn't like to fly, but it's not happening with gas prices like now.
LAGO: And we're running out of time. We're in our 70s. My husband's going to be 76. And at some point, you don't want to drive, you know, at a certain age.
LUDDEN: They're doing everything they can think of to spend less. This year, they stopped eating beef altogether.
LAGO: I go to the grocery store every week. And I tell the checkout person, if I could stop eating, I'd be rich.
LUDDEN: Even harder was cutting back on coffee.
LAGO: It took a while to get used to that, let me tell you. But I have the one cup in the morning, and then I switch to water or tea or something like that.
BESHIR: They're still feeling the pinch financially, she says, but getting used to that, too.
Jennifer Ludden, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF POWERS / PULICE / ROLIN'S "MAGIC MEADOW MIRROR") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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