<p>D has a car with her at school but she rarely uses it there (small college town and she refuses to be anyones ‘free ride’). She is about 3 hours away and has made a half dozen trips home for various reasons since moving there last summer. She has a gas credit card but we pay the bill. Because she only drives home and back it doesn’t cost us much compared to when she was living at home and driving everywhere!We live in CA and don’t think of cars as ‘optional’.</p>
<p>We live in CA and don’t think of cars as ‘optional’.</p>
<p>I understand that some locations are much more difficult to get around without a personal vehicle
all I was saying that it was a consideration- where we chose to live and where our D chose to attend college.
Not that Seattle has good public transportation, but we can consolidate trips, walk, bike or simply not go. Portland has much better, which was a big plus when looking at colleges</p>
<p>Well I only really drive around town so I only fill up once or twice a month.</p>
<p>My parents initally bought my car, but I have paid them $150/month in car payments, plus $800/year insurance. The car payments and insurance payments stop while i’m in college, 1) Because they don’t want me to have to work 1st sem. freshman year and 2) I can’t have a car on campus so use of my car will be limited. However, no matter what the rule in my house is ‘whoever drives it, fills it’.</p>
<p>My daughter has a 30 mile round trip commute daily to school. I give her an allowance that should be enough to cover gas & misc. expenses (she has to pay for parking near her dance studio, for example). The allowance has not been raised even though both the cost of gas & the cost of parking has gone up recently. (My assumption is that she will either conserve or else start asking friends to pitch in for gas when she gives rides to others). She mentioned today that she plans to avoid driving this summer-- I said something like, “mmm, well I guess that depends on where you end up working.” </p>
<p>If my kid didn’t need the car she wouldn’t have one – at least not on my nickel – my son attended a high school that was about a mile & a half from where we live, and he walked or caught a local bus. </p>
<p>I am very glad my d. will be attending college next year in a place where she won’t need a car. My son lives in the city & doesn’t own a car; relies on public transportation. Unfortunately, we live in the burbs & the public transportation really is not adequate for anyone commuting into the city.</p>
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<p>ABSOLUTELY!!! My 14 year old son has been doing volunteer work for the US Space and Rocket Center (which is about 15 miles away) so I have to drive 60 miles each time he volunteers (about 3 gallons of gas) because I have to drop him off, go home, pick him up and go home. That annoys me!!! </p>
<p>If your D has to drive 200 miles a week that can mean about 10 gallons of gas - $30 - $35 dollars a week ~ and that isn’t even counting the “wear and tear” on her car – tires, oil, etc!!! She should ask for at least $50 (or more) dollars a week!!!</p>
<p>!!! I wonder if the price of gas is going to affect “volunteering” all over the USA!!!</p>
<p>I filled my car the other day…I do that every 4 months or so. ($35.00) I have one of those tiny Mazdas. I could get rid of it but it comes in handy every once in a while. And my son rides a bike. Exxon, Shell and the rest aren’t getting too much from me.</p>
<p>emeraldcity>Not that Seattle has good public transportation</p>
<p>How is the public transportation in Seattle not so good?</p>
<p>man, my parents have never paid for one cent of gas in my car… and i honestly can’t believe you guys do. that just seems like a common sense thing the kid has to pay with. I mean, i can sort-of understand if you guys pay the car insurance, although not really since i think that should be the kids responsibility too… as well as purchasing a car, although i think that should be on the kid as well, but gas??</p>
<p>“man, my parents have never paid for one cent of gas in my car… and i honestly can’t believe you guys do. that just seems like a common sense thing the kid has to pay with. I mean, i can sort-of understand if you guys pay the car insurance, although not really since i think that should be the kids responsibility too… as well as purchasing a car, although i think that should be on the kid as well, but gas??”</p>
<p>Hey fendergirl good for you! Your parents defintely did something right!</p>
<p>I pay for gas in the car my S drives to the extent his driving is driving I would otherwise do…e.g., before he got his license, I drove him to & from high school (or hired someone else to do the pick-up)…so it didn’t seem right not to pay the car expense when he started driving himself. But he pays for “social driving” himself–i.e., driving to visit friends, go on dates, whatever. He does not have a car at college; says he doesn’t need one. I wish he did…it would make getting him to & from school much easier on me! But he doesn’t want to have one on campus, so the second car sits in my driveway waiting for me to “exercise it” during the months he’s gone…</p>
<p>All of our cars are considered “family cars,” and as such, we pay for the gas for each of them. My kids who have drivers licenses are welcome to drive them, but on many (if not most) occasions, they are helping ME out by driving (taking sibs to school, doing grocery errands, picking up sibs, etc.), so I don’t really consider it putting gasoline in THEIR cars, but rather in the family’s cars. Until my kids have cars that are considered their own (which would also require a commensurate earning capacity), we will probably continue to treat gasoline as a family expense. ~b.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m surprised a lot of kids don’t fill up their gas tanks with their own money. Ever since I got my car, I’ve been responsible for any costs other than my insurance, and I only have a $9/hour job. Even when I made less money, I budgeted out what I needed for my gas, and didn’t go spending what money I had on frivolous things.</p>
<p>When I got my first job my mom charged me gas money ($5/week) to bring me there and back to teach responsibility…and you guys are paying your kids bills…crazy!</p>
<p>I have no problem with parents paying for the gas for the driving that the parents would otherwise have to do. I was just wondering if parents were now refusing to pay for the gas for “fun driving” – visiting friends, going to the mall, going to the movies, etc.</p>
<p>I never did pay for the gas for “fun driving” in the first place, so it’s no different now. When older S was driving his brother and a friend to their school, I calculated the number of miles to/from school and service project monthly and, using the car’s gas mileage and current cost of gas, gave him $$ to pay for that amount of gas plus a little overage (since he was saving me from having to do that driving). While it <em>is</em> my car and I <em>do</em> pay for insurance and upkeep and the gas for “required driving”, the boys pay to gas it up for any other driving. (Younger S just got his license last week and isn’t “fluent” on a stickshift yet, so it won’t become his issue until this summer.)</p>
<p>Older S is returning for a summer internship near home this year and living with us has elected to carpool. 
Smart boy.</p>
<p>My son can ride the nice yellow bus to school like his younger brother does when he goes to the middle school. He chooses to drive himself so we choose to let him pay for his gas.</p>
<p>This is a good reminder thread, as I hadn’t given this much thought while S is away at a school where he doesn’t need or have a car. Back when he was home, we had him pay for part of the insurance out of his allowance - it’s good reality training, gives him a bigger stake in his driving record, etc. We theoretically charged him for gas, but since he rarely used a car for “fun” purposes, never enforced that. </p>
<p>This summer, I think we’ll enforce requiring him to pay (rule is, whoever uses the car when it gets down to 1/4 tank has to fill up). Feel the pain, be aware of economic, political and environmental issues.</p>
<p>When our dd was 16, she bought a used 1994 Saab with 128k miles. She has also worked the same job since that age. Never in that two years has she asked us for money for gas, entertainment, etc. Her grandparents recently bought her a new car for her birthday/graduation so she wouldn’t have to depend on the Saab to make the 6 1/2 hour trip each way when she leaves for college. Our rule is that we will continue to pay her car insurance as long as she doesn’t get any tickets for a moving violation. If that happens, the car will come home and be parked in the garage and she’ll have to depend on the kindness of friends for rides. I really believe if kids learn how to handle their money responsibly during their teen years, they will act responsibly with money as adults.</p>
<p>When I was 16 (many moons ago), my parents used to keep track of the odometer when my bro and I drove their cars to school -even tho they paid for THAT gas. </p>
<p>BUT, when we used their cars for “personal use” (dances, dates, movies, etc) they used to charge us 10 cents a mile (which was supposed to pay for gas plus “wear and tear” (tires, oil, etc). I’m sure they also did it to deter us from “joy riding” and driving around town, etc and then just “covering it up” by filling up the tank.</p>