Lynda-May Te Karu faces that juggling act on a weekly basis in Wainoni, as the conflict in far-flung Ukraine impacts petrol prices at her local pump.
The mother-of-two spent $30 on unleaded 91 ($2.78 per litre) at the NPD on Stanmore Rd yesterday, as petrol prices climb towards or have already exceeded the dreaded $3 per litre barrier in the city.
"You just get into this battle. I’ve just had $50, $30 goes to fuel and there’s $20 to try and get vegetables."" said Te Karu, who limits her driving to school drop-offs and shopping for essentials.
"You kind of have to play that teetering game each week in order to be able to survive.”
Te Karu doubted there would be any price relief in the short term.
"I think it will rapidly increase because you can’t not get petrol, you know.
"You could jump on the bus, but then there’s people worried about coronavirus so you kind of get caught in the crossfire, which is the worse of two evils?”
In Christchurch on Wednesday afternoon a litre of unleaded 91 ranged from $2.69 to $3.10, prompting a warning from Automobile Association fuel spokesman Terry Collins: “Get your car filled up today because next week it’s going to be more expensive.”
“Ukraine and Russia is a big deal. Russia is the second largest exporter of oil in the world, they’d supply 40 per cent of the energy to the European Union,” he said.
“Everybody who buys oil from Russia, they have to buy it from someone else and they’re buying it from our market (South East Asia).
“We’ve got a market that’s got a certain production capability and we’ve got new entrants so that drives the prices up.”
Fuel tracking website Gaspy this afternoon estimated average fuel prices nationwide for unleaded 91 had jumped 31.31 cents a litre or 12 per cent over the last 28 days to $2.92 a litre.
Prices for unleaded 95, unleaded 98 and diesel had also climbed in the same time frame to $3.10 (up 37.62c), $3.31 (up 51.2c) and $2.19 (up 38.82c) per litre respectively.
“I’ve had to stop doing that as much as I was because I can’t afford to do it,” he said while pumping $30 worth at $1.95 a litre into his 4WD at the Waitomo self-service outlet on Fitzgerald Ave.
“Some places, you’re paying up to $2.30. It’s just unreal. Trying to run a 4WD like this . . . I can see why people are buying pushbikes or wanting to walk.”
As costs rise, Z Energy and Caltex have reported an increase in petrol thefts – a spokesperson was not able to provide numbers but said all incidents were being logged with police.
Meanwhile, the demand for electric vehicles is growing.
Latest figures show there were 39,598 electric and hybrid light vehicle registrations in February – an increase of 1478 on January and nearly 15,000 more than the same time a year ago.
Mark Gilbert, chair of EV advocacy group Drive Electric, predicted they would eventually become the norm, and petrol price increases may be what was needed to convince some Kiwis to make the shift.
