Upstate Residents Cutting Back to Save Gas

By: Connie LeGrand | News Channel 7
Published: June 11, 2008

As the national average for gas topped $4.00 a gallon Monday, it set a new record at $4.02. The average in South Carolina is twenty cents less at $3.82 a gallon. We pay even less in the Upstate at $3.79. A year ago, we were paying $2.86 a gallon.
Spartanburg resident Amy Nunnery needed a few things for her home, so instead of her yearly trip to shop for furniture in North Carolina, she stopped by discount store Tuesday Morning. In fact, she says her family isn't traveling much at all these days, "because it's too much gas money!" She’s cutting corners in other places too. "We are trying to not go to the grocery store as often. We are cleaning out the pantry. Actually my father has a big garden, so we'll be eating a lot from garden this summer," says Nunnery. The family also won't be taking a family vacation. “We are trying to cut back in ways we think are going to make a big difference."
That’s a good idea according to USC Upstate Assistant Professor of Economics and Finance Charles Reback. According to Reback, "The price of oil went up a lot on Friday. It went up about eleven dollars to a hundred thirty eight dollars a barrel, which is an all time record. So in that respect, we are worse off today than we were a few days ago." He believes it's going to get worse before it gets better, but probably not as bad as in the recent past. "In the early nineteen-eighties, late seventies, we had a recession, and at that point the unemployment rate had gotten to, I believe, a high of about ten point-eight percent. Right now the unemployment rate is five point five percent. Relatively speaking that's still not bad," says Reback.
Nunnery says she is doing her part for the economy. She traded her in SUV for a smaller car, so she can still buy new lampshades for the house.