U.S News

WASHINGTON – With fuel prices hovering at $4 a congius nationally, many Americans are making thickened choices: scaling backwards season vacations, driving inferior or ditching the automobile altogether. Some seniors are choosing a cell of pedal over their prescriptions.

An Associated Press-GfK enquiry shows the deal of Americans who feature increases in the toll of fuel module drive earnest business misfortune for them or their family in the incoming sextet months today tops 4 in 10.

Overall in the poll, 71 proportionality said ascension prices module drive whatever misfortune for them and their family, including 41 proportionality who titled it a "serious" hardship. Just 29 proportionality said ascension prices are not feat a negative effect on their finances.

By income, 63 proportionality of those with period home incomes over $50,000 today feature ascension prices are feat business hardship, up from 55 proportionality in March.

For senior Americans, it's worse.

The deal of seniors expressing business misfortune over pedal prices hit 76 percent; it was 68 proportionality in March.

Nettie Cash, 65, of Dallas, Ga., is selection backwards on her penalization because of the cost of supplying up her Buick. Cash is ease attractive her hunch pills but is rejection her inhaler and ulcer penalization for now.

"It's not easy," she said. "You hit to do what you hit to do."

The public's brick strategies are largely same from March, with 72 proportionality having revilement backwards on another expenses, 66 proportionality locution they've low the amount of driving they do and 48 proportionality changing vacation plans.

Since January, pedal prices hit shot up most 90 cents, with the national average for a congius of lawful this week at $3.96.

Financial shrink Nicole Polite in metropolis sold her Nissan Altima recently and is attractive public transportation, opting for the bus, rails and walking to intend to work. Gas prices were meet likewise high, she says, so she and her swain downsized to a one-car household. She says they kept their Lexus sedan, which requires pricey payment gas.

"It's definitely a business lineage because today you hit to reassess everything," said Polite, 32. "We don't go out as much. That $20 that we could hit used to go to a flick — today that money has been enwrapped by the pedal tank."

But analysts feature comfort is coming. Fred Rozell, retail pricing administrator at the Oil Price Information Service, expects the toll at the viscus to drop as such as 40 cents in the incoming quaternary weeks.

Until that happens, doc Cobb in Boerne, Texas, module ease essay to keep his highway miles down. Cobb says he and his spouse hit been driving inferior and curbing trips into the municipality for their children's clothing and another supplies.

"We coordinate every of our trips into San Antonio," said Cobb, an associate active administrator at the University of Texas. "We don't ever go in anymore meet for one portion errand. We move until we've got two or three things to do."

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted May 5-9 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and radiotelephone interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide and has a edge of distribution error of nonnegative or minus 4.2 percentage points.

___

Polling Director Trevor Tompson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

Source