By Nora DunnI recently found myself living out in the countryside near Melbourne Australia. And aside from gas being referred to as “petrol” among other Australian idiosyncrasies, living out here could be equated with life in the countryside just about anywhere:

Anything within 50 kilometers (31 miles) is considered “close”
You have to drive to get anywhere (sometimes including your own front gate)
The cost of living can be more expensive (depending on how judicious and creative you are)

 
And last but certainly not least:

You will spend a small fortune on gas. Petrol. Whatever.

 
Here in Australia, if the price of gas is much below $1.50/liter (the equivalent of about 40cents/gallon), people practically dance in the streets with joy; it regularly hovers at a price point much higher. And so one day driving back from running some errands in town on a week when I had traveled into town more than I would have liked, I glanced down in shock at my gas gauge: empty. It seemed that I had consumed more gas in the last week than I had realized.
 
This led me to a minor budgeting revelation: Every time I travel into town, I spend almost $10 in gas. This was a …

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