When your bank account is dipping a bit low, sometimes you need to be extremely judicious with your spending, pricing out things to the last dollar.
Or in the case of this individual’s fuel pump balance, as recorded by a TikToker named Limpi (@limpilarri), down to the last cent.
In a now-viral TikTok video that’s accrued over 373,000 views as of Saturday, they recorded someone’s gas bill at the pump, which showed that they only put $0.76 worth of fuel inside of their vehicle.
@limpilarri the struggle is real. #fyp #fatfriend #canada #trudeau #viral ♬ origineel geluid – Tik Toker
In the video, Limpi zooms in on a gas pump pay screen. It reads $0.76, which netted the person buying it 0.396 of a single gallon. They write in a text overlay of the video, “running on a teaspoon of gas” and added in a caption, “the struggle is real.” One of the hashtags included #Canada, suggesting the customer was based in the United State’s neighboring country.
Gas prices hit record highs in the summer of 2022, putting many folks across the globe under financial duress as they had to be careful about how much mileage they were putting on their vehicles. Many who relied on their cars for work, like rideshare and delivery drivers, were effectively out of work due to the prohibitively expensive fuel prices.
When looking at the average fuel prices per gallon across the U.S. as recorded by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, one sees that the cost of fuel fluctuated greatly for the month of April of each calendar year between 2008-2023.
In 2008, gas prices cost an average of $3.46 a gallon, which dropped significantly in 2009 to $2.05. It shot back up again to $2.85 in 2010 and then skyrocketed to $3.80 in 2011. It wouldn’t reach the same levels as the 2009 drop until 2016 when it fell down to $2.11, and then steadily increased each year until 2019, when it stopped climbing at $2.80.
The year 2020, which saw a dearth of travel among commuters due to the COVID-19 pandemic, appears to have deeply impacted fuel costs, as they dipped to $1.84, a price point that drivers hadn’t seen since 2004.
In 2021, the price climbed again to $2.86 and then skyrocketed in 2022 to a staggering $4.22 a gallon, the highest it’s even been in the history of the United States for the month of April (June 2022 was the worst of all time at a wallet-clenching $4.93 a gallon).
As of April 2023, gas prices dropped to an average of $3.60 a gallon, up slightly from the previous months of the year.
TikTokers who saw Limpi’s video made a ton of different jokes and quips about the $0.76 fuel charge.
“Car just needed a sip,” one penned.
Another wrote, “When your teenage son says he filled up the car.”
Someone else remarked, “They know their car.”
While another mused, “How it be sometimes.”
One TikToker said they’ve been in a similar situation and did exactly this so they had enough money just to make it to where they needed to get to.
“Fill up enough to make it to the Costco,” they shared. “I’ve done this before.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Limpi via TikTok comment.
