I took a trip to Castelo Branco last Saturday morning to buy a new stove, and had to a negotiate a 20 car queue at the petrol station near the hardware store I was about to go into.
This was around 9.00 a.m. in the morning, just after everything opens at 8.30, I did think it was a bit odd, but just waived it off as coincidence thinking this was probably the way it always was around here (never having been there at this time of the week before), maybe exacerbated by the station opening late or something.
It was a bit annoying as I'd wanted to get fuel myself, it was convenient if not entirely necessary as I had half a tank easy, but I didn't bother queuing because it wasn't necessary.
Anyway, i checked out a couple of places for stoves, realised the first place I'd been was cheaper and so returned there, about an hour later, and when I returned an hour later, there was STILL a massive queue.
Later that day I found out it has just been announced that fuel prices were going up by 14 cents a litre on Monday, so I guess this was all the locals stocking up on fuel before the price rise....
Reacting to Price Rises isn't Enough!
Now your typical car has a fuel tank capacity of around 50 litres so at 14 cents a litre savings that's a saving of 7 EU IF you're filling your car right up, which is unlikely given that you've usually got SOME fuel in there..... so let's say 5 EU.
Now this is probably worth queuing to save, but it is just a one off saving, after this cheaper refill you'll have to pay the increased price going forwards, so unless you're taking a few jerry cans with you or you've got an enormous gas guzzler, it's not THAT bit a deal.
Of course this might be people panicking about more than money, maybe about the fuel at the pumps running out, but I don't think we're quite there, at least not yet!
To my mind this is a perfect reflection of incompetence around day to day finances - panic buy just before prices go up and feel like you've got a bargain, but really you're hardly saving anything.
In reality, you'd be better off spending your 10 minutes of queuing making a more efficient plan of your weekly schedule so you can drive less and save on fuel in the long term, which may include car sharing, by far the easiest way to reduce the amount of fuel you use!
I guess you could do both at the same time of course, but to really save money you have to think and plan a lot further ahead than just two days!