By Jon Horowitz

Editor's note: This article appeared in a previous version of Hatch, but has been updated to reflect the rise in gas prices since Hurricane Katrina.

The late, great Warren Zevon once sang, "Everybody's desperate trying to make ends meet / Work all day, still can't pay the price of gasoline."

Every time I pass a gas station, those words echo in my ears ... along with the obnoxious cha-ching of a cash register.

A few days ago, I pulled up to a full-service station and asked the attendant to fill the tank. He told me I'd have to wait a few minutes while the station was awaiting word on the day's price increase. I drove away, fumes in my tank and fuming over the incident. When are these bastards going to get busted for price gouging?

As the price of oil rises daily with every new headline out of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast and the Middle East, the salaries of hard-working young employees remain stagnant. Which should really go a long way to help the economic crisis ... of credit-card companies.

Aside from commuters near major cities who can take public transportation (not that their rates aren't climbing), many twentysomething workers commute to work via automobile. And, many of them don't just drive a mile or two to and from work five days a week.

Being conservative, let's say the average commuter drives 12 miles each way to work, five days a week. That's 120 miles. Tack on another 80 miles for errands and miscellaneous necessities (we'll leave out extracurricular driving activities like scenic drives and long road trips). That's 200 miles of "necessary" driving per week.

Let's put the average commuting quarterlifer in a four-door sedan that gets 29 miles-per-gallon highway driving, and 21 miles-per-gallon city driving. So we'll say, 25 miles-per-gallon. Eight gallons of gas will get the commuter his weekly total of 200 miles.

At the current national average of $3.20 a gallon, that's approximately $25.60 spent on gas per week. Just for the essentials. At that rate, the commuter would pay $1,331 a year for basic automobile fuel costs. With gas at $2.61 a gallon just before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the annual price of gas came out to $1,086.

Compare the latest with last summer's gas surge, which averaged $1.89 a gallon -- or $1.30 less than today's cost -- at its peak. Or better, compare that to three Augusts ago, when the national average for a gallon of gas was around $1.35. Over the course of a year, just for the same essential commuting costs, that figures to an average of $561.60, or about $769 more spent on gas per year this year than in August 2002 (using the August 2002 and 2005 data).

Even stranger, perhaps is that the average price of gasoline the week of September 10, 2001, was $1.51, according to the Energy Information Administration. Just a few weeks after that, amid the paranoid climate created by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the anthrax postal scares, gas prices were down to $1.19 a gallon, according to EIA. When terrorism was striking our homeland! At that rate, a commuter's annual fuel cost would be $495.

Meanwhile, Salary.com indicates entry-level salaries for full-time jobs requiring or recommending bachelor's degrees are as low as $20,900 in fields such as customer service. And, job searches on Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com revealed entry-level salaries are lower still for some full-time laboratory research associates, teachers and newspaper reporters (among other professions).

With a $20,000 salary, about 8.3 percent of the worker's take-home pay (after taxes) goes to fueling his compact car (at the $3.20 rate), when, just four years ago, it would have been 3 percent.

For someone with a gas-guzzling SUV getting 14 miles-per-gallon and doing the same commute, the annual cost based on the current rate of $3.20 per gallon would be a staggering $2,377 -- compared to $1,002.56 at the August 2002 rate and $883.48 at the October 2001 rate. Today's gas rate would account for almost 15 percent of the $20,000-a-year SUV-driving worker's net pay.

Factor in all the other basic living expenses (and occasional "recreational" driving), and suddenly, thanks to surging oil prices and daily gas price increases, take-home pay is lower than money already budgeted. (Check out how much you're spending on gas with the Hatch Gas Calculator.)

With more money being spent than what's coming in, there's only one solution (aside from begging parents for a loan) -- paying for gas by credit card. But now, instead of paying off the monthly balance, only some of the debt is paid off, and the already-expensive gas purchases are accumulating interest -- 14.99 percent of it. (Oh, and don't forget that those natural gas bills -- you know, for heating your apartment in the winter -- are also going to rise on account of the rising cost of oil.)

Oil companies win. Credit card companies win. Stock prognosticators win. But the average twentysomething worker loses. Big time.

So what's a gassed quarterlifer to do?

Some obvious and not-so-obvious tips for saving a couple bucks while oil prices surge:

1. Carpool. Remember those days of piling into mom's station wagon on the way to soccer practice? Well, if some co-workers live in the same neighborhood, it's time to cram in the back-back seat again.

2. Scout out the best gas station. If you've got the luxury of having numerous gas stations nearby, scope out the prices at each one. You might find a significant difference. Don't want to waste gas circling around for the lowest rate? Visit www.gasbuddy.com and check out all the stations' prices in your area -- updated daily.

3. Sell the SUV. If you got swept up in the SUV craze years ago (and still have the same car, or have moved onto a bigger gas guzzler), get rid of it. Trade in that $60-per-tank, 14-miles-to-the-gallon monster for a safe, reliable, certified pre-owned coupe. You'll save hundreds a year in gas expenses. And if you're worried about safety, check out Consumer Reports or Edmunds, or get a four-wheel-drive wagon.

4. Go green. If you're in the market for a new car, get a hybrid. Reviews continue to improve, the gas mileage is incredible, the vehicles are more environmentally friendly than regular autos, and they look hot.

5. Go veggie. For the extreme auto enthusiast (or aspiring engineer) buy a vegetable-oil powered car, or convert an older diesel vehicle into a veggie car. If it's good enough for Marty McFly's DeLorean, it's good enough for you.

6. Get a bicycle. It may not be ideal to ride a bike 30 miles to work, but for small errands or getting to friends' places in town, a bike is a cheap form of transportation (as is a skateboard or Razor scooter). And, it's healthy (as long as you wear a helmet and obey the laws of traffic).

7. Get a new credit card. While racking up debt doesn't seem like a sound financial plan, it may be unavoidable for some facing a budget crisis on account of gas prices. With a new credit card that might offer 0 percent APR for six months or a year, take advantage of the offer, charge up some gas, and pay off the card over that time period. Even if you can't pay off the gas costs within the 0-percent period, at least you'll have a period of time where you're just carrying the cost of the gas. Note that Discover offers a 5-percent cash-back incentive on gas purchases.

8. Walk. Remember that age-old mode of transportation? Why not practice it?

9. Protest. Symbolically chic, but highly unlikely to make a difference.