Petrol price rises throughout 2005 left British families having to compensate for a £200 hole in their budgets across the year, according to the AA Motoring Trust.

For many families the rise in motoring costs dwarfed even the combined amounts of other increases in household budgets.

The average price of petrol for December was 87.7 pence per litre, more than eight pence higher than where it began the year.

At its peak in September, when the average price of petrol was 15.2 pence above the January starting level of 79.6 pence per litre, UK households with two car-owning adults were paying on average £33.39 per month more for their petrol. On 14 September the price reached an all-time high of 96.06 pence per litre.

For many families, the overall drain on their yearly funds has dwarfed the combined rise in other domestic and motoring bills:

• council tax on average up £47 for a Band D property
• provisional 2005 figures show a £25 increase in the average electricity bill
• provisional 2005 figures show a £50 increase in the average gas bill
• average water bills up by £29 in April 2005
• average comprehensive car insurance premiums rose £9.64
• average home buildings and contents insurance premiums fell by £3.48 and £0.01 respectively

The same households paid more in road fuel duty and VAT, between 64.6 and 74.1 per cent of the price of a litre of petrol, than in council tax. Whereas the average council tax for a Band D home was £1,214 in 2005, two adult drivers in the household paid on average £1,584 to the Chancellor in petrol taxes.

Ruth Bridger, petrol price analyst for The AA Motoring Trust said: "This year has been the first since the fuel crisis of the 1970s that the effect of rising car fuel costs has literally hit home. The impact on inflation, high-street spending and other commercial activity as consumers cut back in other areas of family expenditure to compensate contributed to a general downturn in business."

"The cost of buying and maintaining a car may have dropped but many families separate those ‘capital’ costs from their weekly budget. They react to what is left in their purses and wallets after they have filled up at the petrol station by trimming their expenditure elsewhere."

Ms Bridger added: "The idea that motorists could be forced to leave their cars at home by raising the price of petrol has been proven wrong, even with prices way above levels anyone imagined. Families still have to go to work, take the children to school, go shopping and all the other trips they need to do."

"However, with the price of petrol unlikely to dip back below 80 pence per litre again and volatile crude oil markets sensitive to any hint of interruption to stretched supply and refining, families are going to have to bend somewhat to new realities. Wising up to cleverer driving techniques and a smarter choice of car will allow the family budgets to stretch further than they did this summer."