Seems like almost everytime I pass a gas station the prices are going up. I have sticker shock everytime I fill up! Has the high gas prices caused you to cut back on your driving or caused you to cut back on other purchases?

Well it is contributing to me wanting to get a job. I feel like the gas prices have made a HUGE difference financially. We don't get to go out and do things together as a family like we once did.

We cannot cut back on our driving right now.
In fact, we will be increasing it in the next few months.
I am trying to do better at grocery shopping and everything else too.
DH is hoping to go back to work in July when all of our "running around" will slow down.
He will be 68 by then and not in perfect health so I hate him having to do that but I don't know if Iwill be able to work then or not. I will only be 63 but my health isn't the greatest right now either.
We will be doing a large downsizing in the fall and maybe a good yard sale will help out some.
It is getting scary for sure!

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I'm not really sure how to cut back either. We drive to work and back, to the grocery store, which isn't far, but we have to carry the groceries somehow, and to see the doctor. That's about it. There's not really anything we can trim there.

Nope, not really.

Lisa

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It really has not changed what we do. Most of our driving, is necessity driving.

We have not changed our weekday activities but it has deeply affected our recreation. We used to think nothing of going to the lake over 45 minutes away just to let the dog run and take a nice walk. We used to just take aimless drives around Oregon and stop and eat somewhere new and nice. We used to go on weekend and day long excursions every single weekend now we stay home or just go to one of the parks or dog parks in town.

And I know this might sound silly but sometimes my husband and I just go to home improvement, animal, or Fred Meyer stores just to look around for "fun" and "entertainment" after a movie or before eating. We take our time looking at everything, all our "dream" purchases and buying one thing takes a while so we can "do something" that doesn't require gasoline.

LOL it kind of sounds silly but we are still happy and having fun and it is my belief that gas prices will dramatically decrease just before the election in November. This is what usually happens right? The party in office wants to be though of in a positive light so they dramatically lower the gas price.
Then we can start going places again.
Thank God I bought a vehicle that is relatively good on gas!

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The only thing I've done is make sure I have all my errands organized so I can get my running around done all at once.

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Mary

Unfortunately no. I deliver pizza and I fill up EVERY DAY!!!!! I just wish "some" people would understand that "most" delivery drivers are considered waiters and depend on their tips to make up the difference.

I use my car alot because I work in sales. Fortunately my company gives me $200/month for gas. I try to make that allowance go as far as possible. Our local Marathon station offers $50 gas cards for $48. I usually buy about 6 of them a month. Every little bit of savings helps.

Between DH and I we drive 100 miles a day just to go to and from work. So we run all errands on the way to and from work now. We used to go into town every Saturday (50 miles roundtrip) shop, run errands and buy lunch. We don't do that anymore unless we are going to something special, like yesterday we went to the Home and Garden show, but we have just cut out our entertainment and doing more things at home. Instead of eating out ast restaurants as much, we are only going out maybe once a month, the high cost of groceries is taking more money to make meals at home.

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we're pretty much only buying the CHEAPEST groceries now. I try to get as much as possible from Dollar General (always check their expiration dates though), Bottom Dollar and Costco. We get all our books from the library and used book store instead of new. We use those kids coupons for mcdonalds (those that you get - 8 for $1). All the mcdonalds here let adults use them too. so those are our treats. I don't buy sliced cheese that much anymore - I buy cheese food slices instead.

Thankfully public transportation here is great. DH takes the bus to work and we use the metro to get to DC.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

Definitely yes. My daughter wanted to go to another Target this morning further away to check out their Easter clearance. I couldn't rationalize driving 8 miles out of my way to save a little money.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Definitely yes. I try to run my errands only if I'm going that way. I was going to go to the credit union the other day but decided to wait till next week when I'm going that way.

We try to save any way we can.

Yeah, the days of going for a nice, long "Sunday drive" are over

Hasn't really changed anything for us, most of the driving is just out of necessity.........High gas prices aren't hurting us right now, since DH is gone, we are only running one car, once he is back I'm sure we will feel the pinch!

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Nicole

Not really, but I do try to arrange my errands the most efficent way possible and combine trips.

I am also trying to cut back on our grocery bill, but we are working hard to eat better, more natural foods instead of all the processed junk. The healthy stuff is more expensive so we're not saving much, but we are eating better.

Sarah.......mom to Jason & Devin

I'm fortunate to not have to do a whole lot of driving most of the time and to drive a fuel efficient car. I have an under 22 mile, round trip commute each work day and generally drive less than that on the weekends. My car gets 30-32 mpg. So, I use only a little over ten gallons of gas every two weeks. I'd still love for gas to be cheaper, but for me, fluctuating gas prices don't really have much effect on my budget.
Now, if the grocery stores stopped doubling and tripling coupons, that would have a much larger effect on how much I spend. I'm also looking into possibly switching my electricity provider to help keep the summer power bills down. I live in Fort Worth, Texas so running the air conditioner in the summer is very close to a necessity.