I was just thinking, since gas jumped 13 cents in my town today. Since most of us have to have gas for getting to work or taking the kiddos to school and such, what do you cut, in order to afford to fill your tank?

__________________
~Happiness is a large family~

We walk to and from school when the weather cooperates. We have done good this year cutting back considerably on eating out. We also ride our bikes or walk to some errands that aren't that far. Last weekend dh and dd rode bikes to downtown YMCA for her swimming lessons. I stop and think twice before going somewhere to try and combine errands.

Nothing. It's just a fact of life here. If we couldnt' afford gas, we just wouldn't go so many places on the weekends. We really can't walk places here, it's too durn humid(at least 90% humidity every single day), and when I go to the store, I don't want to haul 15 bags back and just about die of heat stroke to get home. Our area isn't an area of "walkers". Although, it would be nice.

We live pretty far from any bigger cities so we plan our trips. We don't drive 32 miles one way to get one or two items.

Our Harris Teeter is about 18 miles from our house so if there aren't quite a few things on my list I either don't go or send Hubby on his way home from work (there is one right across the street from him).

I don't really limit my smaller trips into our town since it is only 5 miles round trip.

I definitely shop more online...even if I pay shipping, sometimes it is cheaper than the gas it would take to drive around looking for what I want.

We don't rely on gas much for our transportation as I am a non-driver and dh is a long-distance truck driver. His company pays for the gas for his truck and dh is only home about one week a month to drive his car. We get ten cents off per gallon of gas for every $50 we spend when we buy our groceries at Giant Eagle. Our present receipt says we will get 40 cents off per gallon on our next fill-up. We spend about $40 per month on gas on average.

We've cut back our day trips, a lot. In fact I was just commenting to my husband last night that we hadn't travel to Couer d'Alene (home of Costco, Target, Borders) in just about a month. That is pretty amazing for us as we use to make about a trip a week.

I'm doubling up on trip in town and sharing transportation with my family. Of course a lot of that has to do with the fact that our second died as well!

At the moment we only have one vehicle. Which actually makes it worse for us. Instead of being able to combine all my trips, I can only run one errand at a time with hubbys truck. Plus we have to make two trips to church, and to trips back because we don't all fit in the truck. It is a gas guzzler, but it was free, and we can't afford to get a different truck. Hubby is a construction worker and needs a truck.
I can call a bus to come to my house and pick me up. The little one is free, and it is 75 cents for me, so for 1.50 I can run some errands for pretty cheap. But only to things on the north end of town, otherwise the bus ride is too long for the little one.
So I was thinking, I am getting a minivan soon, and I think it may be cheaper to take the bus for some things. I mentioned this to hubby, and he said it would be. But he thinks that since it is so easy to jump in the car, that I will just do that. But I think if I just need to go to Meijers to deposit some money and buy a few things, I will still take the bus. Or if I want to take the little one to the mall, I will do that too. But I need to get a new stroller for that. She gets tired at the mall and it costs 4 dollars to rent a stroller. I can pay 11 dollars for a cheap one.

__________________
You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think.
-- Milton Berle

Is there anyone you can carpool with?

I have to fuel up every 4 - 5 days and I hate seeing the prices rise. Once I'm home all the time it should be cut dramatically but I know I'll still have errands and taking DD to preschool. I do use a mastercard that gives rebate of 3% back to a gas card which is really nice to get free gas.

Other than taking the kids to school, I do not go a whole lot of places. But when I do run errands, I try and get them all done in one trip. I have always done that that because it was easier that way because I always have the kids with me.

__________________


Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
Jon Bon Jovi

well i only get 10 a week for gas so that equals 5 days of getting ds to and from school and one trip to town(25 miles one way) and back. as prices go up i will have to make it 15 a week to accomplish this. if we need anything else during the week dh gets it since there are 2 major grocers walmart and aldis all within a mile of his job. on the weekends we try to stick to home if we do have a little extra cash to put gas in the car for window shopping and we leave enough so the kids can get a dilly bar at dq. we don't eat out at all anymore and we are cutting back on snacks and junk wich is great for the waste line as well.

__________________
Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.