Hi all, I just can not believe that gas is soo much money and people just continure to go go go gog og og og og googgggggggggggggggggggooooooooooooooooooooooo never once slowing down.....I for one am riding my bike to pick up little things at the stores like Kmart, Walmart and Shopko...My husband works close to home, so he rides his motorcycle to work. I am going to ride my bike to the university this next semester when school starts back up. I am sick of having to cut back on other things so we can fill up the vehicles...we have a Pontiac Bonneville which gets between 19 and 30 MPG and an older 84 CHevy pickup that gets BAD mileage...use that to go camping with...I have to drive and hour away to go get fills and this is JUST going to affect me this next week...I am pissed that gas is almost $4.00 a gallon.. Just wanted to know what everyone else is doing to keep the gas budget under control...Deanna

Hey Deanna, I no longer have a car. I don't really need one, and it is better for my health and finances not to have one. I feel good about it too because I am contributing to less damage to the environment. The less people drive cars the better in my book. Susannah

I pay $3.50 a gallon, take a wild guess if I have changed my driving habits.

I sure wish I COULD change my driving habits. Unfortunately I have a 30-minute drive to work (taking the train would cost $$$ and take 90 minutes, minimum). In my own town nothing is within walking distance, but we do all our errands on the way home. Still, I'd love to be able to take a bus or train to work. As a New Yorker, it still feels weird to me to commute all alone.

Our gas is only about $2.75 (did I say only) and DH has started riding his Harley to work more, but other than that we do the same stuff. Texas is trying to do something about it though, which is good!

I walk or take public transit. This is easy for me because I live in the centre of a large city.

we have not changed much. we do more at home during the weekend. i do all of my business from my home office, and force everyone to come to me already. Rob commutes for 30 minutes to work and back, and if i need something from the store he stops by on the way home. most of the time all of my groceries are delivered. if i need to mail something they come to me. and on the weekends we used to go on long drives, but now with prices we do not go on as many. also, we have tons and tons to do with our backyard and landscaping so we do that a lot on our own during out time off.

I am glad to live in a fairly small town..50,000...I could ride from one end of it to the other if I chose to...I have noticed more bicycles out lately, but dont know if it is because of the weather or if people are trying to save some money.

It's good for both our wallets and our backsides if we can bicycle, walk, etc instead of driving, but the price of gasoline is still going to cost us extra, no matter what. Whenever gas goes up, so do prices. The manufacturer raises his price to cover the extra cost of shipping. It costs the retailer more to have his stock delivered, so he passes it on to you. So whether you own a vehicle or not, you will still pay for the increase in gas prices.

Yes, I agree. Just sad, sad, sad. I just wonder what the people who are barely making it as is are doing.

Unfortunately not. We cannot live without 2 cars, its just where we live. I need my car to get to uni, to get the kids to school, to do anything really, way out in the burbs, you have to have a car in Melbourne. Doug currently has to drive to work even though its an utter nightmare traffic wise becuase the car is leased and that means it must be driven 25,000 kms a year or we will cop fringe benefits tax. As soon as we can get out of the current lease (we'd drop too much money on the car right now) he is going to just buy it out (as we will always need two cars - like he likes to go golfing on a Saturday but then I wouldnt be able to get the kids to basketball and to all their parties/activities), but he will be getting the train to work. Of course he'll need to drive to the station, lol. Too far to walk, its about 6kms.

Hey, I live in an inner city area where everything is at my doorstep so I don't need a car. I am much happier since I don't have one to be honest. Susannah

Sadly Susannah, we need four bedrooms and a study. We should get another hobby, lol, we have too many kids. So for us, for now, despite a healthy six figure income, we have to choose between 2 cars or an $800,000 mortgage which we just couldnt service.

Melbourne has become SO expensive. But you're right, although the inner burbs are expensive to buy into, once you're there, life is cheaper.

We spend about $2000 a month on cars. That's 2 leased cars at $600 or so each, $100 per week each car on petrol, servicing, rego etc. We desperately want to get closer in to at least somewhere where we could just have one car, cars are just bad debt. But we just cant manage it.

Ack, dont get me started. Tears of frustration this week, our gorgeous 11 year old has to go to the horrid, awful local secondary college due to our inability to get into an area where the schools are good. Its actually easier to afford to send him to Haileybury than it is to find a house that we could actually live in outside of the outer suburbs. He's in for year 9, lets just hope we have some bloody luck between now and then. I've been away for a few weeks from here becuase I'm just so stressed about it all, havent had the spare mental energy.

Sorry for the sob story, lol.

Hey, I live in an inner city area where everything is at my doorstep so I don't need a car. I am much happier since I don't have one to be honest. Susannah

Yep, I own a house in the city and if you are lucky enough to afford a house then everything else is much, much cheaper. A friend of mine sold her house and moved to a small town because she thought that she would enjoy clean air and a slower pace of life. She is now car-dependent and all her groceries cost much, much more. I think she pays more for property taxes and utilities but I am not sure. She is also kind of lonely because pretty well everybody out there is married and has a family. There isn't any cafe-life. People stay at home.

She's been trying to talk us into moving up there but I have always lived downtown and am used to this way of life. And I like to shop.

Hey Jacqui, There are many good things about living further out too, such as lots of fresh air and lots of parks and room to move. Each has their advantages.

Green I am renting but I wish I could afford to buy inner city. As Jacqui said it has become very expensive here. I also love shopping and the cafe life too.

My older sister and her kids live in the country in a very beautiful little town, and I enjoy escaping up there when I need to leave the madness of the city rat race.

Susannah

Luckily, I travel for work, so I'm not home all that often. When I am home, I tend to stay home until I absolutely have to get out for groceries, shopping etc. Then, I try to do it all at once. Then, I also will sometimes just buy $10 worth of gas instead of filling up. Reason being, the prices vary so much from day to day, I may be able to get it cheaper next week or if I'm in another area of the city.