I just returned home from filling up the SUV I drive and I'm reeling from sticker shock. Here in California, the price this morning was $3.49 per gallon. I know that someone who drives a gas guzzler has no right to complain about the price of gas. However, since for family reasons I won't be getting a hybrid any time soon, I'm concerned about the amount of our family budget that is going to pay for gas. I need to tackle this problem head on and come up with short term solutions while I contemplate the long term fix. Surely, this is not a problem that is going away any time soon.I've just located two great resources that I will be studying in further detail:
Gas Buddy – www.gasbuddy.com – Search for low gas prices by zip code
Thrifty Gas Saving Tips – www.howtoadvice.com/savinggas – a great article with 30 suggestions for saving gas and fuel economy
I know that one solution to my gas crunch is car pooling, but I love driving my own children to school and to their activities. Car time is frequently where we have some of our best conversations. I'd love to hear from the car poolers out there on some suggestions that might encourage me to do more car pooling.
Saving Gas
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We have a 12-pack–a 12 passenger van to tote the 9 of us. With kids from 14 down to 6 months I don't get much in-class volunteer time but I always volunteer to be the driver for class field trips as well as ball games, academic contests and the like. It's a great way to get to know your kids classmates. You can listen to the conversations, even direct some of them yourself if need be. And since there is rarely a teacher riding with us, it is as if I am getting the "real" kids if that makes sense.
I laugh and tell the kids I'm doing my environmental part by filling up our 12-pack but my main reason is to have that drive time with my kids and their friends/classmates.
Also, just like at home, where we never go upstairs or downstairs empty-handed, never go out in the morning with just one errand in mind. Also, make the hard choice to change brands, do without an item or replace it altogether if it means you go to only one grocery store. Run all the errands on one morning a week and spend some time discerning if you really NEED that errand run in the first place.
Good things to think about at $3.09 a gallon–
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