How has the high gas prices changed your life?

I still have to drive to work. That's pretty much the only driving I do. My routine hasn't changed one bit from when gas was less than $2.00/Gal.

Of course, this means that I'm bringing home less money, which means I don't spend money on junk that I don't need. I used to buy whatever I wanted, and not care at all. I am surprised at how much happier I am now that I am broke. I don't have to worry about all the cool new gadgets or the biggest TV. I don't need $10 frozen pizzas. I'm happy with some Tuna-In-A-Box meal for $3, while I spend my once lost time with my friends and family.

In a way, it would almost be nice to have a hard recession. It would slow things down and have less consumerism pushed into our faces.

A lot more people would be happier if they were broke.

If everyone was really concerned with the gas prices, they would park their cars for a week and really give those big oil execs something to think about. maybe then they would realize that we are serious when we say we are fed up with their enormous profits while the rest of us spend a significant amount of our pay checks to get to work.

Since I work 1 mile from where I live, I ride my bicycle (I have a great rain jacket). I have little contests with myself to see how many days I can go car-free. With side baskets on my bike I can pick up a few groceries. I have started thinking about how ridiculous it is to use 2000 pounds of vehicle to transport 160 pounds of person a mile down the road. I try to save the car for bigger shopping trips and hauling. Granted, I'm single with no kids at home, so this is easier for me than others my age.

Tralamala:

I'm sorry, perhaps "broke" was too harsh a word. I feel that you did get most of my message though. Now, I do have responsibilities, and I think that how I worded things made you think I might be some sort of single college kid still living with his parents or something. I'm sorry if that's how I came off. There was a time when I did have to decide on whether it's food or gas for the week, but luckily I was able to get rid of some of my debt. I now have a small cushion, but it's not much. I am, like most of the country, probably only two or three paychecks from total bankrupcy.

I honestly feel that around this area that nobody should be able to starve. If you have a home to live in, you probably have enough yard for a garden to help you. There's always fishing and hunting. If it gets bad enough, there is a nearly unlimited supply of food on the ground waiting to be eaten: dandelions, wild onions/garlic, berries, nuts, bugs, etc.

After 50,000 years, if we cannot survive without little green pieces of paper to trade one another, then I feel that we as a species have failed.

I don't know about everyone but my husband's job is about 50 miles from home so the increase cost for gas is hurting us. What we are now spending on gas doesn't get saved for our future retirement and it's not as simple for him to ride a bicycle to work or park the car for a week as some have suggested in their comments. I do thank God for our car which gets good gas mileage but still find myself complaining at the gas pump, it has more than doubled from a couple of years ago. So, yes we are definetely feeling the increase!

The govt could cap this gas, stop the rise an give the american people a break, should we all just not buy gas for a wk. could everyone stop buying gas for 3 days. whats it going to take? the people decide, buy the gas-- an as long as you do , it will keep going up. we need to become independent as a country an keep taxes down by not spending them outside of the united states. maybe then, people here may get a better deal for ourselves.

if you work for a living or are on a fixed income, being broke isnt hard to get to,, but the top fat cats arent, are they? dont mind sharing but this is just ridiculous,,

When we live in a small community where very few good paying jobs are available, people are forced to drive 40 miles one way to their jobs. It's like taking a pay cut, having to pay out more than $10.00 a day just for gas to get to work. My husband as well as many friends drive to Bloomington, Terre Haute, Vincennes, etc. to their jobs everyday. It's too bad something can;t be done about the gas prices.

I hear you lacydee, your exactly right. We also live in a small town and my husband has to drive a ways to get to his job. These gas hikes are hurting a lot of people and something needs to be done about it soon. I think the goverment has to step in and do something about it. Is refusing to buy gas for a few days or even a week really going to change things as far as the oil companies go? I doubt it, might get some people fired from their jobs when they don't show up to work for those days of refusing to buy gas. That would not resolve anything and would only make things worse for the working people! This is an election year and we the american people need to be careful who we put into the offices that oversee these things and those we put into office, we need to make sure they are held to that office and the promises they made to us. As I seem to recall, the now democratic house back in 2000 said they had a plan to deal with the gas issues and get the prices down but have they done it? Looks a lot worse now, a lot worse. But what do they say about it, they blame the president or others. Are we so fickle that we forget these things and let them slide. Look at the records, the facts, the truth when you go to vote this year. We want things to be better not made worse. Find out those running for office, which ones are trully fulfilling their promises and those who only pass the buck, blaming others while they have done nothing that they said they would do. Stop letting the media dictate to you who you shold vote for, get the truth and facts for yourself. Research it out and make wise decisions.

Why should the government fix it? They're not there to baby us. That's why we're in this mess.

Actually, I don't know if there's anything they could do to fix it if they wanted to (without making bigger problems).

It will either fix itself, or we will have a recession/depression. Then people won't have to worry about getting gas to go to work since there will be no work.

"In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway."

It could always get worse.

junkmail:

I'm not sure what that would fix. As much as 60% of the oil prices today are speculation caused by traders and the oil companies.

OPEC hasn't controlled oil prices since we've started trading in oil futures. It's all in the hands of the rich people now.

PMU, it won't fix itself as you suggest. Got another laugh out of that comment.

It looks like from the posts that everyone has decided to "consolidate" trips and to travel with a little more thought behind it. Not being so wasteful like most countries see the USA.

I lived in Germany for 11 years and with their gas prices in EXCESS of $9.00 a gallon now; they think things through a little more. I might have seen 2 Lincoln navigators and a handful of explorers in my 11 years there. Their government taxes them over $1.00 a QUART!!!!

If everyone wanted to really hurt the gas companies they would continue to do this even AFTER gas prices go back down (if that happens).

If everyone "spared" and drove a little "Smarter" we would really stick it to the gas companies!

I grew up in Greene County 3 miles south of Worthington and currently live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Gas here runs about $3.84 per gallon. It has caused me to adjust from riding a truck on a six mile commute to work to riding a motorcycle to work as much as possible. I can remember the money that used to fill up my old Ford Ranger pick-up now takes to fill up my 5 gallon gas tank on my Harley-Davidson Sportster.

Why do you leave these polls up so long? Geez, it gets BORING after a week or so! How about a new one - How did the flood affect you? Something current.....