Is the cost of gasoline hurting anyone else?

I'm in the same boat as Nature Shot. I'm a potter and earn my living selling my pottery at art fairs. The high price of gas is just the latest blow to my business. Customers slowed down their buying several years ago while show fees went up, motels got more expensive and gas went up and up, not to mention the increase in utilities and materials used in making the pottery, all of which gives a smaller and smaller profit margin. I have cut back on the more distant and otherwise expensive shows and do as little driving as possible any more. No more cruising around the countryside looking for birds!

There are some farmers in Minnesota who developed a fuel saver called CA40. We have been using it with good results. It has improved our mileage by 2-3 miles per gallon and can be used in any type of fuel. Every little bit of savings counts.

Consider putting in No-Mow grass---you only have to mow once a year, after that the grass falls over and is nice and soft to walk on. Only problem is that there is that initial cost to putting it in.

After being in the mowing business from 1992-1996, it was a nice change to not mow and still have the place look halfway decent. ( I like things looking wild--or rustic, as I call it.) However, we have a very small property and used a pickup truck full of old carpet cuttings to deaden the old grass, allowing us to seed the new No Mow grass. The process took about 8 weeks to accomplish.

We bought the No Mow seed from Prairie Nurseries at www.prairienursery.com and questions answered at www.prairienursery.com/faq/no_mow.htm

It has seriously, I mean seriously, curtailed my garage saling and junking.

We live in a small town, no thrift shops and on a good weekend, 3 garage sales - usually just 1 or 2.

It is 50 miles to a town of any size. When I go garage saling, I like to find a few, but we just haven't been. Also, when we garage sale, we usually take the pickup in case we find lumber, furniture - something that can't be hauled in my husband's little car.

Since we aren't going to garage sales, I just don't go anywhere.

Prices are going up at the grocery store and even some are climbing at the $1 store.

I don't, however, find any glee in the fact that people are being hurt because they drive big vehicles.

The people driving SUV's from the burbs aren't the ones that will suffer from $5.00/gal....It is just the cost of doing business to them. The folks that will suffer are the fixed income, small business owners AND employees, overall economy as folks shift their spending from "frills" to "gallons"......Only industry that prospers in high fuel economy is the major oil companies, they are happy. I keep hearing as folks are forced to cut back on consumption that increased supply will require a downward trend.....I just don't see it happening yet......

Well, so far it isn't affecting us - at least not as much as not liking to leave the property affects us!

I just checked the car mileages and at the rate we are going we are headed for total miles for 2007 to be around 1120 miles, down over 40% from last year. Gasoline for yard equipment is down even more than that as the animals take over more and more of the landscaping chores.

I don't like rising prices anymore than the next person, but whenever we think we've trimmed expenses to the bone we always seem to be able to find one more little place to save a dollar or two - and somehow we keep holding our expenses flat. I honestly don't know how we are able to do it, but somehow it's gotten easy to just keep stretching things further and further.

I still think those gas prices are obscene, though!

Lynda

i dont understad how a company can make 50 billion profit a year, give their ceo`s double digit million dollar bonuses and not care about us.
all they need to do is build more refineries.

My commute is 70 miles ONE WAY! Thank goodness for my motorcycles. The bags on the Suzuki are so voluminous that i can carry a weeks worth of groceries fully enclosed. Then I used tie downs to strap a 50 lb bag of dog food onto the passenger pillion and that's about all I can handle. Thinking VERY seriously about a trailer.

Only 15 months until I lose the commute. Thank heaven.

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"Iron" Mike - Semper Fidelis
Jack of all trades - Master of none

We have cancelled all our "extra" trips each week... including the volunteer work that required us to drive... (we picked up another volunteer job to compensate - PAINTING FIRE HYDRANTS!!) No more garage saling, no more thrift stores... just business and drs.....

We are walking to the park, store and any places we can! Gas here is $3.50 and I don't see any relief anytime soon! UGH!

DH commutes 30 miles a day and we are spending $100 every two weeks on gas just for work! (That was our entire monthly gas budget a few years ago!)

Our trip to KS has been effectively cancelled as well.... our stuff will spend another year in storage in the basement at my inlaws.... there is nothing there that can't wait!!

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Tami

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

No, sorry, I disagree. All most people have to do is choose much smaller vehicle then they have now. I have been outside the U.S. and know what even a small motor cycle is capable of. In many parts of the U.S. they wouldn't be practical for year round use but even in northern climates they could be used at least half the year. A motor cycle with a side compartment for passengers can easily handle a capacity of 6-7 adults, not just 2 on the bike itself.

I commute 110 miles a day 4 days a week, 80 miles round trip once a week to visit my mother, 30 miles round trip to town once or twice a month. My monthly gas bill is my second highest monthly expense, second only to my mortgage payment.

We're on a extremely fixed income, our check comes once a month, we buy feed and what groceries we can on that day, rest of the time we stay home. Do have to budget a dr's trip in july into the equasion, but SIL is good about taking us on the 180 mile trip. And--if my drs trip cant be scheduled into the day i'm in town, too bad.
bills are paid online, or mailed, only costs 41 cents to mail the one--
gardening, hopefully, will save my sanity--or maybe not...
Oh--and the traffic? like was said, when we moved here, one car a day-- now, its 10-15 per hour, day and night.Dont think what's being made down the road comes from a garden.

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In Life, We Weep at the thought of Death'
Who Knows, Perhaps in Death,
We Weep at the though of Life.

Insurance Companies, that's who.

Insurance companies are not bothered by high gas prices. We drive less. We have fewer accidents, and this costs the insurance companies less money every day.

Now all together lets stand up and shout for joy. All of us who got a rate reduction in our insurance premiums since we are driving less now. I guess they missed me

I don't think it is as simple as just buying smaller vehicles. Under the assumption everyone can do it tomorrow if they choose. Yes, of course, that would make a difference. Yes, I do think people made some very bad decisions when they bought the huge gas guzzlers. I still am not going to jump for joy because it is hurting them to buy gas.

If I were better with Photoshop I'd attempt to depict returning home with a ton of hay or 20 50lb feed bags on a small motorcycle - but I'm not.



Gas prices are sure hurting me. Translates to fewer trips to town and less purchasing power once I get there.

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Montani semper liberi


The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved. — this message approved by Congressman Ron Paul

I can afford the gas, so far, even though I don't like paying this much. But it also impacts everything else I buy, especially the hay and grain for my animals. Anything that requires fossil fuel has gone up, from running tractors to shipping costs for groceries and goods. Overall, that translates to higher prices for everything, causing me to have to make some serious choices. How many animals can we keep? I have some really nice bloodlines in my goats and I would ideally keep more of them to see how they turn out in a few years, but the cost of feeding them means selling more and keeping fewer. The cost of going to shows is keeping me from showing off my herd and developing a broader sales base for my stock, limiting the dollar value of the kids we produce.

I have cut the number of garage sales I go to, choosing to go on mornings after I get off work when I'm already in town. As part of what keeps me able to work part-time and be home with dd and the farm is the savings we get through buying second-hand, this makes the budget tighter, too. It's a balancing act, to find what we need second-hand vs the cost of gas to find them.

I'm already pretty darn frugal, and I do limit how much driving I do...not sure how much more I can cut back. To haul hay, I have to have a truck - that means poor gas mileage. I try not to drive it more than I must. I drive a small SUV with fairly good gas mileage for work and any errands not requiring hauling large items. I stay home a lot.

We could afford the gas to garage sale - at least for now, but I do think about all the things I might be missing.

We have been doing some work on the house as well as hanging curtains, cabinets, etc. So far, just about everything we have used is something we picked up at a garage sale or curbside while garage saling.

My husband gets up every Saturday and suggests we go garage saling - I tell him no, let's don't waste gas.

As we were hanging some curtains and using things I had scrounged or bought for little, I was bragging it cost us almost nothing. He reminded me that was because we went to garage sales - a lot - and were able to pick up things we needed or might need.

He has a point.

We are going to have to go to NE TExas pretty soon and pick up one of the freezers up there - and other things. I am trying to wait until we do that and will spend the day junking in Dallas on the way.

Having everyone drive smaller vehicles won't solve the problem, in a lot of cases it isn't practical or even sensible to think that, more production of gas in the USA and less government interference will help solve the problem. I also believe that big oil should take the lead in developing alternatives and we as a country should look for ways to cut our dependence on the oil supply outside of the country. It can be done with safety and environmental concerns taken in to account. We are still the most technological country on the planet. Every country still looks to us to help when they need it I think its time to worry about our own first.
Ed

I have a Jeep Wrangler (can you say gas hog?), and took the back seat out, along with taking the spare tire and bracket off...anything to lose a little weight, and get another mile of two per gallon...

Yes, it's absolutely hurting us. But it isn't just the outright cost of the gasoline at the pump; it's the small price increases on everything else we buy.

.15 cents here, .20 cents there it all adds up. We have many things we need right here in our small town but the prices are much higher than going to the city; it's becoming a choice of spending more money for the product or spending money on the gas to go & get the product for less in the city. There isn't a lot of savings either way.

I think my biggest challenge is trying to get my dh to coordinate trips better and rethink his definition of "need". For example last week my ds had a 4H event in the next town; I wanted to go early enough to get to the feed store to purchase horse supplement. He did not get home in time, so now we go without for another week or two, or drive over there again (60 miles RT) to get it. Aaarrrggghhh.

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Sometimes money costs too much.