How WILL oil prices affect you?

[stngymama]

Thought it might be a good exercise to brainstorm all the ways we could anticipate the climbing oil prices to affect us, and maybe figure out how to minimize the effect. First thing I think of is groceries because delivery costs must be through the roof!

More ideas?

[sweeps]

Just about anything you can imagine that is made from plastic will go up in price.

[Ima saver]

Building materials have gone up and we build spec homes for a living.

[PRICEPLUS]

Use the bicycle more. Walk more. Turn the thermostat down. Keep electric use down. Be more concious of saving energy at all times. I am careful now but I intend to become extremely careful in future.

[Fern]

I always try to consolidate trips/errands; if i know i have a doctor's appt. on a certain day, i will hold off grocery shopping or run other errands at other stores i know are in the same area until that day.

[msnln]

Other than what I am doing to save energy, I really cannot think of anything else that I will be doing, except driving less for leisure.

This is off the topic but I was just flipping through the paper and noticed an ad from auto parts store advertising quart of engine oil at 88 cents. With the oil prices going up, how come engine oil price is still low? Maybe I am missing something but shouldn't engine oil price have doubled over the past year or so as well? Seems like engine oil price has been around $1 for as long as I can remember.

[stngymama]

How about jobs?

[funnyvalentine]

I own a catering business; I will charge for deliveries, even close ones, while offering the option of my clients picking up their orders in an expanded time frame for their convenience. My wholesale food costs are going up, so my retail prices will have to, though we are exploring interesting but less expensive things to sell our clients.

[David]

I drive a Ford 250 to work most days, 80 miles round trip, so my gas bill is up there. I also drive a motorcycle some too which helps and is fun, but theres a lot of crazy drivers out there. I thought about buying a Saturn Vue Hybird when they come out in the fall, but its cheaper for me to pay the gas bill. I try to only make one trip out from home a day. I will run all my errands in one trip. I try to keep the a/c at home on 75 or 76 but the wife overrules me on that sometimes. As a shift worker, if I'm home during the day by myself, I hardly use the a/c. Of course the Louisiana summer weather is right around the corner and it will be a/c all the way then.
I think oil prices are here to stay. China and India have increasing demand and that is not going to go away. I could write a lot about this topic, but in summary, our government has been caught with their pants down and to date has not done anything but given lip service to solving our oil dependancy. I believe oil prices are only going to go up. I have a little invested in oil, fsenx and sbr. If crude continues to rise, at some point it will kill the current bull market and the end result will be lost weath and jobs.

[Tree0164]

Driving less and less of those let's just drive around trips.

I will have to watch the food budget more because food is going up and up.