Oil prices

[Bruce Wayne]

How much does the current oil price affect your personal finances? I'm not just talking gasoline for your cars but also the potentially higher cost of other products that use oil either for transport or production.

[pennywise]

When gas first hit 2.39 a gallon I was sitting outside waiting for my husband to come home from work. I asked him to get out the bikes. My daughter and I use the bikes as much as possible. We have searched for gas saving ideas and implemented all we could. We buy discount gas cards at Speedway to save. Pennies saved add to dollars, so I save pennies everywhere I can. We use cold water as much as possible. We will dress in layers this winter. I will go to the local library to use their heat this winter to study in the quiet room and turn my thermostat down 2-3 degrees during the day. We are not consuming products at this time. I have decided to use glass instead of plastics (multiple reasons - primarily concern for cancer due to the impermeablility of plastic and the leaching of chemicals into food over time and heat).

[Bruce Wayne]

Sounds like you're doing the right things. Shopping locally will help too, especially if the produce is grown locally as it will cut down considerably on the food miles, thus will probably be cheaper and in better condition.

[terry1156]

I think that when prices rise, we all have to readjust either our lifestyle or our budget to cope with the new reality. While gas prices are the most obvious and easily seen result of higher oil prices, as Bruce mentioned, it also effects the prices of other good we consume due to increased operation costs for the companies.

We walk a lot more and plan our trips better so that we don't make multiple trips to the store because we forgot something. While this seems to be an inconvenience at first, it has been a good thing for us in the long run. More walking has made us healthier and making less trips by being organized has given us more time to do other things.