Fiscal fitness -- July's theme ...

... will be coming after the jump. See if you can guess based on the articles below.

"At $100 for a Tank of Gas, Some Choke on 'Fill It,' " NYT, July 6, 08
"Fifty Things Being Blamed on Rising Gas Prices," WSJ, July 3, 08
"SUV Drivers Burned Twice: At the Pump, At the Car Lot," WaPo, July 2, 08
"10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas," Time, July 2, 08
"Fuel Prices Shift Math for Life in Far Suburbs," NYT, June 25, 08
"Americans Enter New Cycle as Tough Times Alter Spending Habits," Marketwatch, June 23, 08
"Sticker Shock at the Supermarket," CSM, June 11, 08
"Downscaling in the Downturn," Knight Ridder/Tribune, May 24, 08
"Consumers Are Dining In More -- At the Supermarket," BrandWeek, May 11, 08
"Driven by Desperation, More People Selling Heirlooms Online," Seattle P-I, April 30, 08

Think you've got it? This month, we're looking at how we respond to rising costs of gasoline with changes to our spending in other ways.

Are you using coupons more? Are you driving less? Are you eating out less? Taking your change jar to Coinstar, getting a gift card in exchange, then giving it to your sister for her birthday?

Do you have a hierarchy of budget-saving steps -- first to go are the weekly pizza deliveries, then the Sam Adams and finally the Netflix? If you do -- how did you set up those priorities.

A lot of folks are paring back in little ways. (We are: we recently scotched the weekly 68-mile round trip to our very favorite farmers' market in favor of going to the decidedly inferior one down the street. It's cut our gasoline bill in half.) Dish on what you are or are not doing below.

Comments

[Maggie]

I cut way back on my driving a little over a year ago when I moved to Atlanta for a new job. I bike commute most days, and my fiance works from home so we don't really don't use our cars until the weekend rolls around. When we do use them, we schedule our errands so we can get them done in one fell swoop. That helps a lot.

We do still have things like Netflix, cable internet and gym memberships but I think our savings on transportation costs totally justify them. I'm debt-free and my fiance just has a student loan and we're contributing to savings and retirement, so I feel like we're OK.

[MattPatt]

Ironically, I dramatically *increased* my driving just as prices really started to go insane; I moved from an apartment within walking distance of my university to a condo that's about a 10-minute drive away. I find thus far that the increase has been pretty minimal, though, as my car gets excellent mileage. I mainly notice the impact of rising gas prices in their effect on food prices, which are starting to get slightly crazy. But it's still cheaper to cook for myself, so I've made more of an effort to stock up on bulk quantities of store brands where it makes sense (rice, pasta, frozen vegetables, etc), and cook my own damn meals more often. This is made slightly more bearable by the fact that my new place has a working dishwasher. But I still miss being able to blithely take advantage of the nice burrito place right behind my old apartment whenever I wanted.

[mindy]

I do a little happy dance that I never had a car in the first place and chose my current apartment because it's on the bus line that runs every 10 minutes or less during rush hour and drops me off across the street from work. (The bus has been a LOT more crowded lately, though.)

[Stephanie]

I haven't made many adjustments to other spending at all. I have put a little more effort into combining trips. But I don't drive much so I only end up getting gas once every 2 or 3 weeks. I am considering getting a bike again for local (within 5 miles) trips but after the temperatures this week it seems much less appealing.

[Lisa S.]

Stephanie -- don't you also have hills to consider? That's one really nice thing about Alameda: it's totally flat.

I stalk beach cruiser bikes on Craigslist. I'd bike for more errands, but honestly, given the way the big-vehicle drivers are around here -- completely oblivious to anything smaller than they -- I worry about getting hurt.

[Kerry]

I'm thinking about getting a scooter depending on where I wind up living and working, but I worry a little about the drivers here too. I'd have to hide it from my mom and sisters--they'd freak.

[molly]

Over a year ago, we moved from Alexandria, VA into the District. I hardly drive anymore. We have had one of our cars in the shop. The mechanic called me yesterday to say there was a screw up in the parts order and it will be another couple of days before we can come pick it up. To be honest, I had completely forgot it was in the shop! I walk everywhere. I even walk to the Trader Joe's in Bethesda (almost 4 miles round trip). The increase in the price of gas really hasn't caused us any problems since we tried to reduce our driving long before prices went up.

To all of you biking: Please be careful! I was hit by a van one morning while biking to work. It is best to assume all drivers out there want to kill you!! This mindset helped me not to panic when I got hit.

[Sep]

We recently moved to Seattle and walkability was at the top of my list when looking for a new place. James can walk to work and we have a regular grocery, a fancypants grocery, a drugstore and Trader Joe's all within easy walking distance. So far we fill up the car every six weeks or so. I think that our driving habits have more to do with my hatred of driving after having spent my formative years in SF where cars are more of a hassle than anything and then living in San Diego which in my experience has the worst drivers in all of California. We haven't noticed food prices either but that's distorted by the fact that _someone_ gets to eat for free all day long at the office so we are really only feeding two people on the weekends.

The tight spot in our budget comes from "owning" a home we can't sell whose rental income doesn't cover our costs. Despite having had a traditional downpayment. Everything will work out in the end but it's a bit of a squeeze in the meantime.

[Polly]

I live outside Seattle, and unfortunately once you leave the city you really do have to drive to run errands. I commute by bus into work, though, so I don't use a lot of gas--still, even though I have a little-bitty Corolla I have noticed the increase. I see a lot of recreational bikers and the occasional scooter out here, but I'm really leery of doing that because there are no bike lanes, and in a lot of places, the roads don't even have shoulders.

I am getting into the habit of clipping coupons. That's easier than I thought it would be--I buy organic, so I don't bother with the regular circulars, but if you go on-line and look up particular brands, you can often find something and it's not too time-consuming. I also signed on with Mambo Sprouts, which seems to have good coupons for stuff I actually buy.

[laura]

We have cut way back on going out to eat and have eliminated mid-week running to the store for just one thing. Fortunately, my daughter is 5 now and so its easier to get away with pb&j dinners because we ran out of chicken breast midweek. We are also doing big fridge-cleaning dishes like funky pasta/ rice salads. Currently we are eating off of a salad of whole wheat spaghetti and a little bit of every vegetable we had left over in the house-- broccoli, cucumber, red onion, carrot, frozen peas-- tossed with asain dressing that I got from a free sample coupon. This has been my midmorning snack with a handful of peanuts on it (pregnant: need good snacks) and has been dinner twice: once with grilled chicken and once with frozen baby shrimp. Its finally gone :) But making that avoided a trip to the store, and the vegetables all got used up.

[Dellface]

Of course, with gas prices the highest I've ever seen them, I change jobs and increase my commute from 2.3 miles to 8 miles. Still small, I know, but... Fortunately, I live in a metropolitan area that bridges state lines and gas is 5-10 cents cheaper a gallon on the Missouri side. And the new job is in Missouri, so I'll have added reason to be in the area of cheaper gasoline.

I've also been trying to do more car pooling with friends. If we're all going somewhere, let's try to take the least number of cars absolutely necessary. It's cheaper and better for the environment. I've also noticed more people offering to chip in for gas--something we haven't really done since the poor high school and college days.