Dame mas gasolina!

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/07/news/international/oil_alaska/index.htm?cnn=yes

Hubby sent me that article this morning, which is headlined "New worry for drivers: BP shuts oilfield. Damaged pipeline in Alaska affects 8% of U.S. oil production; crude surges; record gas prices seen."

Ohh, FANTASTICAL. This is just what everyone needed. More gasoline costs in their monthly budget. Since it's the Hot New Thing to be "green" we've jumped on the bandwagon. OK, not really because it's trendy. Because we see the need. And I assume it's trendy because other American families are seeing the need too. We've reduced our household waste to less than 1 kitchen-sized trash bag a week. Where now we're recycling more and more, every yogurt container, old magazine, piece of junk mail, coded take out container that we can. When we move in the Spring, I showed Tim these Vermiculture bins that I want to get which will turn our organic waste (veggie peels, apple cores, even dog poop!) into rich fertilizer for houseplants and gardening. Redworms to the rescue! It makes me so excited I want to dance a jig when I think of how little trash our household will make when we get the worms. We're doing our part to save the planet. Instead of driving 25 miles each way in his Jeep to get to the L, Tim takes Metra now which is 5 miles away. Yeah, our family car is still an SUV but our use of it is minimal. For any around-town trips, I take my little 2 door coupe. Taking my car (The Olive) is not going to be feasible once Jackson's born though. I don't see fitting a car seat in there. We have our eyes peeled for a more fuel efficient family vehicle. Once we're no longer upside down on the Jeep, we'll probaby trade it for a hybrid...in the meantime, we're doing the best we can with what we've got which is I think the most you can ask of anybody. We try to do our part to live clean & green. I think it's something very important for us to flesh out so our kids also learn how important it is to respect the land that sustains their lives. It's a lesson that our parents were unable/unwilling/didn't care enough at the time to teach us.

So anyways, less driving and more efficiency has been our thing. When I run errands, I make one big list and head out and try to do them all in one day in one big, well-planned run (which means that wherever I'm buying my ice cream for the week has to come LAST). We had a couple of invites this summer to head up on a 3 hour+ drive into Wisconsin, one for a baby shower and one for a wedding reception that we politely declined. After adding up the costs in gas, time, hotels, kennels...it would have cost us in excess of $300 just to get there, not including gifts for the guests of honor!

Let me interject here that we're NOT struggling. Hubby is a Director at his company, we live quite comfortably on his salary. I've just always been the type to try to live frugally when I can on everyday things, so I can spurge every now and again on special treats. I enjoy playing the game week by week to see where I can cut our grocery bill, how much I can save with coupons and combining coupons with in store specials. It makes me happy to 'stick it to The Man'. You know, since The Man is always trying to keep the Beige Girl down.

So it's been a fun thing for me to discover GasBuddy.

You can search by your zipcode and find the cheapest gas in your 'hood. Hey, I'll drive an extra few blocks to save a dime a gallon. When I'm filling up the Jeep, that really adds up! So since today the Alaskan pipeline is down or whatever, I'm going to fill 'em up...both cars, woo hoo, what fun. I've learned that if I just drive a few blocks further south, I'm in the next county over where they have less taxes on gasoline. So I'm off to Roselle with the Olive and the Jeep, to fill up for $3.15 a gallon. And The Man can suck it deep, I'm not paying the $3.37/gallon that gas is selling for just down the street from me. I'm willing to go where the savings are.