Ohmystinkinheck

for crying out loud! There is no way that someone isn’t getting really fat and happy right now over this huge gas/crude oil price increase. I have never been more happy to work from home and live in a small town that has nothing much to do.

I’m just thinking about this summer and wondering how I can turn my yard into a waterpark, my home into a library, my trampoline into a gymnasium, and whatever else to avoid getting out of the house and DRIVING anywhere.

How are you going to tackle the summer when gas is trying really hard to get to $4.00/gallon?

Netflix is looking really good!

38 Responses to “I’m not a conspiracist type of person, but…”

1. Lisa C

   I know! I’ve thought about the SAME things! Gas is INSANE! Good thing we have a pool in our neighborhood … looks like we’re gonna be there EVERY DAY!

2. Starwoodgal (aka Jamie)

   I already blogged about the same thing. I think we’re going to be cutting back a lot and taking Staycations in the backyard.
   http://starwoodgal.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/what-will-you-give-up-to-afford-gas/

3. kimmie

   my concern is the fact that we make a trip to my parents’ house (60 miles away) every other week in the summer. My mom comes here on the opposite week. I’m thinking we don’t need to be doin’ that……

   I think we can walk to the city pool….I think…..

4. Raquita

   I am not planning on dealing well I’ll be running around my yard with gas cans strapped to my body doing a gas rain dance..

   We plan on doing little things like using a manual lawn mower. (cough cough husband chough cough) and not buying the second car we need.

   you know basics.

5. Tami

   We will stay home and swim. I just can’t stand to pay this much for gas. And we will have lots of friends over but only if their parents can bring them here.

6. frugalmom

   Well, having just moved into a new house with absolutley no landscaping to speak of…I would say that my kids and I will be planting flowers and watering grass seed. Does that sound like a summer vacation or what?

7. Linda

   We’re staying home this summer. I’ve decided this is going to be a good summer to downsize home. We moved into our apartment eight years ago and there are still boxes packed behind closed doors that haven’t been emptied or opened for that matter. We’re going to spend the next seven to eight weeks gathering up the clutter, cleaning out the closets, getting rid of junk … then we’re going to have a huge yard sale so we’ll have money to buy gas the rest of the summer.

8. Rhi

   Psst.! I have a free Netflix trial, if you’d like one. Actually, I have FOUR! One month, completely free.

9. Natalie

   Arghh… and me thinking of driving from So Cal to Chicago. No wonder I am waffling.

10. Janie

    I drive 564 miles round trip every other week. ARGHHHHHHH……what’s a girl to do???

11. ChaoticFat

    I stopped going to movies years ago. It became too cost prohibitive especially when most of the time you are so dissatisfied with the product you are purchasing. I have been using Netflix for several years and love it. If you make an event out of it, you’ll have a lot of fun.

    As far as driving, I am thinking of getting a bike to ride a couple times a week to work. Gas is going up, but in relation to most of the rest of the world, we have been underpaying for gas for years. In most other countries gas is much higher. I’ve seen countries where it was $6 and up per gallon. Btw, I’ve lived in a couple European countries so I know of what I speak.

    So even though it’s a shock to the system, I’m not really angry about it, I’ll just adjust and keep on moving.

    Be well, CF :)

12. laura

    i’m not sure. i will probably have to work more than i really want to this summer. i was so looking forward to staying close to home and spoiling my daughter’s new baby.
    the big question here under the big top is will the driving teenager find a job because she is desperately trying to find other ways to buy gas that her weekly allowance won’t buy and the parents won’t pay for…it is already $4 a gallon here!

13. Kristi from NY

    Here in Northern NY our “cheap” gas is hovering just below $4/gallon. I have already increased my weekly budget of gas by $15/week ($60/month) just for getting back/forth to work and minimal errand running. I’m not looking forward to knowing what it might cost to buy heating oil for the winter. We’ll be using our little wood stove a lot more this coming winter, I am sure. I like our small town but when it comes to finding special things to do on weekends we are really limited too. Unfortunately the increase is affecting the costs of a lot more than just fuel products.

14. Kate

    Ugh, unfortunately this will probably NOT be the Summer of Gas Preservation. We are going to be starting to build a house which is located about 15+ miles away from where we live now, and since we’re going to do as much ourselves as we can, that will necessitate ALOT of trips back and forth. We are trying to move closer to the building project to avoid that so hopefully something will turn up.

    Ironically enough, we have an oil refinery in our town and yet we have the highest gas prices in the country. Go figure.

15. Claire in CA

    I’ve been trying really hard to combine trips, so I don’t go out and back from home a billion times in one day. I also avoid driving on the weekend; here in So Cal, the traffic is so horrendous, that I feel like I spend more time and money on the road than if I just save it for the week days.

    Other than that, it won’t affect our summer. We’ll still go to the beach (a 45 minute drive). That’s all we do all summer, anyway. :-)

16. Mr. OMSH

    I’m going to buy another Harley with a 2 person sidecar. It’ll probably cost $25,000 and save us $1500/year in gas. What a deal!!!! So it’ll pay for itself by the time it’s paid off!

17. Bobbie in Alaska!

    Hi,
    I have been reading your blog for a while, found via Pioneer Woman. Alaska was the first state nationally to hit $4.00 a gallon - which in itself is pathetic considering all the oil we are producing. I don’t see an end in site and am thankful that Anchorage is a small town and everything I need is relatively close. It also helps that I drive a VW Bug and it’s a diesel. There are a ton of pick-up, SUV drivers here is AK and I don’t know how it can be done. It’s just a mess for everyone.

18. chris

    I paid $4.15 a gallon last week. It is crazy. We’re staying home this summer, I am totally stealing the term “staycation” btw. My kids will love that ;-)

19. Lou

    It is over $4 here in California.

    We already keep home quite a bit, so there isn’t a whole lot left to cut out! Plus we have a family reunion we have to drive 14 hours to in July, and company coming that will require several big trips to the hour away air port. . .

    My biggest beef is that I work an hour from home. Now, I work from home and usually only work at the store one time a month- and I usually get paid very well for teaching my classes- but I get paid per student. Gas goes up, I have less students. Gas goes up- it costs me more to get to work and back- it is balancing out to me making a lot less per hour than I am willing to work for. So- I can work for pennies, or lose a few hundred a month. I can afford neither option.

    Right now, I’m cutting back on the classes. It sucks, but what can you do?

20. Liz C.

    I love the idea of “Staycations!”

    We’ll be breaking out the bikes and stroller and walking. A LOT. Which is good, because I’m “training” for a walk-jog-run 5K at the end of the summer, so we won’t call it “gas budget deprivation”, we’ll call it “helping Mom.”

    We have a sprinkler, and unmetered water. The library is two miles away, and I can do that trip once a week with no fuss. Honestly, if I streamline things, I NEED to drive less than 10 miles a week (I’m with you on working from home, Heather!), and with my husband’s 20 miles a week commute, I think we can handle it (Gosh, looking at those numbers, I’m feeling blessed!)

    One of my brothers just bought a motorbike to commute with, though. And I’m going to have to save up all summer for a trip to my Mom’s in September (and since it’s going to cost me $300 in gas, I’m staying 10 days!)

21. mamalang

    My driving actually decreases in the summer…less kids and less places to be. We are going on a vacation to a town about 60 miles away and pretty much parking the car there for the week. We can walk to almost everything we want…the beach, restaurants and a very cool playground. Library is close to the house (not safe to walk to it…it’s on a major highway) and we’ll spend a lot of time in our yard.

    I feel a blog post coming on…lol

22. Michelle

    Well, I’ll be teaching summer school for extra money, but I didn’t want to spend it all on gas!! For Pete’s Sake, I’m thinking of buying a bike!

23. bethany actually

    Naturally, this is the summer we’re going to drive our minivan approximately 2,800 miles across the country when we move!

24. naomi

    i don’t know if you have cable, but turner classic movies (tcm) channel has some excellent movies showing. it’s really nice to walk down memory lane and watch movies i remember seeing in the theatre when i was a kid (and long before i was born)

25. Mrs. Wilson

    CRAZY!

    We’re right now paying 5.00 per gallon (1.33 per litre) (did I do the math right?) (1 litre = 0.264172052 US gallons … 1 US gallon = 3.78541178 litre … this is too confusing)

    Luckily, everywhere in our town is a 5 minute drive.

    When Kaylie was born (almost 7 years ago), we were paying only .699 per litre.

    Things have CHANGED! And YES I think someone is laughing at how much money they’re making at our stinkin’ high gas prices! But, it’s sure not the gas stations - they don’t gain ANYTHING from these high gas prices.

26. Jenk

    Welcome to California. $4.09 for the cheap, no-name crap. Ugh.

    There are bastards making billions on us out there and I’m wondering how I am getting to work this summer.

27. Pumpkin

    I live in Europe. So, I think that four bucks a gallon is pretty darn cheap for gas. ;)

28. Manager Mom

    I live in Connecticut, and our gas is $4.20 per gallon for regular unleaded and has been for 2 weeks. It always pisses me off to read that Alaska and Long Island have the highest average gas price at $4.06 or whatever a gallon. Don’t any fact checkers live in the state of Connecticut?

29. Aileen

    I’m supposed to go to Rochester, NY this Thursday for Memorial Day weekend. I just cancelled. My little guy just started preschool so that’s one part of the reason why. The other? I just can’t justify the huge gas costs. Especially when those friends will be visiting here anyway a month or two later. Besides, it’s too hard to travel with a 2 month old baby right now.

30. Carolyn Farrell

    I am one week away from having my second baby. So I am looking forward to staying home this summer and not having to drive to work everyday. Although, I will have to watch how many trips to Super target I make!

31. The True Vine

    Thankfully, my dh converted a truck to electric a couple of years ago. We live about 5 miles from town and 15 miles from his teaching job, so that truck has been a life-saver. Of course, we can only get two out of ten kids transported at once…maybe new bicycles are in order.

32. MMM

    Well, since ALL of our classes end for the summer (ballet etc), we will NOT be driving unless we have to. Oh wait! We do that now! :(

33. Sticking Close to Home « Adventures of Four

    [...] · Filed under General Ramblings &#183 Tagged high gas prices OMSH posted her concerns about soaring gas prices the yesterday. It got me thinking about what I’m doing to survive the skyrocketing cost of [...]

34. Amanda

    You inspired me to address the topic on my own blog. I feel so helpless to stop the surging gas prices…

    http://adventuresoffour.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/sticking-close-to-home/

35. daisycake

    I totally want to buy a hybrid.

36. Kristi

    I ride a bike! Gas is free and works wonders on my thighs. Now if only I could do something about 100 degree Texas heat.

37. myra

    great question. this gas thing is incredible. and it’s happened so slowly that i think those gas bills have snuck up on a lot of us. i’m lucky to work near home.

38. Dad

    Daughter OMSH, I don’t have an answer for you. But I passed a store here in Oklahoma City this morning that’s across the street from a Shell Station. The store is displaying a sign reading “Our beer is cheaper than their gasoline!” Maybe that’s the answer.