Aggie Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Only 1 tv station was coming in tonight...PBS. A commentator on the news show said he expects gas prices to reach $6/gal. (Someone PLEASE tell me I heard that wrong!) We pretty much know that higher gas prices are going to hit the middle and lower classes very hard. Higher gas prices will mean higher costs of any goods that are shipped. I was thinking about what changes our family will have to make if it gets to $5/gal. But....how will the changes our family makes affect our community? My dds dance at a relatively small dance school. Most of dds classes would have to be cut out. We know most of the families at that school, and many would have to drop dance altogether. The school might not survive. :( We foster dogs coming out of shelters until they find a permanent home. Since we pay for the vetting, we wouldn't be able to volunteer any more. More dogs on death row. :( We buy most of our meat at the local grocer. They're more expensive than WM, but it's nice to shop there. I can't imagine that store could stay open with their costs going up. :( We love going to the ballet, symphony and opera with discounted tickets. Those would be out of the question for us. How would the changes your family makes trickle down to your community? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb in NZ Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Petrol is $1.97 / LITRE here in NZ. That roughly translates to $8 / gallon. I can't remember petrol being under $1.50 / litre (~$6 / gallon) in the 13 years we've lived in NZ. Fuel prices in the States are dramatically cheaper than prices in most countries in the world. (Yes, a lot of our price is tax, but it's the price we pay at the pump & that's the cost that needs to be worked into our family budgets) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unicorn. Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Our news has been reporting for weeks now that gas will reach $5/gal by summer. As far as how it will trickle down.... I'm already planning on cutting all but one outside class, but not due to gas prices. However, if I wasn't already cutting them, I would now, because of it. We just had a grocery store open about 1/2 mile from here, so that's nice. We will still cut down on the number of trips to the store though. Ds will be going to ps, so he will either walk, or if they move the 9th grade campus- he will take the bus, or ride w/ dad. I don't know that we will have much of a neg. influence on anything by cutting back. We will however need to be more organized, so we make fewer trips around town. Vacation is out though. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeymama07 Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I pray it doesnt I drive 500 miles round trip every other weekend and it would kill me financially... I dont have extra money as it is I dont what we would do I would almost have to move back to the area we came from so my son could see his dad but that would mean leaving my complete support system and my job :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Oil only affects the price of....everything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertDweller Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I've heard $5 a gallon. I really don't know what people will do. I remember when it was $4 for ahwile and it was hard all around. We live on the edge of the city and have no choice but to drive in for many things. We'll definitely be evaluating where we go and trying to consolidate trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mysticamethyst Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Not sure what we will do to be honest. Cut out everything that requires driving more than a few miles. Dh has very fuel efficient car but my van will not be driving much I can tell you that, and our bikes will get used a whole lot more.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 OK, before everybody compares the price of gas in Europe to price of gas in the US, I have to say that there is No Way you can compare Europe to the US. I've been to Europe several times (actually, my uncle lives in Ireland now). People in Europe have no idea the vast distances Americans have to drive to get to something they need to get to. Take Texas - for instance - you literally could drive 18 hours across Texas one way. For 18 hours and you would still be in Texas - which is just ONE state out of 50. I own a rental house in Missouri, so if I have to run up there for the tenant...it takes about 11-12 hours to drive there - one way (I have to spend the night in MO). I also have family in Chicago - it's like driving half-way up the globe. Now that I got that out of my system, back to your regularly-scheduled program. There are some electric cars coming out this year. We're waiting until they've been on the market for a couple of years, but we're probably going to buy one. Also, we're having a house built and it's in the city. We'll only be able about 20 minutes from my husband's work now. If gas does reach 6 bucks a gallon (which I don't think it will), we will sink into a huge depression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 and our bikes will get used a whole lot more.:001_smile: That's another thing - most places in the US make bike travel completely impossible (I know the east coast is an exception). Plus, there's no "bike parking" and we have lots of...unsafe areas in our country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I just went to gas up the van yesterday and almost fell over at the price of gas. Up 25 cents from the week before. There will be a lot more keeping it local for us. No more "Hey, that sounds cool. Lets go check it out." Swim practice now means waiting at the Y for 3 hours instead of taking dd home when she is done and returning for ds when his practice is over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athena1277 Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 As far as driving goes, I don't think it will impact where i go a lot, but it will impact dh. He drives into DC for work and if gas gets more expensive he will have to start taking the Metro again. He dislikes taking the metro because it takes longer to get home. He'll live. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 (edited) Our changes: dh would begin carpooling--not much of a change We've already cut out all extra-curriculars except soccer, which we would drop. We've already stopped buying books not needed for school. We've already streamlined our menu to eliminate excess. We've already cut our cell phone plans down to 1 basic phone, no frills. We've already stopped paying to have our hair done professionally. We've already purchased high efficiency appliances and weatherized our house to drop our utility consumption. We've already moved so that we live within walking distance of our church (albeit, a long walk, even by European standards) and grocery stores. Doing so required us to buy a more expensive house, so we pay more into county tax coffers. We would stop eating out in restaurants on Saturday nights (our one luxury). We will continue to expand our garden (good for local garden supply store). We will stop buying new clothes, unless absolutely necessary, and what we buy will be of more expensive brands that are of higher quality and done through catalog orders. As an example, we'll buy 2 pairs of Lands End jeans for our boys rather than 4 pairs of Old Navy ones. Our local thrift stores are expensive and very picked over. We learned a lot when gas jumped from $1.50/gallon to $4.50/gallon a few years ago. When gas dropped back down to $2.50-$3/gallon and food prices dropped back as well, we did a lot to prepare for the eventual rise again. The question I have is this: If part of the rise of current gas prices is due to increased demand from India and China, will the jump in prices curb that demand and mitigate the rising cost of gasoline? Either way, I'm expecting to pay $5-6/gallon this summer and to see greater political instability as the world food crisis continues. Edited February 25, 2011 by kbeal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyDay Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 We've had to cut back due to salary cut anyway. Grocery prices going up have also concerned me. I know the 2 are related, but honestly, the price of food bothers me more than fuel at the moment. I *can* cut where I go, but it will be difficult to cut what we eat. I do know lots of us homeschoolers locally are talking about not going to any conferences this year. The closest is 3 hours away, which is a major improvement. THe last several years, the closest was 6 hours and I could not fit that into my budget. But, even at 3 hours drive time, that is still a budget hit with rising fuel prices. We have already cut and combined outings. For example, we only go to the library when dd has dance because we go right by. I shop when they have dance or music because we are already out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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