So, how has the rise in gas prices effected your life? It has certainly had a large effect in many ways on ours.

Let's see, the main changes would come in the actual purchasing of gas. I have a paper route, and the whole thing is about driving, so of course I have to still keep buying gas. Honestly, the whole round trip is only about 35 to 40 miles, which is less that Trey has to drive round trip to and from work (50 miles), but it's full of stopping, starting, turning, slowing down, speeding up...all the stuff that not only burns gas faster, but wears out your engine and tires quicker. It used to take me $40 to fill up my tank, near the end of last year. Now, it takes $65 to $70 easily. The remedy? I bought Trey a motorcycle, as I mentioned before, and I was driving his car to do the route during the week when the paper is small enough to fit in it (not Sundays, too big). It sucks to drive a stick-shift on a paper route, but I made it work. Of course, now I have to wait a few days, b/c the other day his window, driver door of course, decided to die. Can't do a paper route with the window shut, so I've been back to driving the van. Man, what a difference I've noticed already! It would also be nice if Trey would get his guts about him and actually start driving the damn motorcycle to work. That would help...

Food has also become a problem. It seems as everything at the grocery store has escalated in price. For a while it was just the milk, which was killing me. I had to cut the kids to just one sippy cup a day, whereas before they were having it with every meal. Cole gets more, naturally, since he still needs it the most, but the other two now have to drink a lot of water, which they're kind of getting used to. TJ doesn't mind so much, but Taryn HATES it. I bought a fridge water filter, with a little spicket on it, and that seems to have made it more fun for them. They call it "Fresh, Cold Water" (always), and can get it themselves, and the liberation and control has definitely helped! As a matter of fact, Taryn just brought me a cup, how sweet! Anyway, as far as other foods go, I've really had to cut back on a lot of stuff. The kids love snacks, but they can't have as many as they used to. Oh, and produce! Am I the only one who's noticed that fresh food is harder and harder to afford? I really want to start eating better, but damn! I bought a little bag of grapes the other day, on sale, and it still cost me over $4! Bananas used to be $.48 a pound, now they average over $.65. I'm sad that it's cheaper just to buy a frozen pizza, although not much, b/c even those have gone up!

Have you heard, too, that electricity and water are going up? Well, at least here they are. Yeah, that's what I need. I can barely afford my electricity bills as it is, but definitely raising the prices will help. I am on the verge of telling Trey he can't take two showers a day anymore (he needs them with the stinch that sticks to him from work), and telling the kids that there will be no more sprinkler play.

Also, I've slipped into further depression. I literally feel sick to my stomach on a daily basis as I think about everything going up in price, and our pay going down. You know, both of us work in areas that depend on people spending their extra money. When experts start talking about where to cut costs to save money and make your budget work, they first say "cut out eating out and getting the paper--you can read it online". There go our incomes! I just lost my small paper route, which was bringing in a little under $300/month. Sure, it's not anything major, but it definitely will be missed. I hate driving by gas stations, b/c it makes me feel more dismal. The only thing that brings me a feeling of hope anymore is when I hear these articles and stuff about cars that run on water...yeah, as if I'll be getting one of those anytime soon! Yeah, so this sucks.

I realize it's not all that bad, and it's only going to get worse from here, but man does it feel awful already. So, has the skyrocketing of gas prices effected your life in any ways? How have you dealt with it?