High fuel prices - what changes are you making?

I just gave the price of gas as a reason for canceling an appointment. I made an appointment over a month ago to take some things to the best consignment store in my area. It is over an hour away and I calculated the cost of driving there and back at over $17. I just didn't have that many things to take and they would undoubtedly rejected some of them so I decided to donate locally rather than consign. I would still like to shop at the store but I'll do it when we are going to Charlotte for some other reason.

Plus it is too freaking hot and I'll use that gas money to drive up into the mountains!

We have gas central heating, gas boiler to heat water, gas fire in the lounge and gas oven/hob/grill.

Overall, my own upbringing, habits and lifestyle choices have generally shielded us from things being much worse, but I've made some other choices since to try to reduce costs further.

I work from home and have refused to put the central heating on for longer than the set hour and half morning/evening when it's very cold. And I turned it off altogether much earlier in the year and wore extra layers, fingerless gloves, had more hot drinks and hot water bottles to stop from freezing whilst sat at my desk. Note that we have a pretty big house with a lot of unused rooms and old fashioned radiators, not all of which can be turned off individually.

Over the last several years enduring hot flushes, I've got everyone else in the house used to me turning the central heating off unless it is extremely cold. Told everyone to use a second duvet, blankets and add layers and use hot water bottles if they're too cold. Soon to be ex is a pain always putting the heating on, fire on and letting the tumble drier run for way longer than necessary. I pay the bills so I'm pretty sure he only does this to piss me off.

I'm trying to get into the habit of switching things off at the socket when going to bed or not in use, but I can't seem to get anyone else on board with this and, honestly, I'm struggling myself to change my behaviour.

Also trying to reduce reliance on tumble drier, but when the weather's bad it's a balancing act between heating rooms to put clothes over radiators or using the tumble drier. Obviously the better weather means we can put things out on the line or on airers in the conservatory, but we still finish everything off for 10-15 minutes in the tumble drier to save having to iron. I'm happy with the cost benefit analysis on this one

My main oven is broken so I am only using the smaller second oven for cooking, but I'm a big fan of one pot type meals. We also use a pressure cooker which saves using extra rings on the hob.

Working from home has been the biggest cost saver for me. Really glad that my employer transferred me over to their new London contract (I live over 100 miles away) and I insisted on getting my employment contract changed to being 100% home based so there is no expectation that I have to be in the office at all unless there is some form of mandatory event for all staff, or I want to meet up with the team now and again.

I can't remember the last time I went on holiday and since my mum died last year, I rarely have days out either (she was the impetus for days out at the weekend). I combine errands, few that they are, and are mostly done within 3 miles of home. Now and again (once or twice a month) I may go into the bigger towns, but I'm not a huge fan of shopping or browsing the shops anyway.

I'm lucky that I've had pay increases which have helped, but it just means there is less to spend on luxuries/savings/replacing things, which isn't fun.

my DH actually changed jobs partly due to the high gas prices. He's a truck driver and was driving at least 55 miles (well over an hour) into St Louis every morning just to get to the trucking terminal to pick up his truck. He had to fill up his car with fuel 2x/week. He hated the commute for the amount of wasted time & the traffic, the miles he was putting on his car, and the amount of $$$ it was costing to even GET to work. With his new job, his commute is 8 miles one way and he doesn't even have to get onto the highway.

I also drive over 50 miles one way to work-- it's a good salary, but if the price of gas stays as high as it is, it will take some serious analysis to decide whether it's really cost-effective to stay or find something closer to where we live.


^^^  yeah.  me, too.