Thursday, May 22, 2008

What will you do?

Today at work we were discussing the price of gas (I don't know anyone who doesn't care about this hot topic) and how we've "heard" that it will increase to $6/gallon by July 4th. We started throwing out ideas of what we thought people will do to be able to afford the gas they need to drive to work, school, run errands, go to sporting events, just drive in general. My first thought (since I'm such an optimist) was that people would need to stop smoking and drinking because they wouldn't be able to afford both. But reality (my coworkers) stepped in and said, typically people will tend to smoke and drink more often and let their bills go delinquent instead. So I've been thinking about this all day. If it really does get to the $6 mark, our lives will change - drastically. There won't be the, "I'm out of _____, I'll just run to the store quick", or "hey, I'll meet you at Lakeside Mall because the stores there are nicer", or "I like the veggies from Nino Salvaggio's better than Kroger, so I'll drive 30 minutes to get them." Instead, we will be forced to make different choices. And honestly, I've already started making those choices. I must admit, I'm one of the lucky ones, I live within walking/bike-riding distance to my job. If it came right down to it, I could make the choice to leave my car at home and take the "greener" and "most cost-efficient" way to work. I'm thinking, what would I do besides that? Maybe give up cable and home phone service to cut some money from my budget? Stick to a very meager budget for food? Not sure. Just wondering, what will you do when you must make budget cuts?

3 comments:

Morgan's Mom said...

UUMMMM still waiting for my financial anaylis to make an appointment for me.
Not sure what I am going to do since I don't drink much and don't smoke and don't have internet at home.
How much for a kidney these days?

Anonymous said...

My hubby started to walk to work last month. And I have 2 friends who have started riding their bike to work. Of course, they are part of the NYC church planting group we're in where we are selling just about everything we own. . . so they actually sold their cars! They live in the suburbs without public transportation, and they're just biking it! By the way, anyone want to buy a sweet motorhome? Gets about 6 miles to the gallon. Come on, sounds like fun, you know it does. . .

Morgan's Mom said...

we miss you here in blogger world!! where are you??