Gas and Our Life Style

I read where President Bush visited the Saudis, met with the leaders, and tried to get them to produce more oil from their resources. Is he daft??? Oil is a finite resource, though abundant. And, does he really think having more oil will make our dollar buy more of it? A dollar which is worth less (not worthless, yet) does not have the same buying power, so the same dollar will buy less. I wonder how many of the presidential candidates really get the relationship between the dollar being worth less, and cost of items costing more "dollars" and all of us caught in the middle, being squeezed by a collapsing economy?

For example, have you come to the end of the gas money and it is only the middle of the month? I have, and I have been very careful how I use the car. Something else has to give for me to buy fuel. I see many more folks walking, riding bikes, and standing at the bus stops lately. It may come to that for members of our family. The more I think if it, we are spoiled by access at a whim to our car, though I don't feel spoiled. I want to be able to drive to the library, grocery store, or do my errands.

Come to think of it, my dollar isn't buying as much as I budgeted for the month in other areas. I have a list of variable items: gas, groceries, medications, school, entertainment, and all of them are costing more than last year at this time, yet there is no additional money coming into the household. In fact, there is more money needing to go out than we have coming in! Ouch!!! And then there is retirement to save for, because Social Security was never meant to be the sole retirement, only in addition to our own savings. College funding??? It may have to be up to the children how they get into and through college.

I think we have to take matters into our own hands, and make painful changes just to get through these times, which may last forever. For example, our grocery list used to include the following: bread, milk, eggs, lettuce, tomato, carrot, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, salt, pepper, sugar, flour, canned tuna, ground meat and roasting chicken. These items lasted us the week, and there were no extras, except for special occasions. The dogs ate table scrapes and kibble from a bag we bought in the grocery store, and we let our cats out-of-doors and gave them half a can of cat food each evening. We had no mice or rats, and we called the exterminator when bugs overwhelmed our ways of dealing with the insects. We didn't have to purchase water to drink, or pay to have our water softened. We cleaned our own home, bathrooms, sweep, dust, vacuum and drapes down for dry cleaning each Spring. We mowed our own lawns, weeded the areas needing it, washed our own cars, and planed for the one vacation we might be able to have each summer.

I think our family's path into the "good life - spending what we make," happened with the birth of our children. We wanted to give them the best, and our once really frugal nature was replaced with diapers, formula, doctor visits, trips into the city for special camps and after school programs. Our sensibilities changed and we viewed once extras as necessities, and off we went. Spending everything we made, using our credit cards when we WANTED something that we didn't have the cash for. Now our children are mid and late teens, and need to know first hand how to live a frugal life. So, this Summer, I canceled the lawn care, house keeping, and trips here and there. The children are just beginning the Summer free of one level of supports and extras. Lets see how we do. I hope all of us can emotionally frame the changes in a positive light, and meet the demands with tenacity and imagination. I think our country is generally in a downward trend that may last the rest of our lives, and our children's lives. So, when I hear teens say they want to do something to be rich and able to retire at age 30, I get a little sick to my stomach thinking about the dissatisfaction in their future.