I had made a couple of switches recently unrelated to the price of gas, such as *finally* getting a better deal on cable and mobile phones. I may be holding even with inflation right now as to my monthly spending.
I have been more attentive to carpooling with birdwatching friends for birding trips, but we had been doing that anyway, though I suppose it was partly a reaction to the slow increase in gas prices beginning last year. I may be spending more, lol, since my friends are now accepting gas money I offer when I carpool, whereas before some of them did not. I point out that carpooling is what we *should* be doing, and that splitting costs for gas is the only sensible thing to do with these prices.
With food, I seldom ate out before, and I am very good at cheap cooking (all those years as a graduate student, and also , thanks, Mom!). I enjoy buying high quality ingredients and then stretching them. I just made my staple scratch yellow cake and have been enjoying it with some organic strawberries and a couple of tablespoons of leftover light cream. I am being vigilant about using leftovers! I couldn't finish an enormous apple yesterday, so today the remnant got chopped up and added to a cottage cheese concoction for lunch. In this I have surpassed my Mom, who hated leftovers (she called them "dibs") and tried to throw them out whenever I saved them. But she always cooked for a family.
I have been more attentive to carpooling with birdwatching friends for birding trips, but we had been doing that anyway, though I suppose it was partly a reaction to the slow increase in gas prices beginning last year. I may be spending more, lol, since my friends are now accepting gas money I offer when I carpool, whereas before some of them did not. I point out that carpooling is what we *should* be doing, and that splitting costs for gas is the only sensible thing to do with these prices.
With food, I seldom ate out before, and I am very good at cheap cooking (all those years as a graduate student, and also , thanks, Mom!). I enjoy buying high quality ingredients and then stretching them. I just made my staple scratch yellow cake and have been enjoying it with some organic strawberries and a couple of tablespoons of leftover light cream. I am being vigilant about using leftovers! I couldn't finish an enormous apple yesterday, so today the remnant got chopped up and added to a cottage cheese concoction for lunch. In this I have surpassed my Mom, who hated leftovers (she called them "dibs") and tried to throw them out whenever I saved them. But she always cooked for a family.