Is the Economy Changing Your Daily Habits?

Aside from slowing down on the highway, I too have stopped making visits to the local fast food joint and instead make things at home. I now limit what I buy for myself. Probably won't be traveling as far as I normally do for my summer vacation.

Is the economy changing our habits? Absolutely! I bike for short-distance errands, buy store brands more often (or bike to the farmer's markets), and cut back on magazine and club subscriptions. We're planning meals that stretch into more leftovers and we cut our home phone service (cell phone only). We're not turning into monks or anything, but we're just being more frugal than ever.

I caught the tail end of a segment on NHPR featuring a dartmouth professor of economics who spoke of a proposed gas or carbon footprint tax today on my hour and a half commute home from burlington where I am working at a coca cola distributor to upgrade their lighting to make it more efficient and take stress off the power grid. As an electrician part of my job is to travel to where the contracts and jobs are. In the last years I've seen the gas prices double and am coming close to paying as much a month in gas to go to work, as I am rent. It's a struggle to save enough money these days for a downpayment on a house, more so when you're doing it on your own like me. I've already cut corners where I can. A gas tax would force a lot of construction and trade workers to leave the field, along with many other people and small businesses who must travel distance for their jobs. Wouldn't offering a tax and tax incentive for businesses who keep work within a certain distance of their main office be more appropriate? In my field we bid on jobs. Let's say I'm in Lebanon NH, and my competitor is in Concord NH. He get's the job in Lebanon because he bid lower than I, and I get the job in Concord because I bid lower than he. Wouldn't it stand to reason that if a gas tax/ incentive were implemented on businesses, there would be less gas consumed for a commute for each worker or business who worked in eachothers back yard. I could then bid lower in my own area or would be more apt to bid lower. My company is based out of manchester NH and I'm struggling to buy my first home in the surrounding area to be closer to the majority of contracts my company gets. It's the work force that builds our homes and businesses that will suffer. In the end, how much lost revenue will that be for businesses who can't expand due to the cost of construction?
As far as upgrading power lines in the north. The contract I'm finishing up right now, just cut the lighting bill for a distributor warehouse in at least half. That should be the goal, to give an incentive to businesses with outdated lighting systems to upgrade to newer efficient ones. We roughly calculated that in under the next three years the cost of what we've done in one building will have paid for itself in energy savings. A tax such as the one proposed by the dartmouth professor of economics (to me anyway) would be like putting pins, rods, and screws in an ankle that's not broken, but just sprained. It's exessive, it's painful, and it slows movement in any direction down. You want to improve carbon emission? Put back in a commuter transportation system like rails such as the large cities and europe(town to town)I would take a rail transport from lebanon to concord and carpool from there if i could. Manufacture more american diesel cars more individuals would explore the use of biodiesel, I know I'm very interested in it, along with exploring biodiesel yielded from algae due to it's efficiency over ethanol in energy made vs area used, and at the same time maintaining crop land for food and cattle. We who live here in the North have to persevere the winters, but we also have to have ingenuity to thrive in them.

"As warm weather begins to spread across the Granite State, and with gas prices teetering around the $4 a gallon mark, local scooter dealers are reporting record-setting sales, along with a growing demand they say they just can't keep up with."
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/GJNEWS_01/999...

I'd like to know if folks are resorting to part-time jobs to make extra money. Are you selling things on EBAY, bartending, delivering pizza, etc? I'd like to get a part-time job to make extra cash, but I can't seem to find anything that pays $10+ per hour.

Other than that, I drive very slowly, make sure my car's tires are well inflated and take few trips as possible. I'd love to buy a Vespa scooter but I work in Concord and live in Candia. It would take me forever to get to work (on the back roads).

I wanted to go hiking up North last weekend but I stuck closer to home and did a flat trail in Candia.

I've stopped buying alot of food. Normally, I would load up on tons of food (junk and otherwise). Now I just buy a few items and eat those until they're gone. Maybe I'll lose a few pounds?

I am driving slower to save gas. I've cut down on eating out, coffee to go, etc. I am buying fewer CDs, DVDs and books, making more trips to the library. I use Blockbuster on line and don't rent extra DVDs during the month. I am buying fewer annuals for my garden.
No more trips to the Christmas Tree Shop or others stores "just to see what they have".

I stopped commuting to a nursing job. Instead I am working from home at my own business. My fuel costs have gone down, and I have a lot less stress.

Yes, the added strain of higher gas and grocery prices is affecting how we live. We combine trips to town (we travel about 15-20 miles one way to church,stores, etc) we try to use our smaller car more often to save gas $, buying less gas each week. We have cut back on eating out. Grocery shopping is more for necessities, not splurges. We are growing a garden, and strictly managing our finances. I also am an avid coupon user and spend time planning out what I will buy and use in my grocery shopping.

My son's friend claims that his gas mileage improves between five and ten percent if he only fills his tank half way. While this makes sense because you have just lightened the vehicle's load by about 50 to 75 pounds, I have not verified his claim myself. Since my son and his friend are both mechanical engineer's in the manufacturing industry I do not doubt what they say. The down sides of this strategy are that you increase your risk of running out of gas if you forget that your tank is half full; visit the gas station more; and increase the risk of fouling your fuel filter by sucking up the stuff that settles in your gas tank.

I do use 89 octane gasoline, instead of 87 octane, because I have found that my gas mileage improves by an amount that more than offsets the additional cost of the higher grade of gas.

I have modified my usual speed limit +15 operations to driving at the speed limit or five MPH over to help with with the cost of my commute. Actually, I still tend to drive five or ten above in low speed zones that are not neighborhoods - sort of pulling my whole speed range more in toward a center of 45 - 50 or so. Gotta do something to try to stave off the crazy costs...

Aside from my serious caffeine addiction, I also would not stop buying coffee from the shop near my workplace because the owners of the local java joint earn their living that way, and they're my neighbors. So drinking their brew (after downing my own with breakfast at home) supports the local economy. And I get a buzz. It's a win-win.

As for high gas costs, I have been a bicycle commuter to every job I've had since 1979. I no longer live without a car entirely, because rural distances and my winter job don't allow efficient bike use year-round, but making the bike the first choice has allowed me to live in greater comfort and health on what has at times been an EXTREMELY modest income.

I've dropped my driving speed to 55 to 60; am carrying my coffee in a thermos from home; have reduced my trips to the store to once every week or two and then do a number of errands in that area. I've rediscovered clothespins and the delightful fragrance of line dried sheets and towels. The dryer no longer tumbles in my house! I often bring my lunch from home and have become very creative in using up small amounts of food items. There are fewer chips, candy and bakery goods in my home and more fruits and vegetables because if I am going to pay for it it better have value. I am scrutinizing all of my purchases and have become much more critical in using my discretionary funds.

Today's economy makes it hard to make green choices. It's like a few years ago when you could spend a couple of dollars extra on nature friendly products.