So with gas and food prices creeping up, what are some things we can do to preserve our quality of life and budget this summer?  

My ideas for this month- every time I go get milk-  3-4 times a week- buy the loss leaders, go to both major chains here, Rainbow and Cub- to make the grocery money stretch farther-

also, don't use the air until absolutely necessary, we don't use it during the day, dh turns it on at night when he is home.  Look for ways to make a little extra money-

Tracy 

I reorganised my "pantry" and plan to use up some of the food I found so even with adding a few newer items, I should have lower bills. With my coupon requests, I am getting much more at a cheaper price.

I am motivating myself to get back into real meal planning and cooking, organised meals go a long way in saving.

Going to the store 3-4 times to buy milk?  Then spending more $?   Research has proven the more frequently a person goes to the store, the more $$ are spent. 

We shop as little as possible. Of course, dh and I strongly dislike shopping of any kind so it's not a problem.  

We inventory what is in the cupboard, meal plan around those items, make an exact list and stick to it.  We grocery shop once monthly.  We go back to restock milk and perishable produce, and take only the amount of cash we need for those items. 

We drive as little as possible as dh has an 80 mile round trip commute for work 5X weekly.

 I would be shocked if Tracy's family consumed less than five gallons of milk a week. We use two to three gallons. I have to buy milk twice a week and I use powdered to cut down on the need for fluid milk.

I try to have dh pick up whatever is needed on his way home as it's a company truck and he doesn't pay for gas for it. His employer doesn't mind him making personal stops. His last employer didn't allow it.

I'm contemplating quitting my Curves membership to try to get a partial year reimbursement. I don't know if it'll work, I've heard some things about the owner from employees that makes me think I won't get anything back.

I'm shopping locally more and using up my pantry items....I just did a count yesterday and was shocked to see vegetables disappearing so fast. I hope my green beans last until the end of July when I'll be canning.

I'm getting quite proficient at driving ds's manual 5 speed Volkswagen. I'm tracking the gas mileage of it. Currently it's 31 - 34 mpg. We even take it to church. It's not a bad looking car, but even so last week another family we know stared at us. Oh well.

One of the things I am doing is growing a garden with my friend. We both want to freeze as much as we can from the garden, so hopefully we will both be able to contribute as much a variety of things to choose from. She and her husband are much older than us, so they don't eat huge amounts and the garden is fairly large. I can't wait to start getting produce from it. She lives a mile from me so I will be riding my bike over there as weather permits. Added bonus of exercise.

Another thing is combining trips. I have been doing this for a while as we live out in the country and it makes you think twice about going into town.

We don't have central, but do have room air conditioners. They don't get put in unless we are going to have a long stretch of 90 and above temps. Mostly we just use the ceiling fans and take cool showers to cool off.

I am also considering cancelling my ISP. It might only be $25 a month, but that adds up quickly and I can do anything at the local library that I do on the pc at home.

I am also trying to cut back on non essential items like pop and chips. I mostly cook from scratch, but like those two items a lot. Bad Kathy!

Still turning off lights all day and wondering about things that are plugged in and leaching electricity. Might start unplugging those items.

 Concentrating on summertime, I'm paying more attention to how much water I use as well as electricity.

On days that I run the AC, I turn it off and open the windows as soon as it starts cooling off outside.

Warm weather means less laundry, so I stretch the days out until I do it again. Working at home means I don't have to follow a schedule of any kind, so that helps.

Then there's the garden. Even if I have to pay for water, the food I get from that saves money. 

Dear Kabin, In my region, Yahoo! costs only $9.95 for dial-up service. Check it out where you live -- dial-up may well be cheaper than potentially having to drive to & from the Library.  But maybe you could bike to & from the Library?

You can buy corn tortillas cheap, cut them into eighths, salt them & maybe put some garlic powder on, & bake.  You can have your chips at a much lower cost.  As to soda, where I live, I can buy club soda for 69cents for a 2-liter bottle.  I mix it with juice, &, voila, soda!

If you have a TV, I've read that unplugging it helps teh budget.  I've never read about other appliances specifically, but it couldn't hurt!

Good luck with the garden!

Rolo, we do use a gallon of milk a day- I can't see buying thirty gallons at a time!  We do have a side by side fridge, I do only buy two gallons at a time, so I go to the store about 15 times a month- it is just about 7 blocks away.  Also, we use about 5 loaves of bread a week- so I buy one or two when I go in. I have trouble keeping food in the house, I figured once that every person uses about one thing a day- so I figure if I buy 40 things at the store, we are good for half a week- that's about all that can fit in the cart with a toddler and a baby seat! 

I should look at making bread this summer.  

Does anyone unplug their TV's, computers, etc?   

Also- do you buy only fruit/veg on sale, or what you know your family likes?  I'd like to buy a little more on sale, but also want everyone to eat healthy.

Tracy 

Thanks for your suggestions Deb. I didn't know that about yahoo. I had Juno for a while and the dial up was so slow I couldn't do much of anything without it taking hours on the pc, not good when you have things to do. I may just check it out.

Now I hadn't thought about doing that with tortilla chips, mostly because I like potato chips, but hey, if I try it I might lose a few pounds too. Good idea.

We have more TV's in this house than I want to admit to, but I am not against unplugging them while the others are away.I think the biggest electricity leach at the moment is the refrigerator. It needs new seals, so it runs every half hour. The only reason I haven't replaced them is because I am going to get a new, more energy efficient model that is about 5 cu. ft. smaller. Trouble is I don't know when that will be. I am actually thinking of replacing the seals after all, but just about the time I do my Dh will say "Ok, lets go get that new frige" and the seals are over $100 for both. That would be my luck. Also the frige is a side by side and 12 years old. I want to get a freezer on top model, like I grew up with, because they are more energy efficient and I can better see what is in there.