Gas Prices

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I first want to say this is no "attack" or anything, but the solution to the gas hike isn't as simple as "plan your money better". Sure you can limit some excessive spending, but for some of us there was no excessive spending to begin with, so that's not an option.Gas prices not just for driving but heating my house has really killed me this winter. I had a gas bill over $800 one month this last winter, and few under $600. Though now the weather is warmer and the heat is basically turned off in my house I still owe almost $800 in back payments I own for my heat, which I make about $200 a month payments. On top of that I have my house payment ($600, yes cheap compared to most, I got a great deal on my house lol), Phone bill and DSL ($60), Groceries & Hygiene products (Roughly $300 a month), Cell phone ($60), Car pmt & Car insurance ($250), Electric bill ($70), Water and Sewer ($70-ish every other month), Cable ($20), College Loan Payments ($100) and that’s not including a few medical bills I have to pay, which I don’t give them much because funds are limited. Not to mention I have to fill up the gas tank in my car which is now over $30 for a full tank and I have to do that once a week, making it $120 a month. And these bills are cheap compared to some because I don’t have children to take care and my job is only about 40 miles round trip. True I have Adam living with me and he helps out the best he can, but it’s not much because he makes quite a bit less than I do.Point being of this long post is the solution is not about planning your money better, for most of us the money is already spent on bills before any “planning” can be done. My gas bill for my house and my car over doubled this year, which has really caused a lot of financial hardship for me. I do walk as much as possible, but that’s not the solve-all for everything.Just think if I find it hard to live sometimes, imagine the people with kids to support who make less than I do. It’s really rough, and having gas prices literally double for no viable reason is killing a lot of people.

Ahhhh qui'ch yer bitchin'.... Put on a jacket and turn down the heat. You really need a cell phone? DSL?? Use your work computer.... Groceries? Eat Mac'n'cheese. Hygiene? All you need is a bar of soap. Cable? Do you really need to watch TV?The way I see it you can save several hundered a month. So be quiet.

300 a month for grocerys and hygene ?what the fuck are you eating and washing with ?I got 2 kid sthat live her full time plus me and my girl for 4 people ful time, add to that her other 3 kids 2 weekends a month and my other son 1 weekend a month, al teenagers all fucking trying to eat thier wieght in food every 3 hours.I put out aout 400 a month in food alone, considering one is a dibetic and we have to have specific foods at certain amounts I dont think its too bad, toss in another 40 bucks in shampoo and conditioner and soap a month because kids always use more then they need. if for a total of 8 people and 4 of them being fulltime cos 440 for 30 days what the hell are you and your bf eating and washing with?and SDP, ramen noodles are cheaper then mac n cheese

and they taste better

when I was 18 and lived on my own, I ate alot of ramen noodles, lived on the fuckers pretty much for the first 6 months of my adult life. the only time I got anything else was if it was thanksgiving or my birthday or christmas or shit like that were my family hada dinner that I was invited for.I fucking hate ramen noodles, and I never did lke mac n cheese, I wont eat either fo the bastards now :Pa solid diet of ramen noodles gave me a lifetime supply of msg inmy blood system, Im good till I die with out ever touching them again.there is some downstaris inteh cupboard, the kids like em after school for a snack and at 10 for a buck idont give a shit how many they eat, but Ill never open a pack and make it for myself.f

lol, so what does having that much msg in your system do? if anything

IDK, we easily spend 400 a month for just the 4 of us. MAtter of fact, we stocked up this weekend.... $215 bucks (lots of meats etc.. for the freezer) and that wont cover the whole month. I don't know if food is more expensive down here in San Diego as opposed to other areas of the country. We do eat well though and don't skimp or shop around. I'm sure we could knock it down if we wanted to.

The more people you feed the lower the cost per person. Most likely part of the reason. It takes 250 for my wife and I and we eat crap most of the time cereal and beans nothing fancy or good for that matter.

In reply to: lol, so what does having that much msg in your system do? if anything gives you better taste!

lol thats ok i dont plan on eating myself anytime soon

that topic is well covered in a different thread anyway :wink:

its not eating myself, its my girl eating me I do shop around too, we head to out of the way stores and buy in bulk alot of shit, I have two freezers in my garage ful of shit, they get nearly empty sometimes but when I find good deals I put shit in em in bulk.I also take a deer every year, and if Im lucky an elk. I have a buddy who goes in on a cow with me every year and that fills a freezer. I also have a farmers market down teh street from me thats open on saturdays, I stock shit up there too and normally walk down there as its only a couple hundred yards, sometime si throw the bike trailer on and take the 2 year old with me, sometimes I take the bike and the trailer and leave the little one at home with mom to haul the shit home in. I also have a garden on the side of my house, potatos, carrots, beans, squash, 3 different types of tomatos, shit like that. my girls friend has a gareden and grows different shit, we trade as each of us always has more then they want of anyone thing. fwhen I do take a deer or elk I butcher the animal myself, no sense paying soeone to do it for me. My brother likes to hunt but not eat the deer so if he gets one, I get two deer in my freezer. I have a vacuum sealer so that saves a hell of a lot of money on food going bad. I fish alot in the summer, and I live on a lake full of crawdads, I keep a few traps out, lil bastards taste alot like lobster but I prefer to cook em ina cajun boil and some butter. we also eat alot of spaghetti, cheap shit and one of my favorite foods since I was a kid, especially if you make the sauce yourself from garden fresh shit. theres a store about 2 minutes form my fiances work, if a truck gets in a wreck, the goods inteh trailer are scrap, downt menat hey are bad, just that the company scraps them, sells them off as scrap, that store resells the food items that were in the trucksf. Its all good shit, but about 30% of what you find at wal mart or smiths or albertsons.Im a cheap bastardf, I know lots of tricks to not spending money.

"its not eating myself, its my girl eating me "ya ya ya lucky bastard....and theres nothin wrong with being cheap as long as its effective

Too bad if your cheap people see you as the lower class. im cheap all the time, my heart gets broken when i have to give others money!

eh who gives a flying monkey fudge about them or "class"

Class matters though, i saw it when i watched Oprah one time, she is not very smart.

lol i thought she was dead by now what is everyones fascination with her sheesh

I meant $300 a month including both food and hygiene TOGETHER and that’s for 2 people mind you. I don't think that’s a hell of a lot. We make good healthy meals; sorry I don’t want to be over weight when I get older. So my diet has a lot of grilled chicken, fresh veggies etc etc. Plus with my stomach problems I cannot handle a lot of other foods, like mac and cheese and those ramen noodles.And sdp I need all those things and here’s why:My cell I use for long distance phone calls so I don’t have to have LD on my home phone. Most of my family and close friends live states away. Plus I am rarely home and it’s easier to get a hold of me on the cell. As for the heat, It’s already at 66 degrees. Not exactly warm, so I still wore a hoody and had a blanket wherever I was in the house during the winter. Hell I was wearing my hoody yesterday lol.DSL is mainly used for school purposes, not just for me but also for Adam. Plus I also use it as part of my hobby with an on-line game that yes I splurge $12 a month for, IMO that’s a cheap hobby to have.As for my hygiene, umm sorry I need more than a bar of soap. I have very acne prone skin so I have to have certain things to keep the pesky pimples away. Other than that deodorant is a MUST, and I have a limited supply of cologne that I only use if I am going out to eat or dancing.So yes I need all these things and have valid reason for having them

my passions are expnsive, fand figure out what it costs to have a kid play in sports, between equipment and the doctor visits and physicals and the fact aht he cant seem to not lose a jock strap form one season to the next and hes gone in 2 years from being 96 lbs and 5 foot to being 5'9" and 140 lbs.. from a size 6 shoe to a fucking 10 1/2.the kid is 13 and only 2 inches shorter then me,nearly equal in wieght and wearing the same size shoe, the worst part is even if I try, hes still beating me playing basketball.I dont know to be proud or cry over my lost youth and abilitydotn misunderstand, i spend alot of money, I jsut dont do it on food or tvs or shit like that. I still use a old pII laptop, the desktop is a pIII and Im lookig at a new AMD for a desktop, that would give me 4 desktops and a laptop runnig on wireless networks, my car is a 93, its fast as fuck, a 3.2 taurus SHO, if ya dont know what that is I suggest you look at SHOTimes.com, its chipped and built nad runs a ram air kit and hiflow mandril bent dual exaust with a shift kit and an 85,, maf and intake. but I still get about 27 miles to the gallon when I keep my foot out of it. still looks good, and its a four door, cops never even look at me cruising down the road in a absolute stock (to look at) 4 door sedan. Im cheap but I spend alot in other areas, rock and ice climbing, backpacking,books, guns, I got expensive hobbies and diabetic kid, that medical shit eats my bank account, insulin, test strips, keytone test strips, aic testing, so much shit ot buy and use and its all expensive, and al needed to keep him alive. someone here I remeber said they had a daughter that was diabetic, one of the mods i think SDP or Intelligable? I think it was one of those two, they can tell ya even with health insurace pickig up some cost diabeties is a bad bastard and eats money and the stress it casue on a child and the parents is sometimes nearly to my breaking point.anyways....

And sdp I need all those things and here's why:

You didn't catch that I was being sarcastic.