Health insurance is definitely a luxury. In NY, it's expensive to buy when it's not part of some company benefits package, and when you're healthy, you have to be in the hospital before health insurance does anything for you. (Plus, there are free clinics where you can get the same meds and services for cheap.) If you have no chronic health conditions, and you're willing to take the risk of being uninsured in catastrophe (which many people are), then it totally makes sense to forgo health insurance for yourself when you're in a money crunch. I've done it, and I'd say about half my friends, ages 27-35 (even some with kids) simply don't have the disposable income to dedicate to health insurance for themselves.

Gas has taken a chunk out of my monthly expenses, but luckily it hasn't impacted my business too much. Most of my clients are within a 10 mile radius, so I don't have to travel too far. But I have started telling people 20 miles+ away that I'd rather discuss their projects over the phone instead of in person.

Personally, the rising cost of gas has forced my fiance and I to reevaluate how much we spend on things like going out to eat, buying new clothes, buying new games, etc. We still spend money in these areas, but not as much. Which in some ways is really good. For example: we've stopped buying so much stuff we never use; I've dropped a few pounds from not eating out as much; and we've even started going through our "stack" of really good games we never got around to playing. FFXII is awesome!

I'm just glad we don't have kids. This must be a trying time for parents.

I'm just sick of the CNN articles about how the borderline rich are suffering so much due to gas prices. Selling the SUV to gas up the Lexus, switching from Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts, actually buying things that are *GASP* on sale. Cry me a river.

That reminds me, the other day I was at this little mom & pop gas station and this woman in a huge SUV was in front of me. I couldn't hear very clearly but I think the guy said her bill was $134. She handed him $4. Four singles. Of this I am sure. So the guy counts it a few times and clarifies to her that it is more than $4, and she appears to hand him two fifties, which would be (together, class) $104. Before he can even count it and verify that it's the proper amount, she takes off. The poor guy must've counted that wad 10 times, as if absolutely certain that he didn't just get ripped off, and he must be missing something.

I guess it's not as uncommon as I'd like to think but it kind of hurts the soul, y'know? Here's a little gas station that still has full service, still takes cash at the pump, and some soccer mom has to "save" a little by ripping them off. They've already got the Mobil and the Shell just down the street to contend with. Pisses me off.

Yeah, I love that joke.

November 15th. We've got a date, a place, and a dress. That's about it.

You know not of what you speak. You are never "all set". Never.

I just got off the phone with one of my customers who mentioned that he filled up his tank (in an Audi A4) in Germany last week and paid more for a tank of gas than he had ever done in his life. I think the final pricetag was about $160 after the conversion.

Bleh, it all depends on how much you let it get out of control.

Is there, like, a thriving donkey cart taxi business in Germany or something?

It really is a weird time. My wife and I make a decent income, no kids. We should be doing great. Except our food and eating out bill has practically doubled. So we've done a lot of the same things. Buy less food, eat out less, rent movies instead of going out. We're trying to make sure we can keep paying for our priorities like Triathlon training, physical fitness stuff in general, but it's definitely changed the way we do things across the board. And we don't drive much. We both bike/take the light rail to work usually. So we pay TONS less in gas than the average person. But even then just the cost of stuff and going out has gone up so much that we're cutting back.

Last night we did our nightly ritual of going out to our favorite restaurant to play board games at and we shared a sandwich. Then we went home and finished eating dinner out of the stuff we'd purchased from Costco. Dinner was $14 with tip. No glass of wine for me any longer. Breakfast on Saturday after my triathlon was $12 total. Once again, splitting meals. We then rented Fight Club with a free coupon as Saturday night entertainment. In the past a typical weekend for us would have been a $25 breakfast with some wasted food, followed by a $16 movie, then a $30 dinner on Sunday night.

I often wonder what kind of ripple effect this is having through the economy with everyone seemingly making similar cutbacks. It has to, over the long term, cause even more buckling throughout the economy.

And like Kat I'm finding myself more often appreciating the games I already have and losing weight. It doesn't hurt that I'm tri training, but cutting out unnecessary food means for money reasons as well has me about 15lbs. down from March.

Oh, well played! You are teh Mistrezz.

yeah, but now Diesel fuel is more expensive than gasoline in the US.

All those hipsters are going to have to start looking for real jobs as their boutiques and coffee shops cut costs.

I can't imagine someone with a large collection of ironic 80's Cartoon T-shirts actually taking up a position as an landscaper or somesuch.

It's all the summer heat, it hets them goodgers up but good.