Are you conscious of your driving habits? I never really was until I inherited dh's truck, which is a more reliable vehicle than my station wagon, but gets considerably worse gas mileage.

I'm finding that this is really playing a big part in my effort to be more thrifty. Even a few weeks ago I was driving 25 miles round trip to go swimming with friends in the morning, coming home and driving another 20 miles round trip for an early evening playgroup on a weekly basis.

After thinking about it, I am really making an effort to prioritize our outings and this week we lengthened our morning outing to last all day in one place, and didn't go to the afternoon one. I am also trying to make at least one or two of my weekly store stops on the way home from these, so I won't have to drive out again later in the week. This afternoon I was trying to decide whether to drive the kids to the beach, and I made a conscious decision to conserve some money and gas, and we walked to the community pool instead :thumbsup:

I'm trying to limit our car usage and gas consumption as much as possible, and I'm sure that it is these little things that will eventually add up and help us to get out of debt!

When you are in the city, 25 miles does not seem like much. But, it is "only" 25 miles to town for me. But, it seems so far. When I was home fulltime, we went to town once a week to two weeks. We did everything in one day. If we forgot it, we did without or, if absolutely necessary, DH picked it up. That gas can really add up. Even now, when I am in town every day, I do all my errands geared around where I will be. I hit all the stores I need to in one area on one day and the next area the next day, etc. Mostly, though, I am trying to stick with not going into stores to save money. I buy most of my food through the co-op and clothes at Goodwill.