High Gas Prices - How To Beat Them!

With stagnant wages, home values slumping, and job insecurity, Americans are looking for ways to save money anyway and everywhere they can. Many Americans, especially those with long commutes, are seeing larger and larger portions of their incomes going to pay for gas for their cars. They see the government stepping in to help individuals and companies that have gotten rich beyond belief while the standard of living for most Americans has declined. People need to drive to get to work, or school, to go grocery shopping, or to go to church and they are asking themselves, 'What am I going to do if gas prices keep going up?'

The best way to deal with rising gas prices is to drive less. By doing this you save money and at the same time you can stick it to those countries and companies that have been sticking it to us for years. Of course, for many of us this is not an option because we live long distances away from the places we need to get to. However, we can still cut down on the miles we do drive by planning our trips to combine errands and essential trips.

We can also start walking more. We have got so used to the convenience of having cheap fuel for our cars that we drive everywhere, even to the store up the street or our neighbor's house around the block. No wonder so many of us are out of shape and overweight. So, we can use these high gas prices as a reason to become healthier by walking more. Hey, you probably will even meet more people if you're not in your car!

Another way to save on gas is to trade in that gas guzzling truck or SUV for a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle. Back when gas was cheaper, we all convinced ourselves that we absolutely "needed" to have a big vehicle because:

" We needed the room for our family and friends
" We needed to have something big enough to haul the stuff we got at the home improvement store
" When the big snowstorm came, we needed a truck to be able to get around
" Big cars were safer than smaller cars
" The only way we could see in the sea of SUV's and trucks was to have one, too

Of course, now we realize that all these reasons that we "needed" to have a big vehicle were just excuses so we could look cool and feel powerful in our big, bad trucks. Most small and mid-sized cars have more than enough room for most families. They are also much safer than the smaller cars of the past and being front-wheel drive vehicles, they get around fine in the snow, unless there's a blizzard, and if that's the case having a truck wouldn't make much of a difference. And if you need to haul large items, most home improvement stores rent trucks for a small fee or deliver to your home, which is a lot cheaper than paying for and fueling a gas guzzling SUV or pickup. A Honda Civic may not look as cool as a Hummer, but when you're paying $100 to fill up that Hummer every week, that Civic starts looking cooler and cooler.

Most observers agree that the days of gas prices below $3 a gallon in the U.S. are gone, with $4 or $5 a gallon a strong possibility in the not too near future. We Americans can cry about this and curse the evil oil companies, or we can do what we've always been good at, and use a negative situation to make positive changes in our lives and in the world.

By Tevin
© paounlimited- All Rights Reserved
http://www.howtosavegas.net

Tevin is an author, activist, musician and has a B.S. in E-commerce.
Check out his site- http://www.howtosavegas.net for more money-saving tips!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tevin_Harris

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Posted by mbuhlah, Thursday, April 3, 2008 5:42 AM

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