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Paula in MN
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 8:27pm | IP Logged
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Cay Gibson wrote:
Cay Gibson wrote:
| Is it legal to kill deer on one's land? Perhaps it's different in your area, Stef. |
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I'm pretty sure it's not. I was just wishing. And dreading seeing more of my baby plants gone. I *really really want* a good harvest this year. It would certainly help the grocery bill. If we didn't have to buy meat that would be a plus  -- but dh won't ever be a hunter. And I really won't be comfortable having guns in the house either.  |
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I'm surprised that you can't hunt on your own property. We do all the time. We can only hunt the animals that are in season, and we have to buy permits, but that is relatively cheap compared to the cost of meat. We also do all our own processing, which can be quite expensive.
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 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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graciefaith
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Wow! We're overseas right now and dont drive much so gas prices really arent affecting us too much. But we're moving back to the states next month and i'm sure it'll hit us then. We're visiting family and will be driving back to our new base. It will probably hit us then how expensive gas is. Thankfully, the military is paying for our trip to the base.
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Blessed wife and mom of 3 girls, Sept. '01, Dec. '02 and Oct. '07
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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 9:28pm | IP Logged
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Back to Jenn's points for a minute; futures investors are definitely affecting the oil market. For most of us, though, the stock market is a mystery. (I majored in econ and learned over four years of study...that the stock market is a mystery, based on perceptions and feelings. Econ is NOT a science. Trust me.)
That leaves us to cope with day-to-day market fluctuations; I think all the suggestions here are great. I definitely sit down with my calculator and figure out if my drive saves money or costs money.
Yes, state gas taxes are high; remember, though, that in many states property tax revenues are now declining, so you won't see state gas taxes fall.
We are hoping for a good garden harvest this year; we love green and red bell peppers and green peppers are up to $1.10 at the military commissary! Ack! Dd has started some seedlings and we'll fill in with young plants from the local nursery as needed.
Baking bread has saved me a lot of money; up until now I have not baked in the summer, but I think this year I will put Ye Olde Bread Machine in the garage and get up way early to bake. (My Italian baker friends got up at 4:00 A.M. in the summer to bake for their customers. I guess I can do my part.)
I think what has depressed my husband the most is that our electrical usage has gone way down (like 14 KwH per day!) and our bills are so much higher due to the BGE deregulation last summer. We are using less electricity and paying more. We drive less, but high gas prices are still changing our budget. I work so, so hard to stay home more and drive less, but our expenses keep rising.
We've always made most of our food from scratch and combined driving trips; eventually there will be nowhere else to cut corners, and that is a depressing thought.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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aussieannie
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 9:33pm | IP Logged
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Cay, I've just done the conversion from gallons to our litres and it works out that you are paying about $1.05 per litre.....you ready for it?....Australians are paying (I should be more specific, our state of Queensland) is paying up to $1.41 at present and we are the cheap state!!! The other states pay 10c more, so they'd be up around the $1.50 - all I can say it is truly unbelieveable and we do so much travelling... 
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 9:41pm | IP Logged
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guitarnan wrote:
| eventually there will be nowhere else to cut corners, and that is a depressing thought. |
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Isn't that the truth!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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LisaR
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aussieannie wrote:
| Cay, I've just done the conversion from gallons to our litres and it works out that you are paying about $1.05 per litre.....you ready for it?....Australians are paying (I should be more specific, our state of Queensland) is paying up to $1.41 at present and we are the cheap state!!! The other states pay 10c more, so they'd be up around the $1.50 - all I can say it is truly unbelieveable and we do so much travelling... |
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but Anne, isn't it true that cars in AU and basically everywhere but the US get much better gas milage?
or is that a myth?
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
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Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
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aussieannie
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A typical family car in the city would use 14-16 litres (3.7 - 4.23gallons) per 100 kilometres (62.5miles) So smaller cars do better and larger cars do worse...but I think that would be an average estimate for an average car......is that what you meant by the gas milage? So maybe we're not doing too bad if we have better milage?
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LisaR
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oh it is too late at night for me to do the math equations (product of the us system  ) all I know is that we can go about 12 miles with one gallon of gas.BUT we have a suburban (SUV) and I know that a mini van or compact car could do almost twice that.
I had heard recently that auto manufacturers could make cars MUCH more fuel efficient and they deliberately don't.....
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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aussieannie
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LisaR wrote:
| I had heard recently that auto manufacturers could make cars MUCH more fuel efficient and they deliberately don't..... |
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Sinful stuff, isn't it?
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KC in TX
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 10:16pm | IP Logged
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aussieannie wrote:
LisaR wrote:
| I had heard recently that auto manufacturers could make cars MUCH more fuel efficient and they deliberately don't..... |
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Sinful stuff, isn't it? |
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They're not willing to make the initial investment to change over their factories. The technology is out there to make better hybrids, etc, but they won't. It's a shame.
We can't cut down on too many of our trips because my son has to go to therapy. He goes 3 times a week. One place is 20 miles one way. Sigh. Cost of living is going up but my husband's military salary is NOT keeping up. Our new word to live by "frugal".
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KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
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SallyT
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Our grocery store does a gas card which gives you a certain percentage off at the pump (at their gas stations), depending on how much you spend in the store. Now, obviously, there's a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" thing going on . . . and I have not been a terribly frugal grocery shopper lately. But I did get 50 cents off per gallon, for up to 15 gallons, at the pump the other day. $2.64/gallon I think is what I paid. 15 gallons gives me just under half a tank, and I'm trying to make it laaaaaaast. Fortunately we can carpool with other families to various activities, which helps.
But all this is really making me rethink house-hunting -- I had been dreaming about having a little acreage this time around, but now I'm thinking, nope, we'd better be right in the middle of things and able to walk to what we need. In England we were car-less for four years, and walked and biked everywhere we needed to go (and depended on the kindness of our friends with cars). I do miss that lifestyle, especially when I get on the scale . . .
Anyway, looking at gas prices has taken my mind off the housing market momentarily, at least the selling-a-house part of it. I guess that's good?
Sally
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guitarnan
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One thing that affects U.S. gas mileage is vehicle safety codes. Our cars are way, way heavier because the DOT requires more door reinforcement and other safety features.
Americans drive more automatic transmission cars, too; standard transmission cars are more fuel efficient.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Kathryn UK
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Cay Gibson wrote:
My husband heard that they (whoever "they" may be ) are wanting to get our gas prices up to what England's gas prices are.
What do you English ladies pay anyway? |
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We pay £5 a gallon, which is equivalent to $10. If we only had to pay $4 a gallon we would be cheering all the way to the bank! To hear you all complaining about it is ... well ... bizarre, from where I stand  . The main reason for the price difference is that we have massive fuel taxes - about 2/3 of the price is tax.
It sounds as though there is a big difference in car sizes and economy. We have the smallest 7 seater car, and get just over 35 miles per gallon from it. Big vehicles like surburbans are unknown over here - not just because of the cost of petrol (gas), but because many roads are narrow and they would be impossible to park.
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Dh Michael, Rachel(3/95) Hannah(8/98) Naomi(6/06)  (11/07)
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KC in TX
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 7:38am | IP Logged
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Kathryn UK wrote:
| To hear you all complaining about it is ... well ... bizarre, from where I stand . |
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Kathryn, please correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't it easier in Europe and Great Britain to get around if you don't have a car? Say like it is in New York City. There's public transporation available and you can get your necessities in places you can walk to.
Here in Central Texas, I can't walk anywhere to get my necessities. I have to drive everywhere. I'd love to be able to live in a place where I could walk to a local grocer to buy groceries. Everything is spaced apart very large distances. And, I don't even live out in a real rural area. I feel that's why we can't really compare our gas prices with those overseas.
The argument the oil executives use that overseas gas prices have been high always just doesn't hold water for me.
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KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
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Bethany
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This article is also interesting. I knew I had seen this information before, so I went looking. The profit margin at "big oil" is less than many other companies. Big pharma and financial services make more profit per dollar of sales than oil.
There are so many things going into these prices, commodity speculation and the declining dollar being two large reasons.
And the one thing I took away from my finance degree is that the Federal Reserve has the most control over the economy and the President and Congress are pretty much useless with regard to affecting the overall economy. They take the accolades and lay a lot of blame on one another, but in reality the only the thing they control that has an effect is taxes.
As far as reducing oil usage, we already use very little. My husband commutes on the commuter bus and I drive very little.
All you ladies with SUV's are probably doing as well as I am in my Odessey. When I filled up the other day I noticed my mileage was under 10 mpg. I drive mostly in town and that's not much better than my old Suburban (which I much prefer).
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Jess
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KC, frugal is our new key word too! Frugal, frugal, frugal! 
We would really like to go out to South Carolina this summer, but the gas would kill us! We have the suburban that can use gas or ethanol. We used ethanol at first because the price was a couple of cents cheaper, but we ended up changing to gas because the gas milage was terrible with the ethanol. Well now the ethanol is around 30 cents cheaper, so I need to do the math and see if using it now would be less expensive. But I really don't think that it would be because even though I would be spending a set amount and would get more gas using the ethanol, I would have to put the ethanol in faster and it would cause me to spend more. We have been spending a ton during the sports season because my kids play in the neighboring town, and while its not that far away, it is far enough to make a difference. Also we go to daily Mass 3 days a week and if it gets much tighter, we may have to drop to just once a week and on Sundays I really don't want to do that but both of our cars are gas guzzlers and like KC said the cost of living is going up, but the Army pay isn't keeping up.
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Jess
+JMJ+
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mama to dd(13), dd(11), ds(9), dd(6), and dd (2), and baby girl born Sept 14!
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Kathryn UK
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KC in TX wrote:
Kathryn, please correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't it easier in Europe and Great Britain to get around if you don't have a car? Say like it is in New York City. There's public transportation available and you can get your necessities in places you can walk to. |
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Yes and no. I live in a medium size town where I can walk to the supermarket - but I can't carry a week's groceries home, so to do a significant amount of shopping means taking the car. I can walk to Mass, but it takes 30 minutes there and 40 minutes back. I often walk during the week, but always take the car on Sundays when I have the whole family with me.
There is public transport, but it is expensive, timeconsuming and not always frequent. I do use public transport quite a bit as we only have one car, which my dh needs for work three days a week. He works about 30 miles away and the only way he can get there is by car. Our monthly spending on petrol (gas) is about $300-$350, and it would be pretty difficult to cut that.
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Kathryn
Dh Michael, Rachel(3/95) Hannah(8/98) Naomi(6/06) (11/07)
The Bookworm
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KC in TX
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Thank you, Kathryn for responding.
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KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
Mama to LB ('98)
Michaela ('01)
Emma ('03)
Jordan ('05)
And, my 2 angels, Rose ('08) and Mark ('09)
The Cabbage Patch
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Cay Gibson
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Kathryn UK wrote:
| Our monthly spending on petrol (gas) is about $300-$350, and it would be pretty difficult to cut that. |
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Kathryn,
How much "outside school time" are the girls involved in? Dance? Sports? Etc.? Any?
Our gas bill is running $300-$350 right now and gas is only at $3.19-$3.29 in SW Louisiana.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Cay Gibson
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Cay Gibson wrote:
Kathryn UK wrote:
| Our monthly spending on petrol (gas) is about $300-$350, and it would be pretty difficult to cut that. |
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Kathryn,
How much "outside school time" are the girls involved in? Dance? Sports? Etc.? Any?
Our (monthly) gas bill is running $300-$350 right now and gas is only at $3.19-$3.29 in SW Louisiana. |
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Is Your Husband Depressed Over...
