Yes, gas is expensive. Get over it.
People sit and bitch all the time about the gas prices, but then have no trouble blowing money on designer clothes and makeup. We go to restaurants and buy overpriced food. We go to theaters to watch overpriced movies. We go to Best Buy and buy overpriced video games. We go to record stores and buy overpriced music.
From day one we're raised to be consumers. Credit cards thrown our way and mailed to us for free; advertisements everywhere we look. We order expensive furniture out of catalogues. We pay for satellite TV and radio so there's never a moment where we aren't sitting around doing absolutely nothing. And paying for it.
Instead of getting your paycheck and thinking "What should I spend it on?" just don't spend it. It's not that I'm giving some lesson on saving money; it's just that we buy and buy and buy and never even think about what we're purchasing. Next time you're about to spend the entire amount of your hourly wage on your break at work, try not spending the entire amount of your hourly wage on your break at work. Eating less is not only healthy for you; it saves money.
Ninety-nine percent of everything we ever buy is useless shit, but we don't care. We'll just blame our empty wallets on gas prices rather than our poor spending habits.
This is one of those things that drives me nuts! People complain about gas prices (which have been lower here than anywhere else in the world for decades, and now we're just starting to catch up) but they still just HAVE to have this or that new thing. I'm writing a blog about this issue right now, in fact. It's a different approach than you've taken, though, so no worries about duplication.
Anyway, good point! Listen up, people!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I have been catching myself doing this too. I want it so I buy it...Its no big deal as long as I have money...right? The American dream, its bound to bite us in the bottom.
Of course I do not usually complain about gas price just the fact that I absolutely had to have the big ole truck with the nig ole tank that refuses to 'diet' and acts like gasoholic.
Good post.
~T
All truths are easy to understand once discovered; The point is to discover them ~Galileo
Not all people are buying useless items while still struggling at the pumps. Think of the women with children who have after school activities they need to drive there kids to and pick them up after - just allowing their kids to participate in after school activities is costing $10.00/day just to take them. Many people have just enough money to pay for their mortgage, utilities, and gas with nothing left over for food, let alone designer clothes and video games. For a while, I tried delivering newspapers for extra money until the gas prices got so high I ended up PAYING to do the job since the pay for delivering those papers hasn't risen since gas prices were $1.50/gallon.
That's not a typical case. This blog is about the people who complain about gas being expensive and blaming that on their being broke instead of the fact that they eat out all the time, spend $3 for ringtones, and will drive around for fun.
Most people are not broke, single mothers who struggle to pull everything together. But for these people, yes, gas prices are a pain in the ass. For most of us, while gas is still a pain in the ass, we do need to seriously consider what we spend our money on.
Ediblewoman wrote a very good blog about this sort of topic.
Thank you! That was very kind of you...both the compliment, and the link, You posted this one before I got mine out, though, so you get props for being first!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I agree with you! Someone complained to me about it the other day, and acted a little offended when I asked them to calculate how much their frappuccino was per gallon. "Well, that's coffee. It's different," was the response. Yeah, whatever.
I've been on the poor single mom side before. It sucks! Most of the other poor single moms that I knew, however, blew their money on cigarettes and fake nails anyways.
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May I have permission to use it? It illustrates our priorities nicely.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Certainly! Pretty much everyone needs to hear it, so I can use all the help I can get for spreading the word.
Click here to read about new ways to save money and the environment that you have never heard!