Until then, our “gas friendly” ride will be our Camry, and our road-trip and hauling vehicle is our Element. And since I work from home 3 days per week, we don’t use much gas generally.

We could sell the SUV now, but we plan to go back to New England in a couple of years, where the same problem will arise. Since she takes public transportation most of the time, 12-13 gallons gas can last 2-3 weeks in the SUV – definitely not a cause of environmental concern. Anyone who has drank a drop of Fiji bottled water has done much more environmental harm.

I’ve talked before about my concern for gas prices, but our move to San Francisco changed the use of the SUV, so it’s no longer an issue.

Lazy Man and Money is about the economic principals of sustainable living – but at a personal level. It does not try to discuss the overall health of the people in general. This is how I can suggest eating cheap Ramen noodles in the case of a dire personal financial situation. Obviously, that’s not sustainable living for the long term. My other blog, Lazy Man and Health is the place where I can talk more about environment. I haven’t quite tackled that point since I’m still developing a voice of what I want the site to be.

I may suggest The Good Human as a superb, environmentally friendly blog. David does an excellent job and it’s worth a visit.

That is the problem with most of these “money” blogs – you want to have your cake and eat it too. In economics you learn that to have something requires you give up something else.

Anyway, the three slices of the money pie are saving it (frugality), making it(practical entrepreneurship), and investing it (real diversification, not just stocks and real estate).
And that is what makes my blog unique and supreme!

Here I see my brother, sister, nieces and nephews any time I want. If I moved closer to work, than I can be closer to my…. cubicle.

I just offset the extra gas cost in other ways.

Still, gas prices are only going higher, so everyone should just get used to it.

My mom lives in Hawaii and commutes 60 miles a day in her truck. Whole ‘nother story.

I see no logical reason to commute that far other than stubborness. I can’t help the people that don’t want to be helped ;-). Maybe if you and your wife had jobs in opposite directions, but even so, those examples are extreme. Real estate prices are extremely cheap in Detroit (if I recall correctly), so it doesn’t make sense to pay a ton in gas for many years when moving can save a ton. If those are the people complaining, they’ve got no say (in my opinion), but this article isn’t about those edge cases.

As chance would have it my wife owns a SUV which she used to commute in Boston blizzards (sorry the military hospitals doesn’t allow “snow days”). Today she uses public transportation and the SUV largely sits idle. We’ve used the SUV a number of time to transport larger items. If we downsized, I’m sure our van rental costs would skyrocket to the point where it’s probably a wash with the gas prices.

I know people who commute to chicago from where I live. They are 1.5-2 hours away even if there is no traffic at all. Same goes for people who do the same thing in the Detroit area. I have a few relatives who used to easily drive 90 miles each way to work. My parents right now continue to drive over 60 miles to work everyday. They live north of Flint michigan and drive to Lansing everyday. I think it is stupid and have urged them to move, but they like their house and don’t have any urge to move closer.

And if you bought an SUV in 2004 you could buy a used car not a new one, and chances are a more fuel efficient car will cost much less than an SUV which should result in not only a savings in interest and monthly payments if you finance it but on insurance costs as well. Unless you were buying a 35-40k luxury car it would almost always be cost effective to downgrade for reasons other than gas consumption alone.

I see people everywhere making an effort to use less gas. Yes people still drive huge vehicles, but its not always cost effective to just sell a new vehicle – it takes time for the gas prices to affect people’s car buying decisions. If I bought an SUV in 2004 when gas prices weren’t nearly as high am I to sell it today and buy a new car? No.

I don’t know anyone who commutes 2 hours to the office by car. If they do, it’s simply because the traffic and not that they choose to live 50-60 miles from their job. Traffic is a whole separate issue here.

People have the ability to be less reliant on gas but they also don’t want to change their lifestyle. Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. How many people do you see complaining actually make an effort to use less gas? You still see people driving huge vehicles they don’t need for regular commuting, people still drive 2 hours to the office but rather than make a few lifestyle adjustments they choose to complain, bitch and moan about prices.

I used to drive a vehicle that got 12 mpg, but when it started to get too expensive to do so guess what I did? I traded it in and got a more fuel efficient and practical car. HOLY CRAP, what a concept! I’m driving more miles to work now and gas prices are quite a bit higher and I’m still paying even less on gas than I was 7 years ago.

But as long as people insist on driving huge status symbols and enjoy commuting 500 miles a week to work in them we will have to continue to put up with the complainers.

The biggest difference is that cars are indeed much smaller on average and so more fuel efficient. I’m sure I remember a blogger (maybe JD at get rich slowly) saying that they owned the smallest Ford, a Focus. In the UK, thats the third smallest Ford, there’s also a Fiesta (same size as a Mini) and a Ka (a bit bigger than a Smart Car).

High gas (we call it petrol) prices are a big deal over here, but as most of the cost of UK fuel is actually tax, there is more of a problem when the tax rate rises than when the price of crude oil goes up (e.g. petrol blockades of 2000).