Got gas? I mean for your car

I went this morning and put gasoline in the car. Last week when I went to St. Helens, OR I paid $2.59 a gallon. This morning I see on CNN the DOW has gasoline listed for $59+ a barrel for oil. Remember when we were looking at over $150 a barrel? Well I thought I would fill up this morning. Now this was a bit of a challenge. The wind blowing at about 30+ mph and the rain coming with it. So I pulled up to the pump and gas here is $2.49 a gallon. Everything here is a bit expensive. You know I have been thinking about moving to the midwest again. I would love to do just that, but since the house has been on the market for a year+ and the stock market has tanked along with the housing market, it just doesn't look like it's going to happen very soon. I think it will take a couple of years to recover from this recession. Hey we have recovered from previous recessions. Sometimes though I think we may be looking more towards the "d" word. Yes I'm thinking depression. So many folks are losing their jobs, their houses, and I can't believe the number of folks who live on credit cards. Ouch. I personally don't own a credit card. I live totally by the debit card/cash and looking for discounts on things I can afford. Sorry for the rambles about $$$$$$. I've just been thinking how tough it must be for some folks. Bush was right when he said "there are the have not's and the have more's".... or something like that. Well I'm doing fine so I'm very glad for that. I'll be watching my pennies and trying to live on a small eco footprint. My little mother used to have this philosophy about stuff. She thought we all had too much of it. I'm starting to think she was right on the mark with her philosophy about only keep what you absolutely need. Use only what you need. Don't aquire more "stuff", because you can probably live without most of it. Good idea to live by. I still "crave" stuff from time to time. Heck I'm normal in that respect. But craving stuff and actually getting it needs careful scrutiny. I do hang on to my stuff a pretty long time. I wea a funky yellow bathrobe that my dad had when he was in the nursing home in 1993. It is starting to show some serious wear. But I'm certainly getting some use out of it. LOL Think about your stuff and clean out what you can, and think about what your purchase. Hmmmmm!