The Up side of soaring gas prices

Ok, I know you all are thinking there cannot be an upside to gas prices being so high. Yesterday I put $50 in my mini van and it barely hit the half full (or would that be half empty?) mark. We, as a family, like everyone else have been trying to cut back and I have noticed some improvements in our lives by this. So here is my bright side to the gas gloom:

~ I do more home cooking. I have always liked to cook, but now I am planning fun Sunday evening meals, like pancakes instead of McDonald's where for the grand price of $30 we can clog our arteries and fill up on msg.

~ We are staying home more on the weekends. No more trips down to the beach or to Orlando. We have been playing more board games. Last weekend Esther kicked all our booties in monopoly. Family time has increased and been sweeter
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~ We are not going to see every movie that comes out! There are free older movies at the theater in the summer, so we will go to that and then when the kids get to go to see a new release it will be a treat. It also keeps the mind numbing Hollywood mindset away, but that is a far longer ,more serious post.

~ Appreciation for extras is beginning to take place. I have not bought any type of cokes for a long time and yesterday at Publix they were 5 cases for $11, so everyone got to pick out a case. There was great dancing and rejoicing in the aisle.

~ I am shopping less for frivolity. We are making due with what we have and we are not lacking.....who knew that could happen!!

I know that there are a lot of people that are in a lot worse financial shape than us and I realize that the economy is serious, but I just wanted to list some good things this crunch has taught us in the last few month!