I drive a Chevy Aveo but have to commute 80 miles a day round trip to work. I figure that I'll be spending around $275 a month just on gas...another $250 for the car payment and $120 for insurance. Yikes! I don't have any other really viable options to get around the commute. I could drive roughly 20 miles to the nearest park-and-ride and spend another hour and a half and two bus transfers to get to work, but that's not a great solution. And unfortunately I live so far out of town that I couldn't carpool with anyone. My boss agreed to let me cut into my paid-time-off to ease the expense a bit. I've been at this job for over twelve years and get close to 11 weeks off a year in vacation, sick and personal time. I guess that's my silver lining in this huge thunder cloud! Not everyone is so lucky. With all the talk about nuking Iran, the prices are only going to rise, and with people still trying to pay off last winter's heating bills (me included)I think things are going to get pretty bad. The money I'll be spending on gas will definitely put a crimp in my plans to buy a corn stove to heat my house next winter :-(

Okay, we've all heard these tips before but one can offset a little bit of the "pain" and expense by keeping your auto regularly tuned up (air filter, oil, etc) and checking the tire pressure often. Slowing down a bit also helps but that seems to be the hardest one for me to follow ;)