Could see the oil problem coming a few years ago bought a hybrid back then it is almost paid off then. Going to buy a second hybrid after it is paid off. Still have a V8 truck using it for my everyday commute but that will stop with the second hybrid. Sorry to say but probably will never get rid of my truck. I see gas costing between $3.50 and $5.00 from now on. Otherwise we haven't changed our consumption of anything else. Wife does stock up on things that are on sale a lot more than we use to do. We don't pay attention to prices too much on consumables but my wife did bring this to my attention the price of rice has doubled in less than a year we buy it in 50lbs bags so we only buy it 3 or 4 times a year but that is a hella of jump. I feel sorry for the third world where rice is there major staple. Keep telling me inflation is 3 or 4 percent it is more like 8 to 12 percent. That is what Quicken is telling by are bills year over year.
I consume more. Much more. High oil prices make a lot of things far more affordable when ordinarily they wouldn't have been affordable. Like I've flown more flights this year for pleasure (~50 so far this year) than I have flown in the past decade. I drive faster. Every time the price of oil goes up, I can afford to consume more of it. Why? Because I positioned myself to be a beneficiary of high prices. And I'd suggest there's still plenty of time to act, since the oil stocks really haven't gone up very much. Why waste your money on stocks like GOOG, or CROCS, or other stuff like that which can be supplanted by some kid in a basement -- when you can buy oil thats irreplaceable and has taken thousands of years to form from its ingredients? Maybe I'll have to take trendytraders' Expedition off his hands; I sure couldn't afford one a few years ago, but now...