No, but $5.99 chicken breast made me eat less--and worse.

Grocery prices are killing my health!

Yup we stayed home and cooked out. I was also able to plant my 'victory garden' to help us with costs.

Rode the motorcycle all weekend. So no, drove just as much, but only spent 16 bucks for 300ish miles.

I carpooled to a wedding instead of driving separately - so yes, that was half the gas I and my carpool partners would have used otherwise.

No, I still traveled.

But the fuel costs will have me re-thinking things each time I start my engine -- only problem is I don't have much choice -- cycling/walking really isn't an option for me given my location.

They did the same thing last summer, and this is just the begining, and I'll say what I said then. You will soon see every TV,newspaper, and radio station interview idiots who state that because gas went up 30 cents, they can't go on vacation this year. Why? Forget the hyperbole. Let's do a little math. Let's say you are driving a thousand miles each way to go on vacation. Let's say your car gets 20 miles per gallon. That will mean you have to burn 50 gallons to travel one way, and 100 to go both. Let's say the price of gas went up 1.00 since you planned your trip. 100 gallons x 1.00=100.00 more. If you can't afford to spend an extra 100 dollars, or budget well enough to free up 100 dollars, should you be going on vacation? Even if we went to the extreme that gas went up $2.00 a gallon, that is still only $200.00. Most people spend that on a hotel room while on vacation. Let's get real people.

Absolutely I drove less! I actually didn't even drive at all on Sunday and Monday. We walked to the nearest grocery store and bought what we needed to grill at the house on Sunday afternoon and then just chilled at the house with 4 Netflix movies.

@vdragonmpc: Same here, and I have the sunburned scalp to prove it.

It was $3.79/gallon and we drove 40 minutes to see a friend we haven't seen since November and then another 2 hours to a family BBQ in Maine. Then home again. This was just Saturday. I stayed home the rest of the weekend and burned braincells with TV and Wii.

@Git Em SteveDave: Yep, I made that same argument to my wife

"Sorry, kids, the long weekend at Disney is GONE because the total vacation budget just went up 3% vs last year. We are staying home."

Small brief trips are right out. Like daytripping to a larger city to go do something for the day. On a bigger trip like going to Chicago for a few days it doesn't add that much more onto the cost of the trip since it is expensive to do anyway.

We would take Amtrak if the nearest station wasn't 3.5 hours away.

I've been doing this for some time now. The result is, I've gone from Christmas to Memorial Day barely racking up enough miles to justify an oil change. That's roughly 7000 miles a year. My wife reports the same, more or less.

We grilled some pork chops and had that with some homemade baked beans. Mmmmmm(poot)mmmmm.

at $4.19 here in Michigan, I only drove once, to the mall, and the grocery store across the way. That was instead of a 250-mile round-trip vacation to the parents.

I took the bike to the bar Friday night, proceeded to cut the shit out of my toe on the drunken ride back and drove the rest of the weekend. We did stay local though.

drove to a nearby shopping center and had a wild time walking .....wheee

@Ash78:

$5.99 chicken breasts!?! Eeek.

Boneless breasts are $1.99/lb this week at Stop & Shop in the Northeast. Yes, I stocked the freezer.

As a matter of fact we didn't go anywhere over the holiday weekend other than one trip to the grocery store. We also never put more than $20-$30 worth of gas in our vehicles either. Also trying to get the hang of hypermiling too. Screw the oil companies, if things get worse I will dust off my trust bike and use pedal power instead of gasoline for trips in town.

@Nogard13: Same here. Didn't drive at all this weekend; BBQed at home and had a great time. Not only that, I've been walking at every possible opportunity and plan to keep it up all summer. BigOil can suck it! I love saving money more than I mind walking on my errands. Luckily I live near the stores I frequent the most.

@ElizabethD: I usually stock the freezer when it's $1.99, as well...but sometimes the family calls and wants you to bring chicken and you don't have time to thaw any.

@Git Em SteveDave: I think this isn't so much about the pennies difference as much as the psychology of seeing that it costs close to $100 (or more in some cases) to fill up. Once you start thinking about 3 or 4 fill ups for a given trip and it's not so much that it's $100 more than it was last year, but that the total cost will end up being $300-$400 just for gas and that might make the trip itself seem too expensive.

It's basic economics, the higher the prices, the fewer the people will think it's worth it to spend the money on something.

It's also not that different from people who end up driving around looking for the cheapest gas (all the while potentially burning through any savings they might get by saving a nickel/gallon).

Sadly, no. Drove 300+ miles. But it was fun, so there.

Just drove to work this weekend. No exciting plans. Stayed home, ate in. So much for vacation weekend.

I live in Delaware. I got stuck for an hour parked on I-66 near DC this weekend. If people are driving less, the traffic on the roads for some reason aren't showing it.

Memorial Day and every other day for that matter. When filling up my tank costs me $50+ a pop, I am now keenly aware of how much gas I use and I try to limit my driving whenever I can.

Hey, thanks for asking. I always welcome an opportunity to say Bush is the worst thing that ever happened to this country.

I didn't go out of town, but I actually drove more than usual this weekend for relatively mundane reasons. I made the same 80-mile (roundtrip) drive I make almost every weekend (Saturday game night with the guys), then a 70-mile (roundtrip) to a Rilo Kiley concert on Sunday.

Traffic seemed a little lighter than normal on Saturday. Sunday, I-75 seemed almost deserted. I think people in Detroit are running out of gas money.

No, but I was much more mindful of how I drove. I drove the speed limit and very carefully watched the Fuel Economy calculator on my car to drive at more conservative speeds. My car rated for 29mpg highway got about 34mpg.

@HIV 2 Elway:

I bike to all bars all the time. Fortunately no mishaps though :)

We hardly ever do long trips on long weekends, too expensize and too crowded.
Did do a few local trips though:
Sea World: 44 miles roundtrip
Friend's BBQ: 36 miles roundtrip
Beach day: 28 miles roundtrip
Total: 108 miles for a three day, fun-filled weekend, I'll take that.

It wasn't the expensive gas that made me stay home. Some of us have to work Memorial Day weekend

@jamesdenver: This was my first bad accident in years. Somehow got my toe caught between the pedal and the crank. Yes, I was wearing flip flops. No, I don't remember much of it.

We were spending the weekend with a friend that's moving cross-country in a few weeks so we "had" to go. In preparation, we really cut back on the driving and watched our spending these past three weeks or so. Normally, we did these things at the drop of the hat but now we're planning ahead.

Chicken thighs are routinely $1.75 a pound. I buy those for cheaper than breasts.

$4 gas? Man, I wish it was that cheap here.

I haven't really adjusted how I travel. I dont take many long optional trips. However its more painful each time I have to go somewhere.

We drove a fair bit this weekend--probably as much as we ever do for Memorial Day weekend. We cut back elsewhere, though. Yesterday, we went to the movies (matinee) and did some clothes shopping (hooray 20% off at Eddie Bauer) but skipped going out to eat. The movies and decent shopping are a 45 minute (45-50 miles) drive to the next town for us, and we love going out to eat there, but it just wasn't worth the extra $$$. I also drove the speed limit (horrors!) everywhere we went, even on the highway. I didn't do the math, but the gas gauge didn't move nearly as much as usual. I'll normally goose it up to 5-7mph over the limit on the highway. Turns out that really eats the petrol.

I have definitely cut down on my out of town trips. I manage a coed softball team on Sundays, and at least four of my players come in from out of town. I am shocked they haven't quit yet. Gas prices have definitely harmed my recruiting. I used to be able to get people from nearby towns to sign on to play, but not any more--and a lot of they cite gas prices specifically. The team is taking a break after this season ends at the end of June, and I would imagine everyone's pocketbooks will be thankful.

Had an impromptu BBQ and was pleased to see a large pile of bikes in the back yard from our guests.
Stitches from drunken biking can cost a lot more than gas. Eek.

PS. Whole free range chicken, $1.49 a pound. About $9. Fed 4 adults. Carcass goes to make soup stock. I definitely feel this is the better deal.

@tedyc03: Sure, but breasts are at least $5-a-pound better than thighs. Wait, are we still talking about chicken?

I didn't drive less--I actually went on a 480-mile round trip at the last minute--but I slowed down, and it really showed in my gas mileage. I used to average just under 30 mpg when my default speed on the highway was about 70-something. This weekend I slowed down by about 10 mph, keeping my speed around 65 mph, and my gas mileage improved to 34.5 mpg. At a 17% savings, it doesn't quite compensate for the recent price increases, but I'll take it.

@Git Em SteveDave: If you're looking at year-to-year cost differences, yeah, it's relatively trivial, but if you're asking people if they would take the same vacations they took 3, 5 years ago, then it becomes a different story.

But really, it's the short trips that are the least cost efficient. An errand that takes 5-10 minutes could easily be replaced by walking or eliminated by consolidating multiple errands.

Funny thing actually, I've spent less on gas this month than I ever have. Luckily I live a 5 min bike ride away from a 24hr Kroger, Burger King, Blockbuster, Starbucks, liquor store, Hobby Lobby, Lowes, Super K-mart, and most importantly, my work (a car lot). I have also burned many calories and pounds off in doing so.

Drove to Dallas from Houston, total 280 miles >.<

I felt that hit as I filled up my gas tank twice this weekend (started half empty, filled up cheap in Houston, filled up again on the way back). Thank goodness I have a car that at least gets decent gas mileage.

However, last month I went on a road-trip vaca to Florida. I know what your thinking, road trip? You gotta be nuts! But I actually only spent about $500 on gas and drove about 2800 miles. It was definately worth it. I got to see a lot of Florida, and spent time on a lot of beaches. How ironic though that after doing that, I now ride my bike anywhere I can.

I actually took the kids out in the Mustang GT with the top down and did a lot of aimless driving, went to park, shopping etc: I'm teaching them great lessons arn't I? oops.

I hardly went anywhere all weekend long. It wasn't really due to high gas prices. I was working on my truck,and I had family here. I barely drove 50 miles this weekend.

I normally would've taken a small trip somewhere,but it would've been even shorter this year. In the brief time I was on the interstate here,traffic didn't seem as high as in year's past.

I don't know what I "usually" do on my long weekends - but this time I had a class reunion and a chance to see my folks. I think I actually drove more than I usually would... What's a couple hundred miles ever 10 years?

Did my usual driving to the parents house (only about 25 miles) for the holiday this weekend, but I've decided that any major pleasure trips that need to be taken by airplane this summer are probably out for me.

We made the exact same trip as last year to the balloon festival, all of 15 miles, round trip and a stop at the grocery store on the way back. The rest of the weekend was routine, other than I actually got some work done in the garden.

Given as I never travel on holiday weekends... Nope. I spent the same amount of time on the roads as last year - None.

I bought a Prius in October so no, but I used less fuel. I sort of enjoyed the non crowds on the highway home and even where we stayed.

it didn't make me drive less... i didnt drive at all! stayed home all day... heard antique gas pumps that are still out there are great gas savers... need to look for one in my area and save more than a couple of bucks... $80 a tank aint fun at all...