I remember when a gallon of gas cost less than a car payment.

With gas at $3.49 a gallon, my $10 didn't go very far.  Its a good thing I no longer work outside the home, in fact this is one of the reasons why.  Yes, I drive a big gas guzzling SUV and no, I won't get something more fuel efficient.  Wanna know why?  Because my Jeep is reliable, paid for and well over a decade old.  It is still in excellent shape and doesn't even have 80,000 miles on it, yet the trade in value wouldn't even pay for the tax and license on a new car.  Besides, even if I spend $200 a month on gas I wouldn't be able to buy a car 1/2 as nice as the one I've got for that much in car payments. 
I don't plan on spending $200 a month on gas though.  At least, not anymore.  We are lucky that Gryffin's school is only a mile away and I take one day to do all the errands.  Instead of going to all the different grocery stores to get the best deal on individual items I hit the one with the best cumulative deals.  It is not worth saving 50 cents on that jar of tomato sauce if you have to drive across town to get it. 
I've stopped running to Target when I need just one or two things.  Those things can wait until errand day and most of the time they aren't even missed.  This helps in another way too since I don't know of a single person who can go to Target and not drop at least $50. 
It is a really good thing that I love my home as much as I do because I'm going to be spending a lot of time here.  There are plenty of things to keep me busy though, I've a vegetable garden to plant, a basement and garage that are for some reason always in need of cleaning, a guest room that I have to find a way to make into a guest/exercise/sewing/craft room and using said sewing/craft part to make new product for Peridot.  Heck, I may even reopen my Etsy shop and sell the handmade goodness there again.