Choosing your 'needs' and your 'need-nots'

MIKE TOBIAS
The Port Arthur News

PORT ARTHUR July 17, 2008 09:36 pm

— All right, I laid off of Bush on the 4th of July. But I can’t hold back after this past week’s press conference, which, by the way, interrupted Regis and Kelly, a.k.a my morning routine.
Did anyone besides me watch this press conference? Isn’t it amazing how much President Bush just won’t admit how much our economy resembles one that anywhere else in the world would be classified as in a recession? Really, how much positive spin can one put on a top with no needle?
At least he lifted the executive ban currently in place, which was preventing offshore oil drilling/exploration around the country. That act seems a little fishy to me, however. Because there still exists a congressional ban on offshore oil drilling/exploration, which he is now calling to be lifted, and now willing to place the blame game for high gas prices on the Democratic-led entity.
Yup, smells like fish. But, whatever, he’s out of there in January.
Personally, I’ve already cut back on plenty of things in life. With gas prices these days, you really have to pick your needs and need-nots, otherwise you’ll find yourself scrounging between the seat cushions in order to refuel.
Here’s a few of my former “needs,” which actually could also be classified as “wants.”
Frozen coffees. Once, a mid-afternoon “need” just about every afternoon during the week. But the average price for one is about four bucks, give or take a few pennies. Five of those a week is $20.
That’s almost a third of a tank of gas nowadays.
So, what I’ve learned to do instead of going out and grabbing a four-dollar brain freeze is brewing my own cup of tea, whether original or green tea, in the afternoons here in the office.
Or, if I’m out and about between the hours of 2-4 p.m., I hit up Sonic for a “happy hour” sugar-free raspberry tea, and put in a little sweet and low, all for no more than a buck.
Paige enjoys the peach tea, but hey we’re married. Agree to disagree.
Ok, here’s another former “need”: movies. Movies were something to do at night, and man back in the college days we’d hit them up all the time. This was back when our nightly gatherings would begin at 9 p.m. or so and end well after midnight.
Hard to believe I was actually able to function correctly the next day.
But now, you’re looking at an average price of $7.50 just for the movie ticket, $13 if you include popcorn and almost $20 if you dare to purchase a Coke as well.
But you know what works well for Paige and me? Netflix. I hate to say we swear by it, but for $14 bucks a month we get as many movies as we can watch from the comfort of our own home, free from sticky movie seats and teens texting each other from row to row. We get two movies at a time, and a good week consists of us getting our movies on Monday, watching them, shipping them back and getting more by Thursday.
That’s four movies in a week for a lot less money.
We do a few other things, too. Saving money in any instance helps out in the long run. We are, after all, in an economy that just offered to pay Rush Limbaugh $400 million to give his utterly-valueless political opinion for eight years.
$400 million, just to speak about what’s going on. Man, I thought I was doing good, sitting here in Port Arthur typing the world away as I see it, and every once in a while getting a “hey, Mike, that was a good piece you wrote the other day.”
Then I sit back and think of what it’d take to get make Rush’s $400 million, or Howard Stern’s $500 million.
Then I remind myself that I have morals and I’m doing just fine.
Mike Tobias is a writer and photographer for The Port Arthur News. Contact him at mtobias@panews.com.

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