Petrol Prices Increase - How To Accomodate

Petrol prices increase starting 12 midnite tonight from RM1.90 per liter to RM2.80 per liter. Holy cow!! What does that mean for me (and the family indirectly)? Means that now I'm paying around RM65 for a full tank on the Myvi; starting tomorrow I'll be paying around RM96 for a full tank. That's over RM30 increase!! RM30 times 5 full tanks and I'm dishing out over RM150 extra on petrol. And that's just if I'm driving to and fro to work. Doesn't include any detours or joyriding. Sheeeshhh...

Hubby and I realise we need to relook at out expenses and figure out how we can be more frugal to accommodate for this price hike. Coz you know it's gonna happen; first fuel prices go up, next thing you know, everything goes up. Roti canai will cost RM2.00 per slice. Basic chicken rice will cost RM5.00. Warm water will cost RM 1.00 (more reason to bring my water bottle everywhere I go).

I'm running through a typical day in my head and already identifying a few areas where we could, as a family, be more frugal.

1. Make sure everyone has breakfast.
The kids are pretty set in this area, they have a full bottle of milk as soon as they wake up. It fills them up and gives them energy to start the day. I tried giving them cereal and bread as breakfast but it didn't work as well. For starters, my kids are slow eaters. A bottle of milk takes them 5-10 minutes to finish. A bowl of cereal might take them 15-20 minutes, which won't work for Dania on her school days. Hubby and I usually take breakfast but not all the time. We usually skip it of we have a morning meeting as most of the time, food is provided but there have been instances where the meeting only had water served. As a result, I felt hungry and by lunch time was famished enough to eat a horse. Of course, that made me make poor decisions in choosing a place to eat and I end up spending RM10 on lunch. Which brings me to my 2nd point.

2. Limit lunch money to only RM5 per day.
We have yet to see the food prices go up and I bet you they will, but until then I hope to be able to limit my lunch expenses to RM5 per day. I know I can do if I cut out having to buy drinks, so that means carrying a full water bottle everywhere. Thank god for my humongous handbags. Heee. Plus plain water is free in my office so yeah, all the more reason. Better yet, I plan to drink at least 1/2 a bottle of water 1/2 hour before I go for lunch, so that I don't feel too hungry.

3. Going to work - carpool.
There are a lot of people who work in the same office as we do near our home. It wouldn't hurt to relook at the carpool idea as it really would save a lot of fuel. I intend to contact some of my officemates and see if they are open to the idea and hopefully set up a schedule where we can take turns driving to work. I know carpooling is somewhat of a grey area for some people; some people cherish the time alone they get in the car on the way to work but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. We'll see how this goes.

4. Scheduling all my meetings in the same day.
I especially hate it when I have one morning meeting in KL and then one afternoon meeting back in the office. Eventhough the company pays for our T&T, it's not nearly enough and the cost of petrol, toll and the headache of driving around is just too much. Luckily I have an understanding boss; usually if she has me go for a meeting in KL, I get to stay there the whole day and do my work and not have to go back to the office. Carpooling with hubby also is a plus. We get to talk to each about our day and also stuff that matter to us in a way that makes the whole driving to and fro from work a little bit more bearable.

I'm pretty sure there are a lot more areas where hubby and I can cut down on our spending (like grocery shopping) but it's getting late and I have a training session I have to conduct early next morning...yawn!!

I would like to know how other people are planning to accommodate for the hike in petrol. What are you guys going to do differently?