I’ve become accustomed to flying a couple of times per year (at least) to visit family or go on vacation.

This year, we flew to LA for a wedding and Mexico on vacation, both for well under $500 per person. And I remember after college grabbing tickets to San Francisco for $150 round trip. For Labor Day 2006 our family of four flew to Chicago for about $300 (the little guy didn’t pay for a seat, though).

But I worry that cross-country leisure travel for people with average-sized pocketbooks could be a thing of the past.

My price threshold for buying a domestic plane ticket is set at a somewhat random $350 per seat. That means no trip to see my cousin get married outside Harrisburg, PA (seats are around $470) or to see a family friend marry in Connecticut (seats were a whopping $509 to fly into Hartford). At those prices– and with airlines charging for bags, food, you name it– we’ll be grounded for some time.

Auto travel is no better with gas prices approaching $4.00. The AAA predicts that the number of Americans driving more than 50 miles away from home over the long weekend will decline by about 1 percent, a small number, but a big sign because it rarely declines.

We’re a contributor to that decline. We were planning to go to Kansas City to see a two-day kids music festival where They Might Be Giants and Justin Roberts are playing– two bands my kids as well as my husband and I really enjoy. There’s an elephant at their zoo too. But we decided loading up the car would be tiring and expensive. We’ll be digging up tree roots in our yard instead.

Day-to-day,I am driving shorter distances when I can. I haven’t set foot in my beloved Costco for months now because driving from St. Paul to St. Louis Park for cheap milk just doesn’t feel like a bargain (although I’ve yet to run the numbers). I’m also trying to bike to work more.

How about you? Have you made any changes– big or small– to cope with higher fuel prices? Skipped trips? Traded in the SUV for a Hybrid?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm and is filed under budgeting, saving, spending. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.