I finally reached the tipping point. Since I biked to work yesterday and stayed up late, I really wanted to drive a car into work today. Kind of like a day off between going to the gym to allow the muscles to relax and recover. However, as I headed out the door, the thought of paying $90 for a fill-up made me head back into the house, put on my fluorescent yellow biking jacket, pick up my helmet and head off on my bike. Saving the environment or preventing climate change in the far off distant future is one thing. Keeping those precious dollars in my pocket right now is another.

This ties in with a post on the Consumer Reports Money Blog I spotted a few months ago about banning the $100 bill. My opinion? The $100 bill is the new $20. I used to be able to fill up the gas tank with a $20. Of course, gasoline was 99 cents a gallon back then. However, nowadays, I need a $100 bill to guarantee a complete fill-up. The thing is, in the above photo, the gasoline tank wasn’t completely empty. If I needed to squeeze in two more gallons, I would have pushed it to the century mark. Yikes!