Celebrating 4$/Gallon gas - One less round trip a day

Crystal at Money Saving Mom, has asked readers for reasons to celebrate 4$/gallon gas price. It may sound strange, but rising fuel costs are motivating people to reconsider their choices in transportation and commute, and more and more people are modifying their lifestyle to use less of gas and more of other environment friendly options. Which IS a reason to celebrate.
So what's my change?
I work pretty close to my home (about half a mile) and my husband works within 2 miles of our home. Of late we picked up a strange habit. We started going home for tea ( or Chai as it is known in India) in the afternoons. Both of us love tea as it is prepared in India, and we usually don't like the version we can get in our offices. I don't know how we made a habit of it, but it started with me sometimes feeling sleepy during office hours and asking my husband to take me home for a tea, which he gladly obliged. It felt nice to have a 15 minutes break during the largely monotonous office hours, but the cost was much higher then we could understand initially.
A round trip home would mean a 4 mile extra trip everyday. It also stole some time from our life, because we will stay longer in the office to compensate the half hour, which we spent while going out for tea. Soon, it started showing up as the difference it made to our monthly gas expense.
So from last week I have decided to be firm and say no to this urge of going home for tea. I'm happy to report that I haven't gone home(in the afternoon) all of last week and this monday. It also helped me cut down my overall intake of tea by half. Since I was firm on saying no, my husband has also stopped going.
Yay! for myself and hubby.

Positive changes made recently

I have made many positive changes to my lifestyle recently. Just thought of documenting them so that I can keep them up, and after a while look back and smile.

• Started running instead of biking. I just felt that since my body is so used to of biking, I needed to do something more intensive for the extra calories that I need to burn.
• Started going to the gym in the morning. I found that those pounds came off real quick when I used to go to the gym. (Note to self : Start attending the free aerobics classes as well)
• Trying to get back to preparing and having breakfast daily. I tripped on this one when we moved to the new place in April.
• Do at least one extra thing for any part of my body. Yesterday it was massage for my hair.
• Reduce the intake of "Chai". I discovered that I have become a tea addict when we went for an outing and I had a headache just because I didn't have my evening tea. Now I'm trying to knock off tea from my evening routine. Once I am done with this, I'll tackle the morning tea. Right now preparing tea is the first thing I do every morning....without fail.
  

Things that I need to start doing

• Drink more water everyday
• Start eating salads with every meal
• Remember to carry the bag while going shopping. I used to do this earlier, now I tend to forget often.