In 2007, against stout opposition even at that late date, Congress finally passed an energy bill that mandated a 40% improvement in auto mileage efficiency.
      But that is phased in across a dozen years, and does nothing for all the cars, pickups, SUVs and trucks already on the road. So to stem the tsunami of dollars flowing to other countries, it’s up to us to take action now. We’ve got to make ourselves more efficient even if our engines are not.
      How? Drive less. Stop jumping in the car for short errands, and start planning ahead. Begin with food. To cut back on costly gasoline consumption, use your word processing software to develop checklists of all standard items you buy – a list for your supermarket, another for Costco, or for Wal-Mart, as examples. Photocopy and pressure-clip them into pads – but just a few copies at first, because you will find yourself perfecting the lists as you go along. You’ll know you’re hooked on this scheme the day you re-sequence the list by store aisle -- produce, then dairy, then frozen, etc.
      What we are leading to is that grail of a once-a-week food trip, with none of those wasteful little side-trips scattered through the week. That way we’re not moving a ton and a half of vehicle down to road to pick up a pound of butter.
      So the next step is to begin planning the household menu a week at a time – and to tick off on the shopping lists the ingredients and quantities you’ll need. It follows that, whenever you run low or out of an item, you will find it becomes a habit to checkmark it on the list or write it in.
      The same methods hold true for other needs. In this household we write down needed items on a pale photocopy of the local map, so when headed to NextVillage, we remember to get that item we wrote down in that corner of the map weeks ago.
      Now you are ready for the road.
      Follow this plan and you will find that you save another commodity that you may value even more than gas – your time. Quite a lot of it. And irritation – you don’t run out of things anymore. And serenity – you’re not always wondering what to do about dinner.
      A few weeks ago at Costco a woman dragged her husband over to me and, in a thick Russian accent, said, “Look! Look what this person has. A list! And it’s printed!” So don’t be surprised if your intelligent approach to life attracts a following.
        - Stephen Wilson