By living slightly below my means all the time, not taking on any debt and keeping a positive flow of cash to savings (including investments) when bad times come as they always do, I have a great fall back. Other than the price of gas, I haven't noticed any issues.

High gas prices are with us, deal with it -- cut back on driving. I'm pulling the mountain bike off the rafters in the garage and getting it ready for more regular use. New road tires, brakes, et al and it should be good to go. I weighed the cost of having a bicycle shop do the work vs doing it myself and then I saw that REI has a Comprehensive Bicycle Maintenance course. So I paid the tuition and will do the work myself and learn what it takes to keep a bike going for the long haul.

Don't obsess about stuff. I was plenty content when I had less. I may shed a lot of weight in the form of material things, just give it to Good Will, AmVets or the Salvation Army.