The check came right on schedule. Visions of flat screen TVs, video games and a day at the spa came with it. But I dutifully headed to Cub Foods and turned $1200 into two $660 gift cards — the maximum amount the company allows. It’s a strategy I explained in this earlier post.

Like many Americans, the other $600 from our check will go towards paying off a credit card balance. June was an expensive month, with some eating out, some reunion expenses and the purchase of a new patio set. Hence, the tracking spending exercise I started mid-June.

I must admit that exercise has fallen by the wayside of late. I did do a quick and dirty assessment, though, and our credit card transactions showed we’re spending about $15 more in gas than we budgeted and that we ate our entire fun budget for the month.

I know you’ve been there. You get a windfall and as soon as it comes there’s an unexpected expense that swallows up the windfall. Karen Blumenthal at the Wall Street Journal had an entertaining piece today about what she calls The law of household economics. She says, perhaps that’s why the well-intentioned Americans who said they planned to save their stimulus checks or use them to pay down debt are spending them instead.

Just yesterday, I met with Richard Davis, CEO of US Bancorp, who said the bank certainly isn’t seeing any of our stimulus checks coming its way– either in the form of savings deposits or larger credit card payments.

There’s another effect plaguing our household. I’ll call it the pre-windfall spending effect.

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I joined the Speedy Rewards gas loyalty program because they have a deal on gallons of milk.

I was so oblivious to gas prices until recently (hey, a girl can only care about so much when it comes to saving money), that it failed to dawn on me that I bet a gas station rewards program had perks at the pump in addition to the dairy case.

It was only recently that I began using the coupons for Holiday Stations that print out after spending money for groceries at Cub Foods. Why would I walk all the way inside instead of pay at the pump to save a few pennies, I figured.

Then when I’m at Costco, which is less often these days, I fill up there. The warehouse clubs typically have gas that’s a few cents cheaper than nearby stations.

How do you save money on gas? Are you a fan of one particular rewards program over another? Share your strategies.

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?

I’ve mentioned this in the past– about how I shop in spurts. Part of it is time– it’s hard to find hours to mill about the mall with a job and a family. But part of it is also keeping temptation at bay. I love to shop and know I’ll find plenty to buy if I give myself the opportunity. Which leads to guilt. Which leads to returning items. Which leads to more buying. Which leads to a stern conversation with myself about wants and needs. And then I inevitably end up on Monday morning with a pile of new clothes and nothing that seems to go together.

So on my most recent trips, I’ve spent maybe $100 on my kids for several outfits and a couple pairs of shoes and multiple pairs of sunglasses (why do I even try with a 2 year old? I don’t think I owned a pair until I was in high school…then again, they were only $2.50).

On myself I spent in the ballpark of $150 for three shirts, two pairs of pants, some jeans, and an $89 sweater I never would have bought but did thanks to $125 in gift cards at Banana Republic that I earned through my rewards credit card.

And still I found myself second-guessing whether I really should have bought much of it –even the $3 and $4 sweaters at Gymboree. My daughter would be happy to wear the same skirt every day of the year if I let her (and maybe I should). So what drove me to buy any of this stuff at all, except that it was cheap? And it was there?

But then I popped on over to MSP-Magazine and came across the tally that accompanied this blog entry about shopping with toddlers and I realized that I didn’t even go close to overboard.

Shoes at Nordstrom, $78. Summer wardrobe additions, $400. Ride at MOA, $20 pass. Lunch in sunny courtyard, $19. Photo booth, $5. Shopping with my daughters, priceless.

I’d revise the shopping with my daughters phrase to include the words annoying, distracting, frustrating, and expensive. I know when I’m with my daughter I tend to spend way more than I do when on my own because I listen to her opinions and find myself raising the threshold for how much I’m willing to spend on kid’s clothes (usually, no more than $15 on anything– going above $10 makes me cringe). And then we get home and she refuses to wear what I bought her anyway.

In other retail news, the latest survey from the National Retail Federation found that 40 percent of Americans plan to spend some of their rebate money, although much of that will go for necessities. But I’ll bet that when that money appears and people see that puffed up bank account balance, at least some of that money goes to buying that ump-teenth pair of toddler sunglasses.

Being a consumer in this country is an identity that’s going to be tough for many to shake.