GAS PRICES CHANGING SUBURBAN LIFESTYLES DOLLARS SIPHONED FROM LITTLE LUXURIES, PUMPED INTO TANK.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Santa Clarita mom Kelli Caprine has a grueling weekday commute.

From behind the wheel of her GMC Denali, she drops off three of her four kids at different schools each morning and picks them up in the afternoon.

On Mondays, she drives the kids to Boy Scout meetings and gymnastics classes. On Tuesdays: football practice, cheerleading and church class. Wednesdays bring baseball practice, more cheerleading, church and, sometimes, guitar lessons. Thursdays: Girl Scouts, cheerleading and football. Also, there are away games.

With gas hovering around $3 a gallon, she's feeling the pain at the pump and cutting back by planning her trips more efficiently.

``Once the gas prices went up, I really started taking it seriously,'' said Caprine, who also runs errands for her home-based job for a pool company. Add her costs to fill up the sport utility vehicle and her husband's costs to fill up his BMW for his 60-mile round-trip commute to his office on the Westside, and the Caprines' monthly gas bill easily runs more than $600.

``I can see the money leaving my pocket, so I really do have to take it more seriously,'' she said.

As gas prices have nearly doubled this year, suburban families are adjusting their way of life in sprawling Los Angeles County, where most activities depend on a car.

More car pools, fewer single-purpose trips, maybe even a walk to the store for a gallon of milk - families are starting to think more efficiently about the wheels they once used without a thought.

Experts say such lifestyle changes are the first to emerge as gas prices take a bigger bite out of budgets.

More substantial changes, in the kinds of cars people buy or places in which they choose to live and work, will come more slowly, experts say - and only if gas prices continue climbing toward $4 and beyond.

``People will complain, and they should, and people will make substitutions in the other kinds of things that are discretionary,'' said Charles J. Cicchetti, a professor of policy, planning and development at the University of Southern California.

``You don't have to have Starbucks. You don't have to take your family out to eat. You don't have to buy fashions if you don't need the clothes.

``But when it comes time to think about replacing your car or think about another means of getting around, that's when we'll see the effect on people taking over.''

Already, Granada Hills mom of three Camille Ramirez is thinking of big change.

Though she drives a fairly efficient Toyota Avalon sedan - which still costs $50 a week to fill up - the family's next car will be a hybrid. And she's thinking about a motorcycle for her husband, to ease up on the $1,000 monthly gas bill for his two work trucks.

The family already launched a whole new morning routine when school started last month. Ramirez puts her twin daughters on the bus to Cleveland High School - requiring them to leave the house an hour earlier than usual - and she goes straight to her part-time job in Van Nuys, rather than returning home, after dropping her son off at middle school.

``It makes life more hectic to get everybody out the door,'' she said. ``I just will not make the useless round trip. Even though it's harder for me, it's just not an option.''

She strings her errands together, so she rarely makes a trip out once she's home. And she says - scarcely believing it herself - she's thinking about taking the bus to work.

Meanwhile her husband, a hardwood-floor contractor, faces higher prices from suppliers, as well as his own hefty gas bill for his work trucks. He's trying to trim costs by making more job estimates over the phone.

``I think this is a huge issue for our world today,'' his wife said.

``We became concerned it wasn't going to be going down.''

Gas prices that have fallen from their summer peaks, but still rest nearly $1 dollar above prices at the same time last year, are forcing changes - large and small - in everyday life.

Caprine, the Santa Clarita mom, also links her trips, shopping for groceries online and even walking to the store when her family runs low on milk.

She makes one of her three sons go to school early and another stay late so she can pick two up in a single trip. And she drives the family's smaller car, the Lincoln Mark VII coupe, for a son's away football games.

But she's still thinking about trimming extras, like movie rentals and dinner out.

``If we ... (hadn't) changed how we were driving, and I (didn't) utilize the third car and make my trips more efficiently, my gas would be a lot higher,'' said Caprine, calling it out of the question to move into one of the Westside's $1 million homes to be closer to her husband's job.

She knows the SUV is a gas guzzler, but can't see how her family would fit in another car.

``Unfortunately for us - and a lot of families that have a lot of kids - and the types of activities my family does, we have to have an SUV. I have three teenage boys, and they're all 6 feet tall. We snowboard. We motorcycle-ride. We camp. It wouldn't do for us to get a smaller vehicle, so we can't do that.

``We really have to think about (it) if we only need a few items from the store. It was convenient to hop in the car and go down the street. Maybe I'll take a few extra minutes now, and I'll walk.

``We have to change that way.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box, chart

Photo:

(1) With high gas costs hitting her in the budget, Kelli Caprine, mother of four kids, is trying to cut down on driving her big sport utility vehicle, but her family often needs the space.

(2) As mom Kelli Caprine cuts down on single-purpose trips in her car, sons Bill, 16, and John, 13 - reflected in the mirror - have needed to coordinate their schedules better.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

Box:

COMMUTING MOM

SOURCE: Daily News research

Chart:

GAS BILL GASP

SOURCE: Daily News research

Daily News