Sell my car? A moment of clarity?
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| Wed, 10-05-2005 - 6:14pm |
I posted this on an organic gardening board, and it occurred to me that you wise folks might be interested in, and have excellent insights on the topic as well. So here it is:
So I've been doing a lot of listening lately, listening for god, listening for light, listening for the universe. Listening for clarity. I'm pretty good at talking, and decent at thinking, but I'm pretty bum on listening. So I'm working on it.
As I was driving across town to buy the special raw diet that my cat eats, I got stuck in a bit of traffic and began musing on something I had heard about how traffic was never going to get better, that the best we could hope for was to keep catching back up with new construction. And the thought popped into my head: "Get off the wheel." As I thought it, I was directing it at other people, and I began thinking about what that would look like. What if *everyone* got off the wheel. They all sold their houses and cars, moved close to their work, starting riding bicycles and using public transport.
It was pretty appealing, and then I realized that I was sitting in traffic having these thoughts, and why the heck wasn't I getting off the wheel?
So I began thinking about what *that* would look like. We're already somewhat close to dh's work, but I already live at my office. So why do I still own a car?
Here are the reasons:
It's convenient. I can run out and do errands, meet friends, take the kids places whenever I want to.
I occasionally need to meet clients away from my office.
We use my car for long trips, which dh's car is not suitable for.
That's about it.
My life without a car would look something like this:
Dh would work from home one day a week (feasible for him).
On that day, I would run errands with the kids and meet clients when necessary.
If I needed to meet someone during the week on a different day, I would drive dh to work, but this would happen only rarely, once a month at the most.
I would pull the kids in the wagon to the library for an outing (bicycling there isn't feasible--we did it once, and it was quite treacherous because I have to ride on the side of a very narrow, very busy road, and the kids were just in this flimsy little bicycle trailer with semis roaring by inches away... not safe, not okay, so I ended up pushing the bicycle in the grass nearly all the way--in the wagon we could walk in the grass more easily--still noisy and not a great solution, but probably doable; I'd have to install seatbelts for peace of mind, to be sure they wouldn't step out of the wagon into the busy street on a whim while my back is turned pulling); or we would ride the bicycle to a park, which has a nice safe route through neighborhoods from here; or just walk to our community pond and woods.
We would take the bus for long trips (once per quarter, approx) at a cost of about $300 for the four of us. Not having my car would save us over $500 a month, so this would not be a major expense in the big scheme of things.
We would be completely debt free in about six months (otherwise our debt-free date is not quite two years out).
We would be living a slightly greener lifestyle, striving toward our smaller footprint on the earth.
Can I convince dh? Not sure. Am I completely convinced myself? Not sure.
What do you think?

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I say go for it. DH & I had one car up until DD was about 18 months (so about 2 years total) and I loved it. Everyone thought I was crazy but I had to give serious thought to it when FIL offered us a 2nd car. It is nice having a back-up when the other car is in the shop and now DH does debate camps so he likes the transportation then but most of the time we could live with one car and if something were to go wrong with our second car I would not replace it.
From what you've described your lifestyle would work well with one car. How far away will school be for the kids? Is preschool a consideration? I'm trying to fit some no drive days into my world and school is the kicker. DD goes 1.1 miles away-they do not do any busing. DH takes her in the bike trailer some but it's getting cramped to put both DD and DS in the trailer and it doesn't hook up to my bike. Having her ride her bike with training wheels or walk while I walk with DS is doable but takes about 45 minutes to an hour because DD dawdles and whines and then by the time we get home I'm grumpy and frustrated. O.K. sorry for the long vent.
The most compelling arguments our parents made for a second car was going to the hospital for an emergency, etc. At the time, my DH was taking the car out of town for some overnights. I see their point but at the same time if it's truly horrible I would call an ambulance and it not I could probably ask a neighbor.
Taleyna
Thanks for your thoughts! It's very helpful.
We homeschool, so that isn't an issue for us.
I've thought of a few other things, too, that could contribute to our one-car lifestyle as well as helping build a more sustainable community. My errands generally take us all over town, buying cat's special diet one place, organic bulk grains another place, oriental rice noodles another, produce at the farmer's market, etc., mostly buying only one or two items each place--what a waste! But the alternative is shopping at big box stores, where the produce all tastes like cardboard and I can't even find half the things I cook with, let alone bulk organic grains for less than my mortgage, and where everthing's been shipped halfway around the world (did you know that an average quarter pound of beef, to get from cow to your table, uses enough gasoline to drive 22 miles? Buy a pound of grocery-store beef, and you've just burned 88 miles worth of gasoline!). But what if one of my neighbors could pick up an item when she happened to be in that part of town? And I could pick items up for her sometimes? I'm conceiving a community exchange in which we would all have lists--maybe through an online group--of each other's errands, and we could offer to pick things up when we're planning to be near one of them. We'd all end up driving a lot less, and spending a lot more time at home. Not to mention saving gas money!
I'm going to see what I can do about this...
Thanks again for your input. It's good to hear from other people who've made it with only one vehicle and didn't mind. Most of the people I know in person who have been or are one-car families have been so through necessity, and have always seen it as a nearly unbearable burden. So changing that attitude is hard! It's good to hear from someone who sees it as a positive thing.
Thanks.
Heather
Hi Heather,
Well my dh and I have been always with just one car and we've been fine as he is used to taking the wonderful transport system we have in Montreal.
It is only since we moved further out from the downtown core that it has become a bit problematic.
But we intend to stick with one car until we pay off the debts and even then we'll evaluate the costs and true need to buy the 2nd car - if we do buy it will be done in cash.
You have done your homework on the pros/cons and it seems that there are more positives in your situation. It will be an adjustment at the beginning but if you can structure when you would need to use the car and it works out well over 90% of the time then I would say sell the 2nd car.
Best wishes in your decision,
Kassandra
Kassandra
"It is said that life has its peaks and valleys. The challenge is to accept them equally and experience them
Before selling your car, try leaving it at home for a week or two and see if you and Dh can make this plan work out. If you can, and the kids enjoy the wagon rides, etc, then go ahead and sell your car and enjoy the savings. :-D If you find it's just too stressful to not have your car, you can have peace in knowing it's parked safely at your home, ready for you to drive. :-D
Pat
Heather,
DH and I have one car, and I love it. We had two when we got married, but got rid of DH's shortly after that. I don't regret it one bit. I've learned to schedule my errands around when DH will be home, and I combine them now. I also put off shopping for some things, and I buy in bulk when I do finally go to that store.
I know this doesn't give you much information, but we use one car only. . . .no public transportation, because it's awful and VERY inefficient in our city.
I love your idea and it sounds like you've got plenty of positive reasons to do it! i also think that you should try and go for a week or two "pretending" you don't have the car to "test drive" your plan. I was also thinking of selling my car until i took my old job back. I work from home, but i have to go to the office once or twice a week and the office is 25 miles away in another state. I am going to try and institute "car free" days though. In fact, i think that i will start that next week... i will start with just one day a week.
anyway, getting off track here, i think you are in the right frame of mind. You seem to very earth friendly and healthy and i think that this situation sounds ideal for you! I really am envious!! i know how much money i would save if i sold my car, I just don't know if i can do it!!
kel
Hi Heather - we're a one-car household.
All my best,
Danni
Thanks, Kassandra! It's so helpful to hear from people who like being a one-car family. We don't live near a downtown core, and public transports not great, but I can bike to the park, walk to our community pond and woods, and I *may* be able to get the kids to the library in the wagon (we'll have to do a trial run). I'll run my errands on the one day a week when dh is working from home.
Another thing that has come up, and that one neighbor has already enthusiastically agreed to join me in, is an errands club. At first, we're just going to let each other know when we'll be out running errands, and what part of town we'll be in, so if anyone else needs an errand run in that part of town, we can combine them and the person going out there can get the items for the others. Eventually, if enough people in our neighborhood want to join, we can set it up as a yahoo! group. This will help me with my scattered errands, and hopefully I'll be able to help others too. I'm already planning to get some produce at the farmer's market for the one neighbor tomorrow, and she's looking over her list to see if there are any other errands I can run for her while I'm in that area.
Thanks again for your input.
Blessings,
Heather
This is a great idea! Thank you! I'm going to talk to dh, and then hopefully try this starting next Sunday.
Thanks for the idea,
Heather
Once again, this is great to hear. It looks like the votes are tallying up! LOL Our public transit is pretty crummy, too, so I wouldn't be using the bus at all around town. But we might use a bus for long trips, although we could also just rent a car for the several-times-a-year type thing. We can't drive dh's car for long trips, because it's just not suitable (it's a 1974 VW Thing, which is the German equivalent of the Jeep, and it's a convertible, and just not comfortable or reliable enough for the long haul with kids in the back--it also tends to overheat under certain circumstances--easy to fix when it has trouble, but not at all convenient when you've got kids in tow).
Anyway, it's funny that I'm getting such a positive response on this board. I posted the same thing over on an organic gardening board I'm a member of, where most of the folks are very pro-environment, sometimes militantly so, and many have made difficult choices toward that end, and so I expected a big "Go For It" from that crew--but instead, I'm getting a lot of people worried about the safety concerns with little kids at home. Which, of course, is a valid concern, and I'm grateful for so many honest people with opinions to share, but I'm just surprised at the way the votes have fallen out. :)
Anyway, thank you. Blessings,
Heather
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