Living with 1 car...an epiphany!

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Living with 1 car...an epiphany!
10
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 11:02am

I'm starting to see the light here on being a 1 car family. There's definitely a few positive things that have come from my car breaking down. #1, my insurance went down a lot! And I didn't even discontinue the insurance entirely. I dropped the collision and just kept the liability and that brought my insurance from 94 dollars a month to 50 dollars a month for 2 cars (our 2nd car only has liability as well). #2, I definitely am not using as much gas as I was before. I find that we're putting more gas into DH's car, but I still don't think it equals what we were spending before. I should check quicken just to see if I'm saving. #3, I don't spend as much money because I don't have the option of going out during the day. Before, I may have taken a small trip to wal-mart just to get out of the house and then we would have ended up eating at Subway and maybe buying a few items.

I think I could definitely live with just one car, especially since I live in the city and I've been checking out the bus schedule. I could make it to library time on the bus if I wanted to. I could to to the children's museum as well. The bus is $1.50. So I'm guessing it would cost me $3 dollars if I wanted to go on a trip into the city. The other problem we would run into is that our current car is really not safe. It has a seatbelt in the back that doesn't work so we've been putting our 10 year old into the front seat and one of us sits in the back with no seatbelt. The front seat has an airbag. And our second son ends up in the middle with a lap belt. It's also very old and will probably be breaking down soon as well. But what if we bought a safer, more reliable car and got rid of the old one. I wonder if it would be worth it. My husband would probably resist. I do run into problems with my piano lessons when he is late getting home from work. ANd this weekend, my son is having a small birthday party and sleeping over grandma's house, but I'm not sure how I'm going to make it as DH is working. I could sleep over Grandma's house as well, I guess! It would definitely be a HUGE adjustment, but is the money we save worth changing our life so drastically?

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 11:50am

Abbie -


Just your realizations are important to you decision making process.




iVillage Member
Registered: 11-02-1999
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 12:14pm

I totally see where you're coming from! DH and I bought a second car last year, a beater (with cash) to replace one we turned in at the end of a "fleece". I was about two months from giving birth to our first child, and we really wanted to make sure we had secondary transportation should one of us be using the car and the other left at home.

I work in the city and take the train; the train station is half a block away. There is an express bus stop to the city a half block in the other direction. Our town is small, and so much is within walking distance. In the past year plus since we bought that car, it's spent most of the time sitting in the driveway, unused. We've had to jump it several times because we forget to start it every once in a while to charge the battery LOL. And if there is a true emergency (god forbid), the ambulance is two blocks away.

We're considering selling it to have some quick cash on hand. We also know that we would like to have a second child sooner rather than later, and our small Civic would not be ideal for two car seats - we'd like to be able to sell/trade that one for a bigger car when the time comes, and pay cash for the difference. We would save about $45 a month in insurance on the second car, and minimal for gas (since we don't use it), but I like Marie's idea to put that money away toward a "new" car.

Anyway, I guess my point is that it really is funny how you think you really need something, but with a little ingenuity and forethought, you realize that you really didn't need it nearly as much as you thought you did. :) :)










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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 12:35pm
It really is amazing! I wanted to tell you that we have a small toyota corolla and even though it's not 'convenient', we fit 2 carseats and a 10 year old in the back! I keep going back and forth on whether or not I 'need' a mini-van or even a bigger car. I think about the extra gas we would have to put into a bigger car and I think, 'you know what, my small car works just fine!' I'm thinking about turning in both of our junker cars..or selling them somehow and putting that money towards 1 nicer, more reliable, small 4-door car. I think my friends and family would think I was nuts if I down-graded to one car, but in this world of green-house gases and the oil prices going up and up and up. Maybe we will all have to down-size eventually. I have a grocery store half a mile down the road. I have a hospital right across the street. I have a drug-store 1/4 mile down the road, a bookstore, a chinese food store, a restaurant, and even my kids school is 100yards down the street. Pretty much everything I could possibly ask for is within walking distance. My church is right across the street. I'm the music director there! I'm conveniently located to everything! Why do I need a second car, besides convenience!

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-02-1999
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 12:40pm

LOL you're right -- even a bigger car is more of a want than a true need! :) There is something to be said for the convenience factor, but if you really need to save the cash...you make do with what you've got.

Now to convince my DH of that...:):):)










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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 12:43pm
Putting the insurance savings into a car fund is a good idea. I'm going to move things around and see what I can do. I've been aggressively working on my E fund and getting my mortgage back on time, but after that it's going to be time to register my broken-down car and I can't keep it in my condo parking lot if it's not registered so I'm going to have to do something by the end of November about that car. I talked to my husband today about living with just 1 car and he wasn't totally against it. I think it would just be a really big adjustment, especially in the winter when walking to places wouldn't be so appealing!

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2005
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 1:10pm

We may have to live with one care for awhile.

Wedding
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-02-1998
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 2:56pm

It is surprising what we find we can do without. Friends of mine discovered that they saved money by getting rid of their car and started walking, biking, taking the bus, and for the occasional time they needed to get somewhere by car they would either take a taxi or rent a car for a couple of days.

Sharon





iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2008
Tue, 09-15-2009 - 8:01pm

We became a one-car family three months ago.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Wed, 09-16-2009 - 9:04am

Abbie-

Just from my personal experience having one car is very doable and even preferable IMO. For all the reasons you mentioned. I'm looking forward to the day when we can function with just one car. But with three drivers and one vehicle that can make things a bit of a challenge. So for now we are a two car family.

Start saving up now for a newer car if you can. We've been looking for ds and have seen several nice vehicles in good condition for under $3000. There are a lot of used Jeep Grand Cherokees out there in that price range. Saw one last weekend. They want $1200.. it needs new tires, belt tightening and a new windshield but other than that it seemed to run just fine.

Also have you considered having your students come to you? You could charge a little less to make it more appealing, and since you aren't paying out for gas to travel to them, it will even out. Just a thought.

stacy

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-10-2008
Sat, 10-03-2009 - 8:24pm
There is a point where the "savings don't add up. The assumption that nothing will happen. I has just liability when I got into an accident. The other person's auto insurance company jacked me around and my boss was not happy (I needed a car to get to work) the insurance company cheated me since I could not take the time off. Had I had the proper insurance my company would had subregated and I would have had a good car.
If you have enough in savings to buy a car then go ahead and try one caring for a while. It does depend on where you live. For me right now without a car would mean an impossible life. It is far cheaper to buy cash!
xvra
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