Every Monday in 2015, I’ll be sharing a different idea to help you save money! Add all of these tips to your frugal repertoire and you’ll be able to save a lot of money this year! I hope you’ll gather a few new ideas or at least some inspiration from this series.
Become a One Car Family
I feel a bit like a hypocrite writing today’s post, because I would find it very challenging to become a one car family, but I think if you can do it, you’d save a ton of cash!
Since having my daughter, I have found I have to get out of the house at least once a day. For both of our sanities. 🙂 We don’t always hop in the car, but quite often we do. I also don’t like the idea of being stranded at home in the event of an emergency. However, my husband usually doesn’t work full time in the winter, so we sell his car. (and earn a bit of extra money because we bought a cheap car that we can fix up a bit.) Then once he’s back to work full time, we buy another cheap car that we can sell once more. That really works for us. Once in a while we do need two cars in the winter, but we have amazing family members who will lend their vehicle or pick us up if need be.
I estimate by being a one car family for even only the winter months, we’re saving at least $500. That could be significant savings if we were to do it year round!
Becoming a one car family means there will most likely be some sacrifices and changes that have to take place. More thought and effort will have to be put into organizing how everyone will get to where they need to be. In my mind, I think it would be easier to be a one car family in a big city because I imagine public transportation would be quite efficient. Meaning, you can most likely catch a bus or train to anywhere you need to be. (We live in a smaller city so it’s harder to grab a bus to the more rural places.)
Here are some transportation ideas aside from a second car:
- Walk
- Ride a Bike
- Use Public Transportation
- Carpool
- Buy a Moped
Are you a one car family? If so, tell us your tips and secrets for making it work!
See the other articles in this series, here.
Since my husband started working from home 4.5 years ago we have been a one car family. We save a huge amount of money in insurance, gas and maintenance costs. We found buying a bike and bike trailer that allows me to go for a bike ride with our three small kids was amazing for my sanity. It allowed me to pile the kids in and run errands around our small town without the hassle of car seats, and I got a great exercise while the kids got lots of fresh air and enjoy seeing everything in town from a different perspective.
I am loving this series!
Or just give up the idea of owning a car, like we did several years ago. “But you this and you that”. Sure, but it’s a matter of choice. We choose to live nearby the subway station, we choose to live in a city where public transportation is somewhat reliable, we choose to live in neighborhoods where we have access to carsharing services.
People don’t even consider this hypothesis because they think it’s impossible. All I say is “think about it” without discarding the idea at first though.