Hey everyone! I want to introduce my new staff writer, Jordann. She will be helping me out and posting every Friday most likely. I love her writing so I’m glad she decided to join me on my blog. You can visit her at My Alternate Life. I’ll let her take it away now.
Growing up in a rural area, I was used to needing a car to get anywhere. With no public transit whatsoever, and the nearest city 30 kilometres away, most families had two to three vehicles (read further on the most gas guzzling cities!). One for mom, one for Dad, and an old beater for the teenaged kids to fight over. Heck, the average Dad usually had his own personal car as a hobby that he only drove on Sundays in the summer.
Cars, in my neck of the woods, weren’t an option, they were a necessity.
This was, I thought, how most people lived. That is, until I moved to a city center for University. You mean to tell me that people don’t have cars here? This was a revelation to me. To be able to not just get around comfortably, but often more easily without a car, was a novel concept to me. I lived four years in University without ever owning a car, and even though I had access to one, I didn’t use it. Transit was the way to go, or good old fashioned walking.
Then, one fateful day the summer after I’d graduated University, I totalled my then-boyfriend-now-fiance’s trusty neon. We were moving back into rural country shortly, and the demise of his vehicle meant that a car payment was soon to grace our finances. We had no choice, we were moving to a rural area, we needed a car.
Let me tell you, after 21 years of not having to deal with a car payment, insurance payments, gas and maintenance costs, having a car has been nothing but an unwelcome expense. Sure, where we live right now, we need a car, but that doesn’t mean I like owning one. I guess it’s because I’ve never owned a car, but I’m the complete opposite of desensitized to that payment. The idea of having not one but two cars to spend money on? No thank you.
A Necessity, Or Just Convenient?
Where I’m currently living, I live eight kilometres away from work. My fiance’s job requires him to travel between 30 and 50 kilometres per day to different job sites. In our surrounding area there’s nothing but residential housing and farms. No public transportation to be had for miles around.
Yet we only have one car. Sure, it can be annoying at times, but not nearly as annoying as the cost of an extra car payment, insurance, gas and maintenance. We have to be more coordinated, my fiance car pools with a nearby fellow employee, or when he needs the vehicle he drops me at work early, or picks me up late.
We can’t go separate places at the same time without coordinating first, and we get very good at planning our errands to coincide with the other’s obligations (he gets groceries while I’m at my photography class, etc).
Having a single car is completely doable, and we don’t even live anywhere with access to transit!
Downsizing to a One Car Family to Cut Expenses
On the average month, not including maintenance fees (since those pop up sporadically), I spend around $440 per month of our 2007 VW golf. If we were to add a second car to our household tomorrow, we’d probably look for the same type of vehicle: used but in good condition, compact and good on gas.
So, theoretically, if we were to be a two car household, our automotive expenses would cost us around $880 per month exclusive of maintenance fees.
That’s a ton of money! An extra car would run us around $5280 per year! That’s a very good chunk of income. I can’t help but think that extra $440 could be put to better use, like saving up for a house down payment, putting towards retirement, or paying off the remaining $25,000 in debt I’m trying to get rid of.
No, for now I think I’ll deal with the minor inconvenience of being a single car household in a rural area, and put that money towards paying off debt instead. Things might change once I have kids, or maybe when I allow some lifestyle inflation creep, but for now I’m happy with my relative lack of mobility.
Are you a two car household? Do you think you could downsize to a single car?
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Greg@ClubThrifty says
October 5, 2012 at 5:55 amWelcome Jordann! Honestly, we probably don't need a second car either, but it sure is convenient. I had the same feeling when I moved to Chicago. However, I lived there very comfortably without a car for 2 years. I loved using the public transit system, and I highly recommend it for anybody living in a bigger city.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 7:51 amThat's one of my favourite things about big cities, the ability to go comfortably car-less.
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plantingourpennies says
October 5, 2012 at 6:22 amIt'd be really difficult for us unless we got different jobs to become a single car household right now. We work in completely opposite directions, and it can be close to an hour drive between our offices. Not really practical for getting the two of us to work without racking up a lot of extra drive time.
Someday, though =)
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 8:13 amPerhaps if you ever decide to move, moving close to one of your offices would be a good idea? I would love to move closer to work so I could ditch the car.
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DC@Young Adult Money says
October 5, 2012 at 6:23 amIt would be nearly impossible unless we moved closer to my work. I work 20 miles from where we live, and nowhere near anywhere my wife works. I also get to work at about 7am and leave after 4pm, so I'd probably need to be the one getting dropped off/picked up and would likely be stuck there until late. I think we'd end up driving just as many (or more) miles. Public transit I would have to board a bus at 5:30am and would get home about 8:30pm. It just won't work.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 8:07 amGetting dropped off early and picked up late is annoying, I often have to deal with that if my fiance wants the car for the day. Luckily I take advantage of it and use it as time to get extra work done either at my day job or on my blog.
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Tanner says
October 5, 2012 at 6:39 amI only have one car, but my parents have kept 1-3 cars at any given time. One for my dad (since he's the only one working full time at a regular schedule), one for my mother (to go spend my dad's money), and one for my younger siblings to go to/from class and to/from work. I really wish I had public transportation and wouldnt need a car. I really dont mind the extra hour or two of commuting, as long as I'm not the one driving.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 8:08 amWe sound very similar, I would rather take the bus and use the time to read/get work done, than drive to work, even if it takes longer.
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John S @ Frugal Rules says
October 5, 2012 at 7:15 amWe're a two car family, mainly because we have three kids that usually need to be at one place or another. Before we had kids we were a one car family. I'd love to go back to that, but the public transportation in our city is nonexistent and with three kids it's not just practical for us right now. I think we could scale back if we wanted to, but would require too many sacrifices to make it worth it.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 8:10 amHaving kids definitely makes it more difficult, and I will definitely consider adding a second car if and when a kid arrives on the scene.
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Brian says
October 5, 2012 at 7:27 amWe are a two car (and one motorcycle) family. It would be very very difficult to be a one car family. We start work at different times, but not different enough to carpool, and we have a kid in day care. Public transportation here is basically awful and according to the schedule on the bus website it would take me around 1.5 hours to get to work versus my 20 minutes. If we had a better public transportation system I would use it, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen any timem soon.
Also welcome aboard Jordann!
Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 8:15 amPublic transportation being inadequate seems to be a recurring theme in these comments. It's really unfortunate to hear that most people would be interested in reducing their vehicle numbers if they had access to alternatives.
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Christine says
October 5, 2012 at 7:27 amHi Jordann! That's so awesome that you two are able to make it by on one car! For the moment I work mostly from home so I think we could make it work if we really wanted to, but if I get a different job it would be incredibly difficult. Even for now, it would be very difficult to get my husband on board with coordinating EVERYTHING. 😉 It would definitely take more work but since my car is paid off I think we'll keep it for now! 🙂
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 8:16 amI know what you mean, I'm very lucky that my workplace is close by, but if I switched jobs, my commute would go from ten minutse to 30 minutes minimum. I think at that point though, I'd probably just move closer to my job (I'm still a renter), but I know a lot of people don't have that luxury!
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Emily @ evolvingPF says
October 5, 2012 at 7:43 amWe downsized to one car a few months ago and I've written about that journey several times on my blog. I thought it would be SO IMPOSSIBLE but it's actually been great! We don't use public transport either, just go most everywhere together and occasionally bum rides from friends.
I doubt your second car calc is correct though, as we figured out that our second car only cost us about 20% of the price of the first. You get a two-car discount on your insurance, for instance, and your gas won't double as you will still drive together sometimes.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:16 amThanks for the imput, I'd thought about insurance deals and whatnot but I figured it would even out since I didn't include maintenance fees, which are a whole other expense when it comes to used cars.
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MakingSenseofCents says
October 5, 2012 at 8:05 amI'm guilty of this. We have 3 cars. The third one is a truck (a classic) that we've only driven once in 2 years. We just love it too much to get rid of. We bought it for around $4k 3 years ago, and now it's worth around $18K, so I would say we did good anyways!
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:18 amHaving a car that you don't drive much, but keep as a hobby is fine, it's like any other hobby – it's going to cost you. I think that's cool that you're restoring an old car, it's an interesting hobby that doesn't seem to be as popular as it once was.
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SWR says
October 5, 2012 at 8:23 amGrowing up in a major metro area, the typical model was that each parent had a car and then all of the kids shared one. Now I live in a much more rural area and it seems like everyone of driving age has his/her own car. We are able to get by with sharing one because we both commute to the nearest city for school and work, but that isn't the case for most families around here.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:18 amI agree, everyone seems to have their own cars in rural areas, it's often a necessity.
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Sharon says
October 5, 2012 at 8:42 amWe have 2 cars . I don't think we could downsize to 1 car, as I work 30 minutes north of where we live and my husband works 20 minutes south. And there's no public transportation close enough to our jobs.
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Sean@OneSmartDollar says
October 5, 2012 at 9:12 amWe are now a two car house. When we lived in Chicago we had one car simply for driving home. Public transportation was so good that we could get anywhere on the train or bus. Now that we are in Denver it's a little bit harder. If I want to take my bike or snowboard up to the mountains and my wife didn't want to go she would be left stranded.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:55 amI know some people who keep a car for the sole purpose of travelling long distances to visit family, I think that's a good option. If you're in a situation where you only occasionally need a second car, perhaps you could look into car sharing services? There are some great options out there for people who only need a second car a few times a week, or on weekends.
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SavvyFinancialLatina says
October 5, 2012 at 9:13 amWe recently became a two car household. Before June, my hubby was the only one with a car. I would either catch a ride, ride the bus, or the train, or walk. I'm so glad I got my car. It gives me independence, and I'm willing to pay for it.
When I was just depending on him for transportation, it put pressure in our relationship. Now I can go wherever, whenever I want. I do live within five minutes of my office, so I suppose I could go carless, but I don't think it's worth it.
When I was growing up, my parents were a one car household. We would have to wait for my dad to drop us off or pick us up. Sometimes I would wait for hours at school to be picked up. It sucked.
Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:56 amIf you can afford two cars without sacrificing other financial goals, the convenience is definitely a big plus, no doubt about it.
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worksavelive says
October 5, 2012 at 9:21 amAs I don't have a structured job and could have to be anywhere in the city, anytime during the day, it would be nearly impossible for us to go down to 1 car. It would be doable if I didn't have to work some evenings. My friends recently transitioned to 1 car though and it's working great for them!
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:56 amSome jobs definitely require a car, in that case there's no way around owning one. I hope you get reimbursed for your mileage though!
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Em1723 says
October 5, 2012 at 9:32 amWe are a 2 car household and could certainly downsize to 1. I would love nothing more than to do so but I have to respect my husbands wish to have 2 cars for convenience sake because he allows me to manage every other financial decision since he admits he's not good with it. I'm hoping to slowly convert him but I don't see that happening
Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:57 amMaybe go halfway, downsize to one car and a motorcycle? You might have more success with that idea. 🙂
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kimateyesonthedollar says
October 5, 2012 at 9:49 amThere is no way we'd make it with one car. I work out of three different office and on is an hour and 15 minute commute. My husband is in the other direction. We live in a very rural area, so no public transportation. We also have a daughter who goes to school out of district, so we have to drop her off most days, and get her to activities. Maybe when our lives slow down a bit or if we ever move to the city. Not likely for a long time though.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 12:32 pmThat sounds like one of those "Must have" situations for two cars, going single car isn't for everyone!
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Ashlee says
October 5, 2012 at 9:52 amWelcome Jordann 🙂 I'm very excited to read your guest posts & check out your blog!
My family has always been a 2 car household and now that I live with my boyfriend, we are the same way. When one of our vehicles is broken down or we are in between trading vehicles, it is always so difficult for us. We really depend on our own vehicles. We don't have any form of public transit where I live so this could be a huge reason.
Great post!
Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 12:32 pmThanks, I hope you find my blog as entertaining as this one. I don't have public transportation where I'm located either, and while I found not being able to get around without my vehicle to be a big adjustment, I got used to it after awhile.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 9:58 amLiving rurally definitely makes it difficult to manage on one car. It's not for everyone.
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apenny4athought says
October 5, 2012 at 10:20 amThe boyfriend and I currently only have one car (we only have one parking spot so it would be difficult to have a second car). We make it work, we both need to drive places but we work our schedules around each other. We live a 5 minute walk from the train so that covers us most times. I like only having one car, I think it keeps the lines of communication open!
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 12:23 pmI completely agree, having one car requires a lot of organizing and being aware of the other's schedule. That's a great benefit I hadn't thought of.
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Debt Free Teen says
October 5, 2012 at 10:23 amI live in an area where taking the bus is just not practical. And I can't show up at class smelling bad either or I would be willing to ride my bike. Right now, my mom and I share a car because my dad promoted and no longer has a work vehicle. It's not perfect but it works.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 12:22 pmI think your last sentence describes my situation perfectly: It's not perfect, but it works. Having one car is doable, it's just not the most fun or convenient thing in the world.
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Pelican on Money says
October 5, 2012 at 12:42 pmHey Jordann, nice to see you posting here 🙂 Glad you asked about the car situation. Right now between the two of us (bf and I) only have 1 vehicle. Ever since we moved out west into a bigger metropolitan area around L.A. it has been very easy to get around with public transportation. Any time we move we make sure one of us can use public transportation to get to work and it's been working like a charm!
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 1:40 pmThat's great to hear! I'm glad that public transportation is working out well for you.
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dancingwithashley says
October 5, 2012 at 1:05 pmWe are definitely a 2 car family. I think it would be so helpful financially if we could cut back, but I don't know how we would make it!!
Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 1:41 pmIt's definitely an adjustment, but if there are other modes of transportation available, that definitely makes things easier.
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seedebtrun says
October 5, 2012 at 1:42 pmI so wish we could cut back. Actually, we could if Jeff could find a ride to work. I've actually thought about this a few times. Maybe Jeff could start carpooling and sell his car? I've talked to Jeff about this briefly, but he has shot it down pretty quick. I think he kind of loves his car! :/
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 6:22 pmIt might not be something that he's ready to do right now, but he's really committed to getting out of debt, I bet you could convince him.
Jane says
October 5, 2012 at 1:54 pmWe are a one car family. It drives me nuts sometimes and I want to break down and get another car, but the truth is, right now, we don't need another one. I work from home which means that I don't need a car the majority of the time. I hate it when I do really need to run an errand and my husband needs the car for work. His work always trumps my errands lol. But, I know that not having a second car payment is what's more important right now. You better believe I'm counting down the days until we can afford it though.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 6:21 pmGood job! That's awesome that you're willing to deal with the inconvenience in order to save.
DebtsnTaxes says
October 5, 2012 at 2:02 pmWe are a two car family and there is no way we could downsize to one car. The wife works in the morning from 7-4 and I work 2nd shift from 2-10. There isn't any public transportation and we aren't close enough to bike to work. I wouldn't change it for anything though. I love living out in the woods and we eventually want to move farther away from the city.
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Jordann says
October 5, 2012 at 6:18 pmShift work is another reason why having one car and no access to public transportation isn't really feasible. My fiance and I are lucky enough to both for in the 9-5 range.
femmefrugality says
October 5, 2012 at 8:17 pmWe are. I'd love to be single-car, but the fact of the matter is the boyfriend needs his for work, and I need one for emergencies with the little one. My school is far away, too, and out of the reach of public transport.
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Catherine says
October 6, 2012 at 8:36 amWe're a single car family and it works for us. Sure once a while it would be convenient to have a 2nd car but we just don't need it right now. I sold my car when we moved in together to put money towards our wedding(4yrs ago). When I'm working I take public transport into the city-better for my sanity, our wallet and the environment! With the cost of gas, insurance, parking it's not worth it!
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