Making Sense Of Cents

Learn how to make extra money, how to save money, how to start a blog, and more.

JOIN OVER 300,000
MONTHLY READERS!

We’re Now Saving Over $7,000 A Year By Becoming A One Car Family Plus Monthly Life Update

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 63 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

We're Now Saving Over $7,000 A Year By Becoming A One Car Family Plus Monthly Life UpdateHello everyone! Time for another life, goals, and food budget update. The month isn’t over yet, but I’m typing this on the 28th and I think it’s close enough.

May was another great month for us. It was my birthday month and I did a good amount of traveling. I went to Utah, Nevada, California, St. Louis, and Gulf Shores in May and had a great time on these trips.

Colorado is still treating us very well. We are enjoying all of the outdoor activities that Colorado offers and everything else around here.

The only negative I can think of from this past month is that our house is still for sale. Let’s hope June is the month for us!

 

Our food budget.

We did not do too well with our food budget in May. We spent way over $500 but that was mainly due to not being home for the majority of the month. The food spending was all planned and budgeted for though.

I wish I could say that June will be better, but that most likely will not happen. We will be traveling many times over the next two months to visit family, friends, attend a wedding, and more, so food spending will be through the roof until then.

We will still be trying out best until then to lower our food spending though.

 

We're Now Saving Over $7,000 A Year By Becoming A One Car Family (1)We’re down to one car!

In May, we finally made the decision to have just one car.

We are now saving around $600 a month, over $7,000 a year, just by making this one change!

As you might remember from my post Should We Get Rid Of A Car And Just Have One?, we have been thinking a lot lately about slimming down to just one car. Since both of our cars need to be registered here in Colorado, we had to think somewhat quick about what we wanted to do (we wanted to avoid the $1,000 in registration fees that we would have had to pay in Colorado, especially since we still have to pay for it in Missouri for this year as well).

In the end, we decided to slim down. While we were both VERY sad to get rid of our Jeep Wrangler, we knew that this was the right decision for us for many reasons. The reasons included:

  • We never needed both cars. Since we both work from home, there has never really been a situation where we both needed a car at the same time.
  • The Wrangler got horrible gas mileage. Less than 15 miles per gallon most of the time. We will definitely be getting a Wrangler in the future, but not until we need two cars again.
  • We want to be more minimalist. With one car, there is less maintenance required, less cars to register, less cars to take care of, and more.
  • The money savings. Considering the fact that we don’t need two cars, the fact that we could so easily save $600 a month felt stupid to keep passing up.

Even though it’s only been a few days since we made this change, we’ve already been super happy with it!

 

May Goals Update

  • Work out! PASS! This will be on my goals list for awhile as it’s a great motivator to see it here each month. We have both been doing very well with working out and we have been feeling better than ever.
  • Work ahead on Making Sense of Cents posts. FAIL. I fell behind on this due to all of the traveling that happened in May. It was nice because I was able to enjoy my trips, but it’s sad to be back to where I used to be. I’m hoping to change this in the next few months though.
  • Try to work less when on vacation. PASS! I still worked a little bit on vacation, but I didn’t work as much as I usually would. A lot of this has to do with working ahead of time on most of my projects. It really helped!


June Goals

  • Work out! This will be one of my goals for awhile as it’s a great motivator to see it here each month. Working out is so much more fun when you’re hiking, rock climbing, and more. Loving it here in Colorado!
  • Get two weeks ahead on Making Sense of Cents posts. This is still a goal of mine. I would like to be one month ahead, especially since I have a ton of traveling for the rest of the year. Living so far away from everyone makes traveling almost a necessity since I don’t want to miss out on any important events in the lives of those that I love!
  • Start my attempt to learn another language. It’s been a dream/goal of mine for awhile to learn another language. I’m not sure where to start or even what language I want to learn, but I know I want to start somewhere. What are some great programs to learn a new language?

What great things are going on in your life? How did you do in May? What is your main goal for June?

 

Below are pictures (all from my phone, sorry) from our new home and recent trips.

May Goals Update 1

May Goals Update 6

May Goals Update 5

May Goals Update 4
May Goals Update 2

 

Related Posts

About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Giulia says

    Lovely pics, I am agree having only one car means save money, plus I agree on your choiche to work less when you are on holiday a break means relax and work better later:!

    Reply

  2. Kalie says

    That’s great that you can save so much by having only 1 car! I wish we didn’t need 2 cars, but only having 1 would completely overthrow our current lifestyle in a way that doesn’t seem wise to us right now. Luckily we’ve never had a car payment and never plan to, and keep costs relatively by carrying liability insurance on our older vehicle, and doing most of our own repairs and maintenance.

    My main June goal is to prepare for my India trip in August. I will be speaking at a couple women’s conferences and just got my topics so I my goal is to write my outlines before we go on a vacation at the end of June.

    Reply

  3. Emma says

    Yay for making the move to one car. $600 is a huge saving – well done.
    Also check out DuoLingo for the language learning. It’s a free app with loads of different languages. I use it for Spanish and love it.

    Reply

  4. Robin @The Thrifty Peach says

    Congrats on finally going down to one car! Most of us don’t realize just how much we are spending (and working) to be two car families. It used to not be the norm. I have been debating doing the same!

    Reply

  5. Saving Sanely says

    Those pictures are gorgeous! It makes me want to travel even more! How great that you can make one car work for your family. We are not there yet. The hubs has always wanted a jeep, but after seeing the gas mileage, he’s going to be making the Corolla work for awhile, haha!

    Reply

  8. Syed says

    Nice job going down to one car. Most people underestimate how much a car really costs, thinking it’s only the car payment and gas. But there is maintenance, registration fees, emission compliance fees etc. Those little costs can sneak up on you. And also the fact that nearly all cars lose value over time.

    Reply

  9. Tiffany Melvin says

    Great post. My husband and I went down to one car about 1 1/2 years ago and we have saved a ton. We are glad we made the decision to switch. I would also love to learn a new language, probably Spanish because I took it in high school and still know some. I would try Rosetta Stone. My husband used it in the pass to learn some Spanish and he liked it a lot. But there are probably a lot of stuff on YouTube too.

    Reply

  10. Kim @ YourFinanceProfessor says

    We were a one car family for a couple of years, and it was not too bad at all. It’s not feasible with our lives now since we are all busy and going in so many directions, but I’m glad we did it and saved all of that money while we could.

    Reply

  11. [email protected] Confident says

    Daaang, girl–excellent job on the credit card churning! I’d like to get more into this, but it makes me nervous. Probably not a good idea to get MORE credit cards while I’m still trying to pay three of them off…

    Glad you’re enjoying Colorado–I live on the Front Range and we have gotten so.much.rain. Hope it’s drier on your side of the mountains! 🙂

    Reply

  12. Ramona says

    We have one car as well and husband’s been thinking about getting his one, too, even if we don’t need it. Just like you, we both work from home, so it’s not something we really need to buy. Paying another insurance fee and all the other costs coming with a second car makes me think we’re doing just great as we are now 🙂

    Congratulations on the choice, it’s a huge save, that’s for sure.

    Reply

  13. Pamela says

    Without a doubt I think Rosetta Stone is the best language learning software out there. They use several different methods (listening, reading, speaking, etc.) to reinforce the words. It’s a bit more expensive, but is totally worth. I’ve tried a lot of different ones and Rosetta Stone gets the top spot. Best of luck!!!

    Reply

  15. Amy @ DebtGal says

    Congrats on saving a chunk of change by going down to one car! It sounds like it makes a lot of sense for you! We can’t get by on one, but I wish we could. Just yesterday I spent $202 on a repair and inspection for one car…

    Reply

  16. Stockbeard says

    proud 0 car family here. It’s great that you moved from 2 to 1. 1 to 0 is the next big decision 🙂

    Renting, carpool, car2go/zipcar are all great options. For everything else, walk/bike. Especially if you work from home!

    Reply

  19. Grayson says

    I’m sad for you. I love my Wrangler, but I don’t have any payments besides insurance. I get why you did it though, $600 bones is a lot!

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      Trust me, I was very sad! The $600 a month included property taxes and maintenance (such as expensive tires), and those two things really added up. I think we paid like $700 (maybe it was $1,000? I can’t remember) in annual property taxes alone on the Jeep a few months ago.

      Reply

  20. Dominic (Gen Y Finance Guy) says

    Which credit card was it hat you got $675 on?

    I just recently signed up for the Chase Sapphire card and should get about $500 in free money. Just starting to really get into this whole credit card churning thing. I have also received about $1,000 in free rooms of the last 12 months with my Marriott rewards card.

    Always nice to get Free Money.

    Cheers!

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      I think it was the Chase Ink Business Plus. I don’t have it in my wallet anymore and I’m currently at a hotel (I don’t trust the wifi), or I would look it up. I’m like 99% positive that it was the Ink Business Plus though.

      The card we are churning now is the Chase Sapphire. I’ve had one for awhile but Wes just received his.

      Love the free money!

      Reply

  21. Kate @ Cashville Skyline says

    I’ve been following your journey on Instagram, Michelle, and it looks like you’ve been having an amazing time! I’m actually letting the bf take a stab at travel rewards, so we’ve been funneling a lot of our expenses through one of his new cards. Hopefully, a cheap European trip is in the cards for early next year 🙂

    Reply

  23. Laurie @thefrugalfarmer says

    What gorgeous pics!! Hiking and rock climbing are two of our fave activities. We don’t have “Colorado beautiful” places to hike and rock climb, but I certainly can’t complain as there are many beautiful places here. Smart move on cutting down to one car – and gotta love that savings!

    Reply

  24. Harry @ SmartMoneyJunction says

    I think you have taken a wise decision there – why pay the extra money when you can get by with a single car. However it’s always a trade-off and only time will tell how the decision panned out to be. By the way, good luck on learning a new language. I started learning Spanish a couple of years back and feel it’s the best one to learn relatively easily.

    Reply

  25. Shannon @ GrowingSlower says

    Congrats!! I think becoming a one car family is such an awesome way to save a lot of money with one lifestyle change instead of trying to be frugal in a lot of different little areas. When I wrote that you could save $10,000 a year by getting rid of a car, some people thought I was crazy, but all the costs associated with car ownership really add up, don’t they? We are a family of four and chose to be a one-car family to help us get out of debt faster. I won’t deny that it was a challenge at times, but well worth it now that we are debt free!

    Reply

  26. Brittney @ Life On A Discount says

    Great post and definitely something to consider about being a one car family. We have thought about it, but we live in a city that is not great a public transportation. My husband and I actually work at the same company, but we work different schedules (which varies anywhere from 1-3 hour differences). So we strategically carpool 2-3 days a week when possible, but I don’t think we could swing one car. Fortunately, his car has been paid off for 3 years and his insurance is really cheap. So, while it would definitely save us money (and I love saving money), I don’t think it would logistically work out for us to go down to one car.

    Also, congrats on the goals accomplished and best of luck toward the goals that you are working on this month!

    Reply

  27. Justin @ Root of Good says

    I’m retired, my wife is on a 3 month sabbatical and about to retire too. We’re thinking about dropping from 2 cars to 1, but have 3 children. So far, with 2 kids attending the same school and the other at home with us, 1 car has been plenty and we have never used 2 cars at the same time. The kids complicate it a bit for us, but I think we can save a couple hundred per month by ditching the second car and it will be so much easier to only maintain one car.

    Reply

  28. Kimsea Sok says

    Thanks for sharing..! That was really nice that you can save much money on spend for car usage.

    Honestly, the Cambodia car expense is really serious. The fuel was more expensive than other country, especially the service cost much money.

    Thus, the learn about save money on one care is really amazing..! 🙂

    Reply

  30. Gigi says

    Great photos! Personally I prefer phone photos…re learning another language, try the duolingo app, it’s a great startIng point. And free!

    Reply

  32. Barbara says

    Hi, We are producing a segment for our local cable access channel on increasing walking/biking and decreasing congestion. The show airs locally, and the station is non-profit–strictly educational. We are looking for an illustration regarding a one-car family and noticed the one on this page entitled: Were-Now-Saving-Over-7000-A-Year-By-Becoming-A-One-Car-Family-1. Might we be able to show it on the screen for a couple seconds? We would include your credit (however you would like it worded) in the credits, of course! Please let me know if this is a possibility. Thanks much, Barbara

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe Via Email

PRIVACY POLICY
TERMS OF USE
DISCLAIMER / EARNINGS DISCLAIMER

Copyright © 2011 - 2021. All Rights Reserved.