About a year ago, Mr. My Husband and I decided to sell our second car. Basically, it was financially demanding on for us to have two cars while I worked from home. Let me tell you this right away: I surely don’t regret it! Not only do I not miss it, but I think it was one of our best decisions ever.
Money Saved
First of all, let’s take a look at what we saved in a year not having a second car.
- Weekly gas: $70 x 40 weeks (we were not using it all weeks): $2,800
- Insurance: $30/month x 12 = $360
- Oil maintenance: $40 x 3 in a year = $120
- Tires changing from winter to summer and vice versa (we didn’t buy new ones): $100 x 2 = $200
- Car Registration in Quebec: $250 a year
First Total: $3,730!!!
And that is fairly low as if we had kept the car, we would have had new tires to buy (add $1,000) and some repairs to do (oil gasket, wipers and brakes add an easy other $1,000).
Real Total: $5,730!!!
Only there, I get all excited considering all the money we saved with this decision!
But there is more!
A New Lifestyle
It would be quite hard for us to have no car at all; mainly because we have kids and the day to day routine would quickly get annoying without a car. Also because we live in a suburban city in which public transportation is existent but not necessarily efficient.
Still, I discovered a new lifestyle that I soon began to enjoy. I’m lucky since Mr. My Husband does carshare with his brother who lives in the house in front of ours. At times though, he needs the car to go to work. I therefore walk or run my kids to the daycare in their stroller. It demands more time, but it is something that I enjoy.
I also use my bike a lot more. Not having the car a couple times made me rediscover the joy of biking to shop around! I even do so when I don’t have to now. The same obviously goes for walking. This is why I believe it made us change our lifestyle.
More Environmental Friendly
I bet you could guessed that one! For sure, the day we sold our second car, our family turned out a more environmental friendly one. Not only because of the lost of one car, but also because our new lifestyle makes us use our car less.
Physically More Active
Related to the above lifestyle – I know, I can get annoying with it! – is the fact we are more physically active using the bike or walking more and using the car less. I won’t pretend it helped us being more in shape, as Mr. My Husband and I are quite active already, but it sure helped maintaining our efforts.
Final Word
Basically, by selling your car or at least using it less, you gain money, but yet a lot more than that. You gain a new way of doing things. You get a life in which you are less rushed and have more time. It does demand more organization, but in my point of view you enjoy your use of more time rather than always trying to save some. It makes a huge difference.
Nice post! I like how you went beyond the cost savings and highlighted the lifestyle change associated with getting rid of your four wheeled burden. I need my car to get to and from work everyday but I am looking into working from home or finding a new job closer to home so that public transit becomes an option and then, bye-bye car!
A car is useful thing that you need in everyday life. However you can think about its’ real necessity. At first it really eats out a significant part of your income. You need to cover a car loan, have some other financial assistance like the necessity to obtain payday loans here for regular repair and maintenance. The other aspect of car is your time that you save using it instead of bicycle. However you need to get into consideration the time that you spend in traffic jams. Also having car for the whole family is beneficial comparing with the one person driving each own car.