The key to only needing one car is to actually decide that you don't need two cars. This is more than semantics. I want to share with you some of the benefits that we have found by being a single car family:
Lower Our Expenses When you figure the purchase price, insurance cost, gas, and up-keep, having a second car would significantly affect our bottom line.
Go Ahead and Buy the Bike When we had two cars, getting a motorcycle seemed like a mid-life crisis move for my husband. But when we got rid of the second car, the motorcycle was suddenly a practical purchase, and one that Hubby thought was a just a dream.
Make Driving More Deliberate We have to schedule our lives more to make sure we don't have conflicting appointments. And one person does all the errands all at once, instead of splitting them up.
Learn to Share We have become more generous with offering rides to other people, because we know how nice it is to get a ride with someone else. We try not to be the ones always asking for rides, so we pay it forward by giving rides whenever we can.
Stop Trying to Keep up with the Joneses It is okay to say no to things, and not having a car is and excellent excuse to get started. We have had to be more selective with our time. Say no to some extra curricular activities, say no to a second car, say no to spending all your time in your car.
Get to Know more People You can carpool with complete strangers or you can catch a ride with friends. Either way, you are going to get to know them better. Even if you are not much of a talker, you will still learn new things, like, what do they listen to, do they eat in their car, are they clean freaks or short-tempered.
Walk We have gotten to know our community better by walking around it. We shop and entertain ourselves locally, and have discovered some new parks andplaygrounds that are within biking distance.
Save the Environment We actually drive less (not to mention the exercise you might actually get)
Have less Stuff Because we only have one car (actually it's a mini-van), we don't need that one more thing. You know what I am talking about. That extra umbrella, for the extra car, two sets of car seats, just in case. Or the air fresheners, or the maps, and sun glasses that get collected, because you want to have a pair in each car.
Now we happen to live in a great small town near my husbands work. I get to keep the car with me while he walks or bikes to work. We used to have a second car (really it was a jeep, but my two year old will not be reading this, so we don't have to be picky) , and once we sold it, we have never looked back.
We have gotten questions about how we do it, the most common being: What do you do if you have an emergency, and your car is gone? Well really the answer is simple. If we have an emergency, we call 911 just like everybody else. We also have friends and neighbors that live close by that we can depend on if something major, but not life threatening happens.
But now the question is What are we teaching our kids about money?
1. We don't need everything
2. Sometimes, going with out is okay
3. The best way to be prepared for the worst is to invest in people, not things.
Lower Our Expenses When you figure the purchase price, insurance cost, gas, and up-keep, having a second car would significantly affect our bottom line.
Go Ahead and Buy the Bike When we had two cars, getting a motorcycle seemed like a mid-life crisis move for my husband. But when we got rid of the second car, the motorcycle was suddenly a practical purchase, and one that Hubby thought was a just a dream.
Make Driving More Deliberate We have to schedule our lives more to make sure we don't have conflicting appointments. And one person does all the errands all at once, instead of splitting them up.
Learn to Share We have become more generous with offering rides to other people, because we know how nice it is to get a ride with someone else. We try not to be the ones always asking for rides, so we pay it forward by giving rides whenever we can.
Stop Trying to Keep up with the Joneses It is okay to say no to things, and not having a car is and excellent excuse to get started. We have had to be more selective with our time. Say no to some extra curricular activities, say no to a second car, say no to spending all your time in your car.
Get to Know more People You can carpool with complete strangers or you can catch a ride with friends. Either way, you are going to get to know them better. Even if you are not much of a talker, you will still learn new things, like, what do they listen to, do they eat in their car, are they clean freaks or short-tempered.
Walk We have gotten to know our community better by walking around it. We shop and entertain ourselves locally, and have discovered some new parks andplaygrounds that are within biking distance.
Save the Environment We actually drive less (not to mention the exercise you might actually get)
Have less Stuff Because we only have one car (actually it's a mini-van), we don't need that one more thing. You know what I am talking about. That extra umbrella, for the extra car, two sets of car seats, just in case. Or the air fresheners, or the maps, and sun glasses that get collected, because you want to have a pair in each car.
Now we happen to live in a great small town near my husbands work. I get to keep the car with me while he walks or bikes to work. We used to have a second car (really it was a jeep, but my two year old will not be reading this, so we don't have to be picky) , and once we sold it, we have never looked back.
We have gotten questions about how we do it, the most common being: What do you do if you have an emergency, and your car is gone? Well really the answer is simple. If we have an emergency, we call 911 just like everybody else. We also have friends and neighbors that live close by that we can depend on if something major, but not life threatening happens.
But now the question is What are we teaching our kids about money?
1. We don't need everything
2. Sometimes, going with out is okay
3. The best way to be prepared for the worst is to invest in people, not things.
Find more ways to make do at http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/make-do-mondays-make-do-mousepad/
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teaching kids about money early pays off good for you
ReplyDeleteteaching them early definitely helps, but I believe it is never too late!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting
A lot to think about. Good article.
ReplyDelete