Cars

[tokyo]

For various reasons my husband and I are considering dropping to only one car. It's never been an option before as we both needed cars for work, however, I'm now a sahm and rarely use my car - just for shopping and visiting the in laws. 5 or 6 days a week it is just parked outside the house and yet we are paying to tax, insure, mot, service and fill it.

Logically it doesn't make sense, yet part of me is scared to give up my car! We live in a town so I can get to baby groups, doctor appts etc on foot, I'd just be losing the independence to go where I like, when I like-not that I do much of that now! anyone here manage as a single car family? How do you find it? Are there any pros or cons that I've not thought of?

 

[Toms Mummy]

We are a single car family but it's slightly different for us. I too am a SAHM but my OH works away 2 weeks away then 2 weeks at home so I always have use of the car.

We live in a very rural area with a half hr walk to nearest bus stop, buses only every couple of hours with half hr journey to closest town or hr journey to closest train station! If I lived in a Village/town with all amenities then I definately wouldn't use the car much as I do now.

It sounds like you have all you need on your doorstep. What is public transport like?

 

[tokyo]

Public transport is pretty crap tbh - we live in a town but are surrounded by countryside on all sides so its quite a rural public transport situation - infrequent buses and trains that take all the stopping routes. But my mum has said that I could use her car while she's at work if i needed to as long as I dropped her off and picked her up.

 

[Toms Mummy]

That sounds like a good compromise! Do you also have friends with cars just incase there's an emergency and you need to borrow a lift/car x

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

We had no car when we lived in london. But knew that we could borrow my mums if we needed.

 

[Rachel_C]

If you wanted the car during the day, would it be an option to drop your OH off at work or send him on public transport/get him to ask for a lift?

We do have two cars but one is OH's hobby car and doesn't fit the car seats so we really only have one car that we can use properly. When we had our first LO we both sold our cars to buy the family car. It was a bit of an adjustment not having my own car but not bad. It's different for us though as OH works in Central London so he goes to work on public transport. We have had the occasional issue where OH has assumed he can take the family car and I've actually wanted it but he's already taken it/made plans that are 'more important' than mine, but that is probably down to us not having really defined who has priority with it! So if you are going to share, I would make sure you know who has first dibs on what days or however else you might work it, just so you're both clear. It does make sense to only have one though. Even if you took a taxi once a week, you'd probably still be saving money.

 

[tokyo]

Oh works an hours drive away and cannot get in on public transport as the first train leaves after work starts! So the car would be his each weekday, no questions. I know I can do things like online shopping which would mean I actually only need a car to visit the inlaws and they live near oh's work so I could always go in with him and drive to them from there, or borrow mums car or take a train. I think I can make it work, was just wondering what it's like having no car in real life - Ive had my own car since 21 so it would feel pretty odd!

 

[Yipee]

We have 2 cars, but there have been times when one needed repairs so we just had one to share. It was a small sacrifice sometimes, but not too bad. My husband works full-time from home and I work part time and have to drive for that. Sometimes I think we could easily make do with one car, but it is handy to have two when one has problems.

I think it costs us about $50 a month in insurance and taxes to have the extra car, plus of course whatever money we could get from selling it. Also, my little car I drive to work gets good gas mileage and that car would have to be the one to go, so I would end up driving the minivan to work every day, and end up spending more each month on gas. Maybe not a whole $50 more... I'd have to do the math... but it would definitely cut away at the savings we'd get from going down to one car.

If you're not sure, maybe the best thing to do would be to pretend, for 2 weeks or more, that your car is gone. Don't use it at all, even if you want to. Then you'll get some idea of how you'll feel without one of your own.

 

[SarahBear]

For various reasons my husband and I are considering dropping to only one car. It's never been an option before as we both needed cars for work, however, I'm now a sahm and rarely use my car - just for shopping and visiting the in laws. 5 or 6 days a week it is just parked outside the house and yet we are paying to tax, insure, mot, service and fill it.

Logically it doesn't make sense, yet part of me is scared to give up my car! We live in a town so I can get to baby groups, doctor appts etc on foot, I'd just be losing the independence to go where I like, when I like-not that I do much of that now! anyone here manage as a single car family? How do you find it? Are there any pros or cons that I've not thought of?

I haven't even had my driver's license for a year yet and my husband has never had a license! He's a stay at home dad and has just recently begun venturing out on his own using the bus. We have pretty good bus service here, so that's helpful. We'll be moving soon and everything in town will be walkable within a mile so at that point, our one car might just sit around most of the time. One pro is that it's healthy for you and your children to walk places. It also can be (psychologically) healthier to take things at a slower pace.