So, I currently live in DC and work in northern VA, and the drive is about 45mins to an hour. I think about $8 in gas total. Traffic is usually crappy and driving definitely puts me in a bad mood by the time i get home especially.
I recently looked it up and I can take a metro/bus combo to get to work. it adds an extra half-hour each way to my commute, but the entire commute becomes useable time to read/write/sleep, instead of just sit in traffic.
ALSO it costs a few dollars more per day than gas, a total of about $13/day. BUT my car is particularly crappy and has stuff go wrong with it all the time. This would probably be greatly reduced if i weren't using it for my commute.
I am trying to get a job in DC so hopefully this won't matter soon but in the meantime, is it worth it to try to budget the few extra dollars a day towards this or should i just deal with traffic/driving to save money?
I actually tried this for the first time today, because my wife needed the car. The ride in was awesome, i got to sleep in and read some, and the extra commute time includes a ten-minute walk from the bus stop to my work.
I just don't know what I should prioritize!