How much does your commute cost and how do you justify it?

[Goldielocks]

I have two commutes.  Depending on the week:

Commute 1-- get up, fly to Regina, work for a few days, fly home.  Sometimes telecommute on last day.
Time -- about 3-4 hours one way.  Usually on my non work hours.
Cost - free to me!   Meals paid!  but DH's costs increase because single parenting is a lot of work.  Too much time away is a problem, though.
Why?  Interesting work, I am getting paid a LOT more because I have more influence in company now, etc. 


Commute 2 -- Bus, Bus/Train, or Drive / Train, or Drive / Park at Aunt's place and walk.
Time: 1 to 1.5 hours depending on traffic and delays, each way.
Cost: between $11 and $15 per day, depending on mode.   Drive to train is actually more $$ than drive all the way to work.

Why?  This is my second job in this city.  We moved here and landed within 12 miles of Job #1, and 6 miles of grandparents.  When that job ended, this was the best job I could find. Not many jobs in my paygroup in the suburbs.  They tend to be downtown, or another suburb far, far away.  Did not want to move kids, and housing is a lot more closer to downtown.

[Nudelkopf]

I've sent $85/fortnight on transport this year (about $6 per day). This included $1200 on a new bike, after mine got stolen over Easter.

My main commute is 10km return, and I do that 7 days per week. (I teach 5 days a week, then tutor on Saturday & go to band on Sunday). So, $85/140 = $0.61 per km. But then I ride everywhere (no car), which includes probably about another 20km per week (bringing me to 180km per fortnight), which would change my costs to $85/180 = $0.47 per km.

[Squashy]

If I drove, my commute would be 11 miles each way, with a toll bridge of $3.80 each way (ouch).

Instead, I participate in a vanpool that is 100% subsidized by my employer. The ride is a bit longer since we make an extra stop to pick up coworkers in another part of town, but I can veg out or chitchat with some fun coworkers. Plus we can take the carpool lanes, which makes a huge difference.

I honestly don't understand why some other coworkers who live along our route drive by themselves every day and turn down an estimated annual savings of at least $2000.

[Johnez]

I commute 64 miles a day round trip.

Per year costs:
Gas: $3,1500
Insurance:  $540
Oil Changes:  $150

I live 32 miles away from work.  I can't really justify this except for the fact that I'm investigating all options I can.  The problem is everything has it's cost.  If I were to bike/ebike to work I can commute for free, but it'd take me about 2 hours each way.  I can buy a more fuel efficient vehicle, but the start up cost would take forever to recover as my current vehicle is nearly worthless in a trade in and has the cheapest insurance possible.  I can move closer, save nearly $300 a month in commuting-but end up paying $300 a month more in rent or MORE.  In addition to these challenges, I'm also planning on going to school this Spring and any move closer to work would be further from the schools offering programs I'm interested in.  I'm not really sure how I can plug this $4,000 hole I have here.  I have a decent paying job and cheap rent, unfortunately having both brings commute.  I guess I can have 2 out of 3 in the Pay/Rent/Commute triangle though I strive for having the best of all three.

[claire.harris]

London commuter here... Zone 1-2 annual travelcard £1,216 ($1,930) so £100pm ($160), that includes all travel on trains/tube/buses every day so not just my commute. When I cycle (seven miles e/w) it doesn't save me any money there and then, but I get to ride through two gorgeous parks and don't have to do any other exercise that day apart from ride home. London's surprisingly popular for bikes and our mayor cycles so is very pro-cycling.

[tofuchampion]

Hmm.  I'm about 4.25 miles from work.  Cycling is virtually free; I spend maybe $200/year on maintenance/repairs.  Takes 20 minutes.

Lately I've been driving because I'm 8 months pregnant and cycling is getting really uncomfortable.  I still bike once a week or so.  Not sure about my cost per mile, but since I'm so close and this is temporary, I'm not worried about it.

I justify driving when the weather is really terrible, or situations like this pregnancy.  Otherwise, I might drive occasionally, but I don't try to justify it because I know it's just laziness.

[pichirino]

Take the bus to work and back for a monthly cost of about 40$
There are lots of things that cuts those costs including carpooling with gf when she goes the same direction to work.

The downside to the cost savings are a 30 minute walk (on top of 15 min bus commute) in quite hot temperatures
or at night where the danger is not traffic but potential animals to the side of the gravel road.

What is and is not luxury has changed since i've been doing this for almost a year.
Having a bus come quikly is one form of luxury,having it also have AC makes the commute day :)

Time is the price that is paid since sometimes I have to leave quite early to get to work.
Even when(if) I buy a car I will still be using the public transport alot both for gasoline costs and wear and tear avoidance.

[Gerard]

My commute is 1.1 km and takes just under 15 mins (each way). I walk. I justify it by thinking that walking is awesome and cars are expensive. Also, I don't know how to drive and don't have a car.

[Fi(re) on the Farm]

My commute is 9 miles each way by car. Biking it would be an additional 10 miles a day (have to go over a river to get to work and closest bridge is not bike friendly). I used to bike the 3 miles to my old job but this one pays 4 times what that one did so that's how I justify it.

[Nudelkopf]

My commute is 1.1 km and takes just under 15 mins (each way). I walk. I justify it by thinking that walking is awesome and cars are expensive. Also, I don't know how to drive and don't have a car.

I feel like so many people undermine my badassity by pointing out that I can't drive, therefore I have to be badass. I hope your friends are more supportive of you!

[BPA]

3.2 km to work.  I cycle or walk.

I bought a bike at the end of August which was a bit pricey, so the two month amortization is at about $10 a day, but that will decrease, of course, the more that time passes.

[greenleaf]

A little over $28 for the round trip.  That's a bus from my neighborhood to the nearby small city, train from there to a bigger city, then subway to my job.  Including a bit of walking at each end, it takes around 3 hours each way,  a bit more if the bus/train schedules don't line up.

I justify it because I only do it once a week and work from home the other four days.  We also live biking distance from my husband's job, and in a lower cost of living town (but still highish) than the city where my job is, and my job is highly paid and difficult to find out side of a big city.  When I first got the job I lived walking/biking distance from it.  I won't be justifying much long though, because the work from home option is being taken away soon.  When my boss's boss told me about it he actually suggested getting an au pair(I have an infant and a toddler) so that I could spend 24 hours a week commuting.  I was too stunned that someone might actually do that to laugh in his face.

[markbrynn]

For 6 years I had a commute that took 45 minutes each way on a good day and had me sitting in 3 hour traffic jams on a couple of occasions. I quit that job for better job opportunities, but also to escape the commute. Cost was several hundred dollars per month, partially subsidised by company.

For the past 3 years my commutes for various jobs have been 2 minute walk, 10 minute bike ride (leisurely), 20 minute walk and 20 minute bike ride (also leisurely). Only costs are for a basic city bike that I would own anyway for general transport. Very happy with the change, can't imagine going back.

[Rural]

Costs me $9.32 a day if we assume my car is 100% depreciated as of today (a not-unreasonable assumption for a Kia Rio with 225k miles on it). That assumes gasoline at $3.50 a gallon. It doesn't include tax, tag, or liability insurance (which come to under $300 a year) because I would have a small car whether I worked or not,since I like to eat and couldn't do that without a car here.


I don't feel I need to justify, exactly. I chose to take this job because it pays far better, with much higher job satisfaction, than any of the part-time minimum wage jobs I could get nearer home. Ditto for teaching online as an adjunct, which is what I was doing before, actually, and which is a better gig with better commute than those part time jobs.


But the jobs aren't the priority for me; home and community and the life I have here are. So I would never consider moving for something as silly as a job. Instead I weighed whether the commute was worth it to me for the pay and the cool things I wanted to do in deciding whether I wanted to take the job or not. I'll admit I wasn't quite sure and that I took it in part for the money, which let us build our house for cash. But that let me try it out, and for now, house finished, the job itself is still worth the commute.

[underscore]

I bike. It takes ~25 minutes each way (6 miles, lots of traffic lights), and costs $7-8/month amortized over the year (high compared to some of you; I've had to replace two rear tires that were wrecked by road debris this year, and I probably have a fancier/more expensive bike with fancier/more expensive tires than I need to get to work). My employer gives me $100 for every month I don't use a parking pass (likely their cost for parking in nearby garages; I work in an urban area with little free parking), so, amortized over the year, I make about $90 for every month I bike to work.

Of the three commute options I've tried to this office (bike, bus, car), biking is the most entertaining, is as fast or faster than the other options, and leaves the most money in my pocket at the end of the month, so it's a pretty obvious choice for me.

[APowers]

Including gas, insurance, and licensing-- it costs $3.58/day to commute to the grocery store.

To take public transit would cost $3/day. Plus about 30-60 minutes of extra time.

I would have to insure and license the car anyway (for my other job which is pizza delivery), which would bring the cost of driving down to just $2.40/day; but even if I did count insurance/licensing, I'm happy to pay $.58/day more for an extra 30-60 minute with my wife and kids.

[aschmidt2930]

Commute is six minutes by bicycle, all year long :)

[Glenstache]

Very interesting range of commute options and how people conceptualize the expense and tradeoffs. I guess it isn't too surprising that people on this forum have thought about it. I do question how people calculate the cost of their car. A common theme has been that the cost purchase/depreciation and the cost of insurance be excluded from the per-mile cost because those expenses would be there anyways (ie, the default situation is to have a car). Unless a car is a hobby in and of itself, the ownership cost of the car is part of the cost of transportation. If you don't included the (semi-) fixed costs of owning a car in your commute, are they then tacked on to your recreational miles? Does your commute really only cost $0.18/mile while your drives on a weekend to visit family or go somewhere fun cost $0.60/mile?

I think that the actual cost of owning and driving a car should be accounted in every trip, regardless of purpose. If you drive more. your cost per mile will go down (fixed costs spread over more miles). If you drive less, your overall spending goes down and your cost per mile goes up. As your mileage goes down, there would eventually be a tipping point at which it no longer makes sense to own your own car.

A good friend of mine penciled this out, and simply rents a car or uses uber/taxi when he needs one; he has a living situation where he can ride a bike or bus most of the time. He reportedly spent $600 on cars last year. Obviously, this approach doesn't work for everyone (myself included).

Anyone have any other ways of thinking of this?

[amyable]

My commute to work is only about $1 a day in my Honda (only including gas), and it would be completely terrifying on a bike (highway with no shoulder).  Most of the money I spend on gas is related to my grad school commute, which is more like $20 a week.  Thankfully, this commute will end in December!

[kudy]

The cost for driving I've had in my head is 25 cents per mile. If I factor in vehicle depreciation and insurance costs, it's probably closer to the 40 cent figure I saw early on in this thread.

One way, my commute is 13 miles x $0.40 = $5.20, so $10.40 per day.

I often go through the mental exercise of engineering a closer living situation, but nothing has actually worked out yet; I'd love to eventually ditch the car completely, but I'm skeptical of being badass enough to not own a car while still employed full time. My goal is to move close enough to work so that I will have the stamina and drive to bike 90-100% of the time. With the prices of houses in my town, it might be cheaper to stay where I am, but there are other factors being considered as well.

I've successfully replaced most weekend driving with my bike, but I still only make the ride to work 3-4 days per month. With the depreciation on my recent purchase of a nicer bike, and all the biking gear I bought initially, my current per mile biking cost is surprisingly high.

[purplish]

I actually earn money by commuting!!  :)   I drive often as part of my job (I know, I probably drive more than anyone here in the forum).  They pay us a check each month for mileage.... other people at work complain that the amount doesn't even cover it all.  For me, I have a high mpg vehicle, so I actually earn money on what they pay, yesss.  The amount actually covers all driving I do for the entire month outside of work too, plus a bit extra.  Sweet deal IMO.

[randymarsh]

Time: 30 minutes one way on average. Sometimes I can get it down to 20 minutes if traffic is light. Or up to 45 if there's tons of traffic.
Money: About $68 per month in gas and I'm guessing another 12 cents (based on MMM's commuting post) per mile in wear which would be $72. So a total of $139.

I justify it for now because I just moved here. As a new college grad, I really wanted to live in the city itself. I think it's easier to make new friends in this location. The job I got is in the suburbs in the Denver Tech Center.

The job is great overall. I get 6 weeks of time off between PTO, Christmas break, and summer break. Plus regular holidays. I'm going to try to telecommute this winter on snowy days and then see if I can turn it into a permanent thing 1 or 2 days a week.

[Jessa]

Very interesting range of commute options and how people conceptualize the expense and tradeoffs. I guess it isn't too surprising that people on this forum have thought about it. I do question how people calculate the cost of their car. A common theme has been that the cost purchase/depreciation and the cost of insurance be excluded from the per-mile cost because those expenses would be there anyways (ie, the default situation is to have a car). Unless a car is a hobby in and of itself, the ownership cost of the car is part of the cost of transportation. If you don't included the (semi-) fixed costs of owning a car in your commute, are they then tacked on to your recreational miles? Does your commute really only cost $0.18/mile while your drives on a weekend to visit family or go somewhere fun cost $0.60/mile?

I think that the actual cost of owning and driving a car should be accounted in every trip, regardless of purpose. If you drive more. your cost per mile will go down (fixed costs spread over more miles). If you drive less, your overall spending goes down and your cost per mile goes up. As your mileage goes down, there would eventually be a tipping point at which it no longer makes sense to own your own car.

A good friend of mine penciled this out, and simply rents a car or uses uber/taxi when he needs one; he has a living situation where he can ride a bike or bus most of the time. He reportedly spent $600 on cars last year. Obviously, this approach doesn't work for everyone (myself included).

Anyone have any other ways of thinking of this?

That's why I'm not sure how to calculate it.

My commute is 3 miles, it takes 7-10 minutes by car depending on traffic. If I bike, it's 20 minutes in the morning and 15 coming home (2/3 uphill in the morning, 2/3 downhill home). That part is easy. I don't bike if it's raining, if it's dark, or if I have something specific I need to drive to right from work. So now that we've changed the clock back I'll be driving until sometime in the spring.

How to calculate the costs? I'd figure it's less than $4/week in gas. If I only drove to work and back, I could easily make it a month on a tank of gas. I also drive to the store, which isn't too far but not really bikeable (or I am a wussypants, whatever). The majority of my driving is to see family, as my family is over an hour away. Which, as you mentioned, reduces the cost per mile. If we take a standard like $.40/mile, I guess you'd account for it as around $50/month. But...do you take all the costs associated with the vehicle ever, and divide it by total milage ever? Which I can't know, since it's still a pretty young and healthy car. And proportionately, the commuting is a very small percentage of my driving, so it seems like it should be much less.

[eldred]

I spend about $3.80 per day to drive the 12 miles each way, based on MapQuest's mileage estimate.  It's mostly a time issue - 40 minute round-trip by car compared to 2.5 hours by bike.  But there's also the issue of finding a safe cycling route that isn't used by speeding cars.  And now, there's the issue of WEATHER(Near Detroit).  In other words, too cold!  But next spring when it gets warmer, I'm going to try cycling to work occasionally(at least on the warm weather days).

[iris lily]

I haven't computed it but I live 1 miles from work. DH works for himself doing light construction and he limits his customers to those within our neighborhood and contingent neighborhoods, for the most part. So, he does little driving although he does make many short trips a day.

I've been preparing DH that it's likely that our gasoline costs will go up upon retirement. We'll be driving around more.

[Gerard]

I feel like so many people undermine my badassity by pointing out that I can't drive, therefore I have to be badass. I hope your friends are more supportive of you!

For most of my life, most of my friends have been non-drivers, too. It's pretty common in Montreal. My ex and my grown kids have never owned/driven a car; my girlfriend is the non-driving daughter of a non-driving family.

We do know car owners who don't understand how we can survive. Sometimes they offer to "take us for a drive". I honestly don't understand how meandering about in a car is fun.

[Melody]

Urgh I got chosen for a special project at work and it involves working at another site which is either 1hr 15 away by bus or a 35 min drive for two whole weeks. I am gonna miss my short bus ride. Fwiw I will be driving. The odds of me leaving the house by 6.45 are slim to none :)

[sjrv]

Wow, some of you have fantastic commute scenarios! It's becoming more and more difficult for me to justify my commute(s) the more I try to optimize my savings. I drive 9 miles to work each way in a car that isn't terribly efficient, and between that and other weekly activities (I drive to the community center where I volunteer once a week and to music rehearsals 1-2x per week), I end up spending close to $40 every week on gasoline alone. I'm thinking that baseline $.40/mile number is way too low for me if we're factoring in all maintenance costs, and it's definitely too low if we're counting insurance and registration, too. (In Michigan, we pay the highest car insurance rates in the nation -- hooray!) There's no way I would bike to work, though, because I'm pretty sure I would come home in a casket. My commute is mostly country roads with no shoulder where nobody obeys the speed limit, and there are farm implements everywhere. The only reason I don't immediately find a job on the bus line and sell my car is that my job is exceptionally low-stress and my bosses and coworkers treat me like family, and that is worth a lot.

[Glenstache]

The IRS mileage rate is closer to $0.56/mile, and for a newer car is probably about right for inclusive costs. The $0.40/mile was based on my vehicle-specific calculations and included *every* cost associated with that specific vehicle. Some cars will be better, some will be worse.

[expatartist]

Cost per commute, round-trip: negligible (lithium e-bike, barely makes a dent in our electric bill)
Time: ~20mins at fast pace on the city's ring roads/8-lane roads
E-bike was free - given by a friend

[themagicman]

My commute  is "free" where as it does not cost me anything additional to get to work. (would still be buying insurance anyway)

I have an electric car and my work has many free charging stations so I charge it there for free every day! If anything, going to work saves me money because I do not have to charge at my house ever for doing things around town!

[RelaxedGal]

34 miles day at the US Gov't $0.56/mile = $19.04/day.  1 hour 25 minutes round trip.

I'm not really sure how I justify it, but it's a shorter/easier commute than to the old job, with a more stable company, that pays better.  I am not looking for a position closer to home.

Alternately I could take the commuter rail: 4.3 miles to the station (8.6 * 0.56 = $4.82) and pay for parking ($4) and fare ($8.50 *2 = $17).  That's $26 for a 3 hour round-trip commute from Chelmsford, MA to Woburn, MA.  If I stop at the farther commuter rail stop and add in a taxi from there to the office (2 miles) it's probably the same total cost but shaves off half an hour each way. 

[SingleMomDebt]

Drive 50/m day @ $125/bi-week in gas. No sh*t, just under $9/day. Never looked at it that way.

Justification - Location: good neighborhood to raise my daughter, still affordable with lots of trails.

[Oscar_C]

Free, justify it as work is only 8 streets away.

[FOBStash]

10 minutes by bus with $66 monthly bus pass. Company subsidizes transit $100 per month so I do not pay anything.

Half the time I walk it -- about 1.5 miles leisure walk. Me time in between home and work. Exercise benefits too.

[TheNorwegianGuy]

A 3 minute walk from my door to my desk at work and it cost me nothing :) I actually often go another way that is longer, just to get enough cold fresh air before I arrive work.

[Vilgan]

Commute is 25 minutes and a combination of light rail + walking. Costs $0 on a daily basis since transit is paid for by work as it is for pretty much every Seattle worker. The real cost is a more expensive/smaller house compared to what we could have in the burbs but justifying it is easy. I emerge happy/healthy from my commute whereas when I had to drive I was constantly grumpy after commuting especially after work. My wife (then girlfriend) used to give me space for 30 minutes after getting home so I could get back in a good mood.

The difference in quality of life and happiness is so immense that I really have trouble imagining a scenario where I would be willing to go back to a driving commute unless it was super close.

[Dicey]

I'm retired, but DH's commute is 3/10 of a mile, ergo free. We had to spend over 900k on the house though. Not sure there's any justification for that except that's just what things cost in our high COLA, and being able to walk to work is awesome!

[NoraLenderbee]

I'm retired, but DH's commute is 3/10 of a mile, ergo free. We had to spend over 900k on the house though. Not sure there's any justification for that except that's just what things cost in our high COLA, and being able to walk to work is awesome!

:D I know what you mean. I grow vegetables and fruit. Mustachian, right? Unfortunately, it cost 500K+ for a house with a big enough yard.  I'm paying down the mortgage with the money I save on lettuce and tomatoes . . . yeah . . .

[tt]

My commute is 15 miles each way but I work 4 10s so it's only four days a week. There is limited public transportation where I live nor is biking practical due to the route.  Way too dangerous. I fill my tank 2-3 times a month depending on how much other driving I do.  My car is about six years old (I paid cash for it a couple of years ago) and quite reliable so the cost of ownership is low.  I don't feel a need to justify it.

[colganc]

7 miles round trip.  5.3 miles per kwh.  Aproximately 2kwh used including charging losses.  $0.02 per kwh effective.  $0.04 per day in fuel costs.  Not expecting to have any maintenance costs over five years of ownership except car washing and wiper blades, both of which are relatively negible.  Biggest cost is depreciation over five years which could be as much as $8000.  I believe it will depreciate less though.  With an estimated 5000 miles driven each year I am still looking at $0.40 per mile.  I am working on reducing my miles driven further so I expect the cost per mile will continue to go up significantly over time.  I'd like to reach $1 per mile.  That will mean i am extremely close to needing no car and a $0 commute.

[Alchemilla]

21 miles 30 minutes £15 me.
45 miles 60 minutes £20 DH.

lots of thinking about moving closer but children have become settled in good schools.

we earn 3x average wage for our county by commuting.

we lift share (car pool!) When we can.

[BigRed]

My commute is essentially free.  I ride my bike to the bus stop, take the bus to the end of line and ride 1 mile to work.  The bus pass is paid for, tax-free, as a fringe benefit.  The company bike club costs $10/year, but gives me free breakfast once a month, free lunch once a month, a bike locker and a subsidy of %50/year on all safety related bike purchases and maintenance.  The total commute takes about 50 minutes each way, +/- 10 minutes.

So, the commute costs me $10/year plus the occasional replacement tube.

[Kyle Schuant]

Until recently I worked as a personal trainer at a YMCA, this was 24km from me. When I worked 5 days a week there, I had to fill up the car every 10 days. I rearranged clients and worked 4 days a week, and it became a refill every 12 days. Some clients left and I started training more people from home, so it was every 14 days. So let's call it every 10-14 days I filled up the tank, in Australia the 38lt I usually put in costs $50-$60. So that was $30pw, basically.

Now I've quit the Y and train people in my garage at home, so my commuting cost is... zero.

[DarinC]

My commute is ~28 miles round trip and takes an hour give or take. My spreadsheets for operating costs indicate ~$.17/mile, so ~$5/day. I could take the bus and pay about the same amount for a day pass, but that would take 3+ hours/day.

What I really need is an electric bike. It would cost much less than a car, allow a bit of exercise, and only increase my commute times by a half hour or so.

[MrsPete]

My commute is about 3 miles round trip, so 15 miles a week.  I most recently paid $2.66 for gas, so I'm using less than $2/week in gas for work purposes. 

I am not including the cost of the car and insurance because I'd own the car anyway. 
Perhaps wear-and-tear should be included, but I'm not sure how to go about figuring that. 

How do I justify it?  Well, I earn considerably more than $2/week, so I'm clearly in the black.  The car is also my only real option for getting to work:  I report to work before 7:00, and I'm not going to ride a bike in the dark on a heavy-traffic road with a dangerous shoulder.  I'm also not going to cross over a large, busy highway -- in the dark, surrounded by distracted teen drivers.  And if I did those risky things, I'd have no place to store the bike safely at work.  I also don't want to plan to arrive early enough to change into my professional clothes before 7:00.  So, yeah, I'll keep paying $2/week. 

[RootofGood]

Before I retired, 4.4 miles each way to downtown.  I occasionally needed my car for work travel, often unplanned.  So I normally drove.  But I took the bus some when they offered a free bus pass.  Once they got rid of the free bus pass, I don't think I ever took the bus. 

Bus was 20 minutes if I timed the bus correctly using the tracking app (10 minutes walking, 10 minutes on board) and would have been $2/day.  Driving the car was 15-20 minutes (depending on traffic, getting a good parking space, and whether I had to scrape ice off).  Probably $2/day in gas and other operating costs plus $10/month parking pass.  So cost and travel time were about the same.  The bus was nice since I got to surf and read for the short ride, but it was crowded occasionally and I had to pay attention to the clock to catch it (or wait for another 10 minutes).  That plus the random need for a car at work = driving won.

Mrs. RootofGood drives 44 miles round trip to the office (30-45 minutes each way).  That's about $5 in gas, or $10-12 all in including other operating costs (including a $1.30 toll round trip).  Other transportation options don't really exist (bike=die, transit=6+hours round trip plus a lot of walking/biking once in the office park area).  So we pay the $12/day.  We get to live in a lower COL area compared to housing near her office, and we have sidewalks, parks, ethnic groceries, etc all nearby (and zero Joneses with whom we must keep up!), so we drive very little except her commute.  My job was also very close to our house, so once of us would have had a long commute. 

Living where we do means saving $150-200k on housing plus $2000/yr on property taxes, hundreds on not having an HOA, and probably hundreds or thousands more not needing to meet an HOA's strict appearance regulations.  And we are 1-2 miles from nearly EVERYTHING, so when we do drive, it's not very far.  Out in suburban office park hell where nearby housing would be for Mrs. RootofGood's job, you have to drive a bit to get to places like Walmart, Aldi, and any kind of ethnic store and for parks, museums, etc. 

[Krnten]

Mine is free, I walk .75 miles.  DH's costs $112, although it's paid with pretax money, so somewhat less.  His is about 40 mins door to door.

I used to commute about 1.25 hrs via commuter rail, about $7 per day.  I though that was great at the time.  It was a pleasant reverse commute, lots of time to read, etc.  But knowing what it is to be able to walk now, I will never go back. My day feels about 2 hrs longer now.  If I become a SAHM next year, I hope to move somewhere where dh can walk.  It will be very expensive, but I think worth it.

[Dicey]

I'm retired, but DH's commute is 3/10 of a mile, ergo free. We had to spend over 900k on the house though. Not sure there's any justification for that except that's just what things cost in our high COLA, and being able to walk to work is awesome!

:D I know what you mean. I grow vegetables and fruit. Mustachian, right? Unfortunately, it cost 500K+ for a house with a big enough yard.  I'm paying down the mortgage with the money I save on lettuce and tomatoes . . . yeah . . .

Your comment made me laugh, "Nora". Then I remembered that DH actually gets paid $105/month for not driving to work. Yeah, that's going to pay a lot of bills. Still, that plus no commuting expense does help overall...
Our house has big redwoods front and back, so I try to be friendly with people who have gardens. As in "Why, sure I'll water your garden while you're on vacation." It may not be inexpensive to garden, but the rewards are wonderful.

[Serve&Volley88]

Until the end of January it's ~20 miles each way, five days a week. On a good day it's 25-30 minutes each way but can easily grow to 45 minutes or more if there is a bad accident. I'm able to ride the bus now and then but this time of year I often need to stay late with little to no notice and the last bus leaves shortly after my regular workday ends. I get decent gas mileage, sure...but it is still a loathsome commute by Mustachian standards. Sadly many people in the 'burbs see this as normal or even easy.

The only justification is that I currently live at my family's home and pay nominal rent to my parents ($125 a month).

Beginning February 1st, it will be a .4 mile walk which should take 6-7 minutes. :-)