My 150 mile commute...

[MidwestnRich]

Not sure where to post this because I'm doing the most antimustachian thing possible in the most mustachian way possible.

I'm an electrical engineering student. Married, one daughter, another on the way.

I currently commute from my small town to a major Midwest capital city 5 days a week 75 miles one way. THIS IS COMPLETELY AGAINST MY PRINCIPLES, but I'm doing it for a few reasons:

• This is a co-op (paid intership) for only 8 months.
• Including travel time, AND TCO/mile on my Corolla, I'm getting paid as much per hour as I would at the mildly techy company in my small town.
• Valuable work experience for a defense company that'll be sweet on a resume.

Even with that though, it still sucks, I'm getting fat, and I have no time for my family.

But here's the good part: About a month in, I found another guy who's doing THE SAME DRIVE until his lease is up, and he buys a house closer. So for the next few months, we are:

• Carpooling and I pay him $5/ride (for both ways!)
• Driving his 2001 Hybrid Honda Insight that he's hacked with lithium batteries from a Ford C-Max. (We're electrical engineers after all.) The whole thing cost him $2500
• and WE GET ALMOST 60MPG!!!
• And I bike to and from his house (about a mile one way).

So what do you think? Are we winning or loosing? Killing it? or killing ourselves? ;)

Also, I always bring leftovers for my lunch, and part of the reason we don't move is I'm taking classes in my home town again in the fall, and we have stupidly cheap rent in the little town. And currently we still have a ~40% savings rate. (Since I'm effectively working 11 hours a day.)

[birdman2003]

Considering you are doing it for 8 months during your internship, that's not too bad.  It sounds like you are making it the best trip possible.

I drive 50 miles one way for my 5 day per week commute, but we chose our location based on my wife's salary which is multiples of mine.

[nick663]

Considering it's a temporary position, the pay justifies the extra time spent, and you're building your resume I think the facepunch can be avoided.  If you later took a full time job with them you better move closer though. :)

[MidwestnRich]

Well it's nice to know I'm not crazy. But it still *feels* wrong. :P

[cjtorkelson]

Since it is a paid internship that will look good on your resume and you are only paying $5 per ride, I think its not as bad financially as it would be for your personal life. This 8 month internship will help you get a better job in the future than if you didn't do this.

[Slee_stack]

I despise my 28mi each way commute.  Good days are 75 min total. Bad days 120 min.

However, DW gets  ~2 mi commute as a result.  We could move, but every minute I save would be two minute she would tack on to hers.

I've taken solace in our maximized commute efficiency...even if its a pretty bad baseline to begin with.

8 months isn't very long...

[Goldielocks]

Can't you rent a room in a house close to your new intern work, and stay there maybe 2 nights a week?  (and pay not much to homeowner because of it)...  Coupled with maybe working 4 x 10 hour days, and the commuting share, you could make this work out very well.

e.g., drive in on Monday, back on Tues night, in on Wed, back on Thursday night.

Okay -- maybe I suggest this because in the prairies where I saw it happening most often, the winter driving was brutal and sometimes dangerous to get stuck on a hwy in blowing snow.  And it was dark from 5pm to 8am.

[MgoSam]

May I suggest audiobooks?