The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Neustache on June 19, 2014, 07:42:05 AM
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I posted this in my journal, but thought I might get more responses here. Thoughts?
We went many years with just one car. My husband worked 5 minutes from home (lol, didn't bike though!) and so if I needed the car, I'd just drop him off at work and then run errands, and either have lunch with him and he'd drop us off at home and return to work, or I'd pick him up from work at the end of the day. Worked really well for us.
He ended up changing positions temporarily and had to drive 40 minutes to work. At that point, we bought a 2nd car. Then I found someone looking for a used car that fit my car, so I sold it to her and bought my current car. He ended up changing jobs, again, and now he enjoys a beautiful, back-road, 15 minute commute from his job. We now own 2 2012 Nissan Versas (sedan).
I keep kicking around the idea of selling one car. Just owning the thing costs us $100 a month in taxes and insurance - not to mention it's value is only going to go down from here on out.
My husband might be able to get a work from home day each week, especially if he let's them know why he wants to work from home. The people who were hired before him all get a day to work from home, but then they stopped it when my hubby was hired. The others were grandfathered in, since they already had that benefit.
Pros:
1. Save money on taxes and insurance, get 10K or so for the car since it's free and clear of any loans. Invest 10K or pay down mortgage by that amount, saving interest and getting closer to getting rid of PMI.
2. We would walk more - we live within .5 mile from a grocery store so if I needed something on a car-less day I could go get it, (the close grocery store is pricey, and we don't shop there often, I like Aldi's) and less than that from a small park and neighborhood pool. Could use the savings from the car sale to pay for pool pass. We'd still have options for getting out if we felt like it, just would need to walk. Also live within a mile of my in-laws, so if the kids wanted to go there I could walk them.
3. Less money for repairs over all.
4. Probably less driving over all, as I'd really consider if I needed to do run an errand.
5. Probably less eating out (although, we really aren't bad about eating out).
6. More space for bikes in our 2 car garage!
Cons:
1. Would have to group errands on one day. Not a big con, imo, because I already do that for the most part.
2. Wouldn't have a 2nd car if the 1st breaks down (but we could rent a car if that happened).
3. If DH didn't get a WAH day, I'd have to drive 30 minutes round trip to drop him off and pick him up from work.
Thoughts?
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I think you know the answer, but I will tell you anyway. Ditch the 2nd car. The combination of outsourcing (transit, taxis, car rental, car sharing, etc.), walking and biking is always better.