Oklahoma Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
One car family?
Does anyone here do this? If so, does it work? Why have you chosen to do it?
We're *tossing* around the idea. So I'm just looking for opinions on the issue. Thanks!
Re: One car family?
Probably depends on where you live, and what your work situation is (among other things). H and I don't do this now, but had to for about a month when I was car shopping earlier this year. H works from home and I have a five-minute commute, so it really wasn't *too* bad. If I'd worked further from home, or if we both worked in away from home, it would've been really tough to swing, because there's no public transit in our area, and I am not a bike rider.
I lived in a city with a great public transit system for about a year, and I really miss it. IMO, Oklahoma City isn't really set up for people without cars (assuming this is where you live).
Sorry, I should clarify what our situation would be...I would be a SAHM and I could either take him to work, or he could take the car to work and me just stay home. If I needed to go anywhere and he had the car, I could call my mom, who lives 7 min away.
I'm wondering if it saves costs much? Ins, gas, eating out maybe, or even just random spending when bored.
I am curious - why are you all considering this?
This knowledge will help me give me advice.
We really only use one of our cars right now. H works 11-13 days out of the month and he uses his car to drive to/from work and that's it. Other than that, we use my car for everything else. I'm really just wondering if it will be that much cheaper. Like if it would cut down on the ohhh I'm bored, I'm going to go shopping. Or hmm, nothing looks good at home to eat right now, I'll go pick something up. Obviously we wouldn't have the gas or insurance on the car we got rid of anymore, but would it be worth it?
My only concern is what if there is a serious emergency and you can't get anywhere?
I have a friend that has five kids and for years her and her hubby only had one car. They lived in Bartlesville and he worked in TULSA. She had to be very organized with her time - if the kids needed to go to the dentist, they all went on the exact same day - she would take her hubby to work and pick him up. If they can do it, you can do it.
With that being said, since we sold my car a month ago and are waiting for my new one to be delievered, we have only had one car. With both cars, our car insurance was $117 - with only one car the insurance has only decreased to $80 which really isn't a significant savings. We have saved on gas somewhat but that is because my car was a gas hog and required premium gas. If you are at home, I doubt the gas savings would be significant enough to even consider.
The real savings would be if you are making payments on both cars and in that case, the savings could be quite significant. If both cars are paid off, however, I don't see how the cost savings would be worth being down one car.
Would it cut down on the "Oh I am bored, lets go shopping" stuff? Maybe. BUT, if that really is an issue, you will start shopping online.
In conclusion, if you are making payments on both cars, get rid of one. If they are both paid off, keep them. And disconnect your internet.
We had 1 car for a while after #1 was born because we were trying to get out of debt. It was fine, but H was working nights and I basically lived with my parents while he was working (so I always had access to a car).
I wouldn't voluntarily do it unless I absolutely HAD to, or if we were trying to save money for a very specific reason and if it was short term. And, I'm am ALL about making sacrifices to save money and sacrifice for the short term to win in the long run... but this is something I probably wouldn't sacrifice.
Like Puppy said, I think the biggest difference would be not having 2 car payments (if you owe on both vehicles.) Insurance for one car isn't really that much different than for two cars. And in your situation, I don't think you would save a whole lot in gas. But it might be worth it depending on how much (if any) you pay towards your car loan.
We went 2 years with only one vehicle. We were driving between Moore, the airport area (DH's work), downtown (my work), and Norman (for school) nearly every day. We spend a lot less on gas now that we have 2 cars, but now we have two car payments instead of just one. It was a huge sigh of relief once we got a second car, trying to match up our busy schedules was getting exhausting (mostly because of school.) But if you were a SAHM, I don't think it would be too stressful with just one car.
Kaylee & Cole 06.14.08
8/6/11 First 5k! OG&E Expo Run 34:47
9/3/11 Brookhaven Run 5k 34:18
9/17/11 Healthy Sooners Fun Run 5k 33:38
10/15/11 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 33:31
10/29/11 Monster Dash 5k 32:06 PR!
11/11/11 Veteran's Day Run 11k in Dallas 1:13:15 Instant PR!
1/28/12 Texas Half Marathon 2:38:03 Instant PR!
3/25/12 Earlywine Dash
Yes I could do that. But it's still probably not worth selling one car. And I don't have a shopping problem...I was just coming up with senarios
It was just something we have been tossing around and I knew I would get good feedback from you all...and I did!
A couple more points to add:
1) It seems a bit unfair to your mom for her to be your backup transportation all day. It could lead to her feeling pretty taken advantage of in many cases.
2) I recently worked with someone who shared a car with his wife and it was beyond irritating. He requested to work from home far more than any other person in the organization (which in our group was intended to be the exception and not the norm) simply because it was inconvenient for his wife to drive him to work when she wanted to use their car. This led to jealousy from other members of the team as well as inefficiency and too little supervision on his part. I'm sure most people think there's not an impact to their job to share a vehicle, but as soon as you start having to make extra accommodations and arrangements, it does.