One car families??

[lilybrooke14]

We're a one car family too. We've been that way for about three years now. I'm a SAHM, and DH works an 8-5 job Mon-Fri. I work evenings at a retail store. We live within walking distance of a park, grocery store, and a few other little stores. DH takes the car during the day, and we switch so that I can go to work at night. I do my big weekly grocery shopping at night or on the weekends. If I need it for a Dr's appointment or something, I either drop him at work, or he carpools with some friends who live nearby.

It's worked out pretty well for us so far. Occasionally I get cabin fever, and I get it a little more for a while. It saves us gas, insurance, car payments, and personal property tax, so it's really worth our while to share. We've talked about getting a second car once ours is payed off. If we lived in a more rural area, we'd definately get a second car though! I'm pretty sure I'd go nuts.

 

[Kimberly Hill]

One car family here too!

Well, not exactly. DS is 19, full-time college student living at home, but between school being 25 miles away, working multiple jobs, and music practice, he's never home so I can't rely on him to do anything with his car.

DH works 3 miles away, I work from home (day job), plus have an on-location photography business so DD and I drop him off, I come home and work, we go pick him up, he takes on child care duties and I go do my photography work. He has vision issues, including no night vision, so doesn't drive often but still can so we do trade off on weekends.

Summers are tough because my photography business picks up and it stays lighter out longer so he can drive more but we make it work and save a lot from when we were a 3-car household.

 

[rockyroad]

I work seasonally.

During the off season I might not use my car more than once or twice a week, but I know that if I need or want to go, I can.

Knowing that I was "stuck" at home would drive me bonkers.

 

[redshoes]

My family joined the ranks of a one car family last month. Our state opened a new train line that drops my DH off very close to his office. It is better than sitting in stop and go traffic in the day and his pass is paid for by his company. We couldn't justify owning two cars and paying for one to sit in the park and ride lot all day long so we are giving the one car deal a shot.
So far it is working okay. I'm not a fan of hauling my butt out of bed and driving to the train station and it has made my day with my boys about two hours longer. But hopefully the savings with off set the issues and my grumpy morning attitude.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

We are also a one car family, but we live five minutes from the subway, so public transportation is very easy for us. DS's school is a 7 minute walk from a subway stop, so that's not bad, either.

Functionally, we drop ds at school, then dh drops me at work and keeps the car. He picks me up and we do the reverse in the afternoon. If I need the car, I just drop him at work.

It does help that we have public transportation as our back-up plan. In an emergency, we would rent a car for a few days. We do have to plan our errands on the weekend, but since ds is too young to leave alone, someone would have to be with him at all times anyway, and we try not to drag him around the dry cleaner, etc.

One car is fine for us -- I would suggest you have clear expectations and parameters before you reduce to one car. Make sure you really talk about how this will work -- even better, sit the 2nd car in the driveway or garage for a week and try it with one. You have the perfect opportunity to get a good idea of what is possible before you limit yourself.

 

[Avonlady1001]

We could be. My nice, shiny 8-cylinder pickup sits in the driveway about 95% of the time right now. We drive my DH's 6-cyl Cherokee - this saves a BUNCH on gas. It gets amazingly good mileage. We've never understood exactly why - it gets way more than it should.

I'd love to trade the truck in on a Prius, or even better - a cute little SmartCar! Can we get them in the U.S. now?

DisFlan

I live on Long Island (NY) and it's funny...I saw a Smartcar on the parkway yesterday, so I guess the answer is yes!

 

[Debbie]

I'm a one car family - DH is a SAHD. . . . When DH needs the car he brings me to work.

Our van died in January, and we haven't bothered to replace it. I continue to sock away a bit of money every pay for the 'new vehicle', as well as the difference in insurance money. I am slowly getting a nice down payment. We live just outside the city where I work.

DH (also a SAHD), walks to pick up the mail, go to the library, and emergency grocery shopping. Actually, he has dug out the old bike, too. If he has dr's appointments, or needs to pick up pool supplies (today), he drives me to work and picks me up. He does his grocery shopping on Tuesday nights when he has to go back into the city to pick up DD at choir. Trips are planned, and it is working!!

Benefits?

• Reduced insurance costs
• Reduced gas costs.
• Talking together to do the trip planning.
• Reduced grocery bills (DH LOVES to go grocery shopping!!!)

Just this weekend, my DBiL told me of a couple of good deals on vehicles. As it is....I don't know if/when we will replace the second vehicle. (But, I do miss my van on occasion. )

 

[delmar411]

we are a one car family for about a year now. It's ok most of the time but hard when I need to take my DD to her classes and DH is at work. Or if I have to drive him to work because then I'll have to drag the kids out very late at night to go get him.

But for now we are still plugging along with it. It not an inconvenience enough that I want to take on the carrying costs for a 2nd car that won't get much use.

 

[delmar411]

I live on Long Island (NY) and it's funny...I saw a Smartcar on the parkway yesterday, so I guess the answer is yes!

I saw one on Sunday when we went out to breakfast! It was really neat looking.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

DH and I are a zero car family. We have very good mass transit here, so we don't really need a car. Sometimes we get rides from friends or from a taxi/car service. If we need a car for a weekend, we just rent one. We've usually gotten the best rates from Hotwire.com.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

We had only one car for years. DH was working for a tow company much of that time, so he usually had a tow truck at home during that time. When he was empolyed elsewhere we just arranged schedules so it would work with just the one car. We each had only one FT job then and DD didn't have extracurricular activities other than Brownies/Girl Scouts once a week.

We've had a second vehicle for only about two or three years now, and recently we started carpooling in an attempt to save some gas since my route overlaps most of DH's. It's sometimes a pain for him because his work has been slow and he could go home early. He has to wait for me to get my eight hours in before I pick him up in the afternoon...one way of him getting closer to 40 hours a week as opposed to less than 35.