It's almost unacceptable in our society really. WHAT? You don't have a CAR? Think about that, how often do you hear of a suburban family that doesn't have a car? (exculding those large cities where pretty much no one has a car) It's been a few weeks now that I have been car-less and I find myself struggling with the idea of getting a car daily.
Thing is, we don't have a car payment right now, we don't have to carry insurance, and we don't pay for gas. At least once a week my friend Brenda comes and takes me out of the house. And she watches the kids on the weekends sometimes so that Adrian and I can get out. She'll let me borrow her car if I need it, or even just want it.
So really, NOT having a car is saving us upwards of $7-800 a MONTH. That is a LOT of freakin' money!
On top of the money you save directly and obviously from not owning a car, comes the in-direct and certainly not obvious savings that come forth. When you own a car, you think nothing of running out to the store when you are out of milk, right? But what happens then is that you end up spending $50 at the grocery store on all of the things that you didn't really need, weren't really sure if you needed, and of course the last minute impulse buys. Then you have the random stops, like yard sales and stores that you suddenly think "I need something from there!". The gas you use and the money you spend in those unexpected stops adds up quick! I can't believe how long I've had the same amount of money in my account.
Weekend before last I rented a car for the weekend, Fri. - Tues. - it ended up costing us around $200. It was really nice to have it, and be able to get things done that I'd like to do. I may rent a car this weekend as well. Though probably not for as many days, just Fri.-Mon. would be perfect.
There is a bus stop very close to my home, but I haven't yet ventured that far. If I knew this area better, I'd be on that bus every day, going and doing things to keep me busy. But again, that's spending more money that I really don't need to spend.
This all reminds me of living with my Dad back in Eureka, we hardly ever had a car. It wasn't devastating though. I remember taking the bus everywhere I needed to go, Dad and I frequented the bus lines and knew the drivers by name and such. We had no problem with it. When we didn't use the bus, we walked. We walked a lot in those days and guess what? I was a lot less fat as well! Hmm, wonder why?
So, these are the kinds of things that go through my head all of the time right now, since for the most part I'm not leaving my home much. I'm a little obsessive about it I think. Being stuck at home is driving me a little bonkers and I am thinking about calling a cab to go to the shopping center, walk around and buy some things that I need from the grocery store before getting a cab back home.
In closing, I'd like to say that I'm proud of myself, for going this long without any means of transportation. Also, more importantly, I'm not contributing to nearly as much pollution!!! :-D
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