1 car family?

Emeraldeyed315 · April 2013

Do any of you use one car for your family?

DH and I are expecting our first baby girl this summer. I will be becoming a sort of SAHM. I'm resigning from teaching, but will still do some side jobs.

DH works 4 miles away...about a 10 min drive with traffic. We are also right near a bus line to his office..but we live in the suburbs and buses don't run often.

We both have 4 year loans on our cars. Mine is a SUV, dh is a smaller sedan. I'm wondering if we should consider selling his car. I could take him to work some days, he could bus others. He could also take the car some days if I don't need the car...he is so close if we needed it for something. Just not sure how realistic this would be or what you would recommend in your experiences.

dizzycooks · April 2013

I think you would be fine. My DH works 20 miles away and buses only come on the half hour. He takes the bus to work daily. It's just a shift in thinking. You don't stop to chat or pick up coffee because you might miss your bus. You leave at a specific time, ready or not, so you better be ready.

Is riding a bike a possibility? 4 miles is really not very far.

bumpuser8448316 · April 2013

For me, it would never work. For one thing DH doesn't have set hours so there are times he's off work at 3 am so taking him to work is not an option. He can't take public transport for much the same reason. There's also no public transport to get DS and I laces if DH has that and we have literally nothing within walking distance.

If you have other reliable ways to get around or for DH to get to work or things you can walk to, it could work very well.

If I were in your position I would just look at ways to cut the budget to afford SAH rather than give up a car. If you can't afford it with 2 car payments.

Can he just walk?

Emeraldeyed315 · April 2013

We can afford me being a sahm with both car payments, but if we got rid of one of the cars that means we can save more per month/put more into our 529 account for LO. We are just going through trying to figure out what is truly a necessity to us, and what maybe we can live without.

Biking is only an option a few months of the year...we live in CNY now so it's snow/icey a majority of the time.

lindslalala · April 2013

It wouldn't work for our family. DH works too far from home and no public transportation near our house.

I wouldn't be able to let him take our only car to work and be stuck at home all day. It's important to my sanity to get out of the house on a regular basis.

12bailey18 · April 2013

A lot of people around here have one car, as we are very close to where our husband's work. I agree, DH should ride his bike! Yes, I think it could definitely work.

kcisthebombdotcom · April 2013

Dh has a similar commute and I really love having two cars. We go out everyday and It would royally suck having to wake lo up in the morning to drive dh to work. I mean if we really needed the money I suppose I would have to suck it up but personally I'd rather save money other ways.

memali26 · April 2013

We have been a one car family for nearly 6 years now. It just takes a little extra planning sometimes, but 99% of the time it works for us, and the 1% it doesn't we're fortunate to have great friends willing to help out. We have also been fortunate that since giving up our second car we have not lived more than 1-2 miles from DH's work, and now we're only about 5-6 blocks away. More often than not he just walks to work, but if I need the car on a bad weather day either I drive him to/from, or he gets a ride with someone else.

Now I do in-home child care, so I have more kids than space in our current vehicle most days. For that reason I don't take the car during the day more than a few times a month, so if he wants to drive to work (which he is doing more often than usual due to this endless winter!) it doesn't really impact me. Days when I have only my kids and need/want to go out he leaves the car, NBD.

chardonnay24 · April 2013

We had one car for many, many years. I don't think it works for every situation, but in your case I think it'd be okay.

When we had one car, we lived about 3 miles from H's work and 5 miles from my work. He would walk, bike, or take the bus about 95% of the time. He'd take the car if he had a meeting outside the office or plans after work. I would take the train about 75% of the time, but I worked less hours so I was far more likely to run errands after work. But we lived in the city at that time so it was much easier and public transportation was better.

We do have 2 cars now but I think we could get by on one. As a SAHM, I'd prefer to have the car so that we aren't stuck in our neighborhood. For example, it would take roughly 2.5 hours to get to the zoo on the bus and train, whereas it only takes about 30 minutes in a car. My H is actually unemployed right now, but if he gets a job in the city or close to our house, we might consider selling a car and living with one car again.

Why don't you try living as a one car family for awhile? If it doesn't work for you, that's fine. If it does, then you know you can comfortably sell a car and be okay.

NHbride129 · April 2013

We've been doing it for a month (I get my new car next week) and it's totally do-able but hard. My DH says he is going to walk to the train and then wakes up and decides he's 'so tired, can I please have the car today?' I usually say yes and then end up getting mad later in the day. So if you think your dh can hold up his end of the bargain it's not a big deal, but being stuck at home isn't fun.

sometimesalwayschaotic · April 2013

LalaMama81:
In your situation, yes, there's a good chance we'd at least try it. Or sell the more expensive car and buy a cheapo 1 to 2k car just for h to commute with. That is literally what did. Not because we had to, be because we wanted to.

This!

anchalmasako · April 2013

We have been a one car family since we got married, 4 years ago. We've always made it work somehow. It's not that bad once you get used to it. It's not something I want to do forever, but it works for now when we only have one salary.

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