Today, during the course of some routine minor repairs, our mechanic (my uncle) discovered that my husband’s car needs new brakes. And air conditioning. Which all told, would cost about twice what the car is currently worth– we drive our cars right into the ground.
I’m getting a significant raise in September (more on that later), so we had already started thinking about replacing a car (currently pondering the minivan question), and now it looks like it will be that one, which is a 1999 Ford Escort that has done our family well. But what about between now and then?
We thought about it for awhile, and decided that we will be a one-car family this summer. After all, since I’m not teaching this summer, I don’t need to go to work everyday, and my husband has had a flexible work schedule for awhile now. We had already decided that our pool membership would be our big summer investment, and one of our closest friend-families also belongs there, so rides should be no problem. The girls are doing a summer program at their school, but I think between flexible schedules and friends, we’ll be okay there too. In addition, between planned trips and workshops, there will be a few weeks when my husband (who needs a good blog-nickname, clearly) will have the car all to himself. It feels wasteful, and toxic, to spend money we don’t really have to save a car that shouldn’t really be saved.
We’ve done the one-car thing before, way back when I was pregnant and housebound most of the time anyway. If Baltimore had better public transportation, I’d feel even better about the prospect, but either way, I think we’ll be fine. Still, it will be an interesting experiment, and by September, I may be so happy to have my own keys again that I take off down the highway.
Good for you! I wish we could have pulled it off, but we could not. i have friends where one parent stays home who work very hard to make it work for them – and their kids are so much better about long walks and bike rides than mine are!
We’re a one-car family for the summer also, and trying not to use even that car too much. I’m busing to work and it’s okay so far. Good luck to you!
LSM, we couldn’t pull it off as a long-term strategy either! This is actually making me wish our old neighborhood, where the grocery store was a few blocks away, instead of our current neighborhood, which is more residential.
Elswhere, good luck to you too! I’m trying to see this as a creative environmental challenge….
Good luck! It sounds like a noble experiment (and one we’ve contemplated over the years). We just got the brakes repaired on landisdad’s car, and his AC hasn’t worked for 3 years–I pity him during the summer–but with our work locations, we can’t afford to be without 2 cars for even a month, much less a whole summer.
landismom, if I wasn’t a teacher, and my husband didn’t work in the same city we live in, it would be much more difficult.
Does noble mean I don’t get to whine? Because I think I may
.
we are also down to one car after 1994 car died in the spring. it’s actually going really well with one. when school was in session we all rode together. sometimes i take the bus to work. what’s really great is not paying $110/mo for parking! i am tempted to go with 1 car for as long as possible, but our other car is a 1997 (!) so I am afraid of killing it prematurely. still thinking about that one.