Like most American families, for the better part of twenty years, we have been a two car family. When we first moved to Florida, in our beat-up old Dodge Omni, my wife and I simply didn’t have the money to buy a second car, so we juggled quite a bit. We even “upgraded” that car (to a Nissan Sentra!) before getting our second car, but eventually, between both our work schedules and kid activities, we opted for a second car (a 1991 MX-5… woot!). And it’s been like that since then; upgraded a car to a SUV to a minivan and several other iterations, but always at least two cars, if not three.
But last year, as OmniTI begat credativ U.S., I made the swap to a full-time remote gig, and no longer need to commute. I still do occasional work trips, or visit meetups, or whatever, but it seems like we don’t generally need to have two cars, so because the lease s now ended on our small SUV (we own our other car), we turned it in, and are going to see how this one car thing works out. We did some rough math, and figure we’ll save at around $300-$400/month, between car cost, insurance, tags/title, and other related maintenance. Amber still has a commute, but we think that in the cases where needed, I can give her a ride to work (or her give me a ride to the airport), and if we do have a conflict beyond that, we can use Uber/Lfyt to off-set that, and likely at a rate of less than $300/month. Or maybe we’ll get it all wrong and go get another car, but for now, we’re curious to see how it goes.
P.S. For those who have been around a while, yes, we are technically still a two car family. Ole Maggie Miata still sits in the garage, now retired and off the road. If we do need to get a second car, there is a likely chance we’ll fix her up and get her back on the road. Even if we fail, it’s a win!