westman2003

As I considered buying a new bike trinket I felt a twing of regreat. Maybe I shouldn't spend the $$$$.

But then I realized I save $20-$25 a day not owning a second vehicle and driving it to work so I said screw it and spend the $11.

Now we do own 1 vehicle and in 3-4 years it will die like all useless vehicles do. My kids will be 10 and 12 by then. Could I convince the family to go car free for even 1 year? We could rent vehicles for out of town trips and watch our bank account grow by 8-10k. Just a thought. In the meantime I need to work on conditioning them to give up vehicles. (lets ride to church, the store etc)

Eggplant Jeff

No offense but if you can't get a car to run more than 3-4 years you SERIOUSLY need to read the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual.

If you're trying to transition your family, "slowly" would be the key word. Just like you said, ride to the church, the store, etc. working up to longer rides and more frequent (couple times a week, once a day, multiple times a day...).

Linchpin

I think he meant that the car has about 3-4 years LEFT in it
AFAIK it could be a 1976 Gremlin, not a 2005 Buick

Mr_Super_Socks

Make it fun, but more importantly, make it practical. Get a trailer for groceries or consider an xtracycle www.xtracycle.com - these things are extraordinary! You could do a trial run the next time the car is in the shop. Kinda sneaky, but just be sure you are prepared and have thought of all the odds and ends you use your car for. It will take a lot of thought and preparation, but I think it's a great plan. I only save $4 a day (subway cost), but it still justifies a $40 purchase every two weeks.

westman2003

Dude the car has 180000k on it. So it will last another 3-4 years before it needs to be replaced. Don't be so hasty to advise before you have all the facts

va_cyclist

I felt the same pangs of guilt as I laid out the bucks for my new bike this year, but when I thought about the 23 years my last bike lasted, and the 20+ years I hope to get out of this one, along with the health benefits of riding a bike that I enjoy, it was an easy decision. I think I could have spent double what I did and still be able to justify it in these terms.

motorhommmer

Keep a car running otherwise you run a good risk of sickening everyone. I rarely use the car but my wife needs it for the kids. Unprovoked she recently bought a bike and is cycling around. I would enjoy it for what it is but keep an old car running.

max-a-mill

the cost of saving yourself from going insane inside a fourhweeled hampster cage whose gas supports the terrorists and whose smog pollutes our air: PRICELESS!

spend wisely, your worth it! me, i don't really care how much i save, but i am sure i do!

DerekU2

I had never heard of XTracycle before and I have to say - they need someone to work on the copy on their website. I spent 5 minutes reading the front page and still couldn't figure out what the hell they were trying to sell me. "Well, there's a few blury pictures of people carrying things on long bikes. Are they selling me a bike?"

I got it now, but not without considerable effort. A nice looking website with some terrible copy.

DerekU2

I didn't mean to ignore the savings aspect of the thread. I began bike commuting about 2 months ago and have spent many hundreds of dollars on clothing and accessories. While I haven't filled up my gas tank in over a month, I'm still not really saving money. I think I eventually will, but part of me also knows I'm likely to always want some expensive add-on or a new bike or something.

I don't look at it as saving money. I look at it as saving and truley living my life. When I began Bike commuting I was 205 pounds. My father is well over 300 pounds. I have to be careful - genetics are working against me. Yet I couldn't find an activity that I could stick with and that provided me enough exercise. I hate the gym. I played competitive basketball 2-3 times a week, but that just wasn't cutting it. Then I got on the bike...

The miles keep rolling away. I've dropped almost 10 pounds and I'm feeling healthier than I have in years. I feel good about myself because I'm active, I'm being eco-friendly, and I'm having fun. I just checked my bike computer - 50 Hours on my Bike in 2 months. That's at least 25 hours that I would have spent rotting in my car.

Saving Money? Maybe not. Saving me? Yes.

Mr_Super_Socks

uh, yeah. Not the best website, but they've really got an incredibly practical product. I rode alongside a dude with one of these a week or so ago and he uses it for all kinds of stuff, including hauling lumber and toolboxes, etc. for occasional construction jobs he does. And I'm talking 8' 2x4 and 4'x8' sheets of plywood.

The website is most useful for the pics of people hauling stuff. it looked incredibly tough and stable to me.

As an example of less-than perfect copy, try "Real Loads" for the photo gallery I am referring to - just noticed it and just about died. Then again, maybe they meant it that way to get more search hits. . .

SaskCyclist

My kids are 8, 2 and 1. It will be a while before we could even think of going car free. My wife's and my family are both out of town and we do like to visit so a minivan is a must however it is pretty rare that there is less than 4 people (somtimes 8 people in our van when going out of town. I would love the idea that maybe in a few years we could only use the minivan for out of town/emergency driving and ride everywhere we go. As it is currently we use a Chariot trailer when possible for the two little ones but I am still a bit uncertain about the risk I am exposing my kids to by riding on the road with them in a trailer. It is one thing for me to take that risk everyday but another to subject my babe's to it. You will have to keep us informed as you progress to car free and let us know how it is working for you.

Best of luck.

genec

Jeeze, my old Toyota Truck has 240000mi on it and I expect it to last at least another 5 years...

Change that oil and avoid hard driving. In fact, don't drive it all and it will last forever.

bigbenaugust 

Funny, I apply the same philosophy to my Tacoma.

atombob

I started riding to save money as well. After getting some wet weather gear and building a couple of bikes for commuting I figure I'll have to NOT drive for about the next 3 years to pay for it all, so savings for me is out of the picture.

But there is the health benefits from riding and of course I can feel good about helping the environment as well. Plus I like riding- good for the mind as well as the body. Now if helps me drop 25 lbs I'll be happy and it'll be worth every freekin' dime.

jnbacon

One thing you might consider is making an estimation of what you would spend on the new car, and then getting that amount automatically deposited to a separate account or to a money fund or IRA. The problem with cost reduction programs is that money in hand is too easy to spend. At least, around our house it is.

TrevorInSoCal

While it's not quite the same thing, 'cause I still own a car, I paid my truck off recently and the amount of my monthly truck-payment is now an automatic deposit into my savings account (already making a monthly contribution to an IRA, and wanted something more liquid.).

I figure in a couple years I'll have saved enough to remodel my kitchen, or take a long vacation (on the bike, no doubt) or something like that.

If I got rid of the truck entirely I could add the cost of insurance to that monthly deposit, but I'm not quite ready to take that step yet. I'm usually going somewhere or another at least two weekends per month (racing/camping/snowboarding/etc.) so it'd cost me more in rental fees than it costs to insure the truck that's paid off and mostly sits in my driveway.

-Trevor

cerewa

To put an even better spin on it, chances are you've dropped more than 10 pounds of fat and gained a good number of pounds in muscle.

Nightshade

Mate, While I don't have one single issue with you going car free there is the fact is that unescapable.
You will soon be faced with the fix or dump decison. That cutting edge choice of "if I fix it it'll run
a bit longer or nope, I'm gonna dump this junker" The point of diminishing returns.

My suggestion is to ration the funds for fuel. Yep, tell the family that this money shall be allocated
to other family needs. As the family gets used to making sure that they have fuel for the trip they
WILL start to find ,and think of, other ways to "get'er done".

I did exactly that a year before my retirement finding out that with amazing ease my wife was able
to consolidate most of her trips in to one or two ...........a month. ALL of the cost for the vehicle
dropped like a stone in a bottomless canyon. I ran the small item grocery runs on a bike with a once
a month vehicle run to our larger city store for supplies. I learned to use the internet to bring what
I wanted to me. Often with no tax or shipping (MORE money in my pocket). Heck, I was almost giddy
with all the money I was saving!!! I also got pretty good at shopping used & e-bay for many items that
we used to "go shopping" for.

One other point that may have escaped many here is that our children will NEED to know how to do
more with much less so teaching them how now is one of the best gift you can give them.

Bekologist

I don't have kids, but have a car. I think with 2 kids under 10 in a city the size of Calgary you're going to need a car for certain things. Drive your vehicle a lot less and the cost goes down to registration and insurance costs, mabye a few tanks of gas a year. And that occasional blown rod or ring job. Is your intent to save money, improve your families fitness and quality of life, or is environmentalism the main reason for stopping driving? It sounds primarily financial.

Turn the car into a storage container or perpetually be "repairing" it in the driveway, keep it on jack stands, etc, would be a way to drive it a lot less and condition the family to use alternative transport more. Turn it into environmentally 'dirty' activity that isn't any good, and your kids might catch onto green transport... "The car, we can't drive THAT! It's STINKY and DIRTY! Only for emergencies.."

I've been trying to find an insurance company that has a rating for the truly occasional driver, my car gets driven maybe six or ten times a year on trips to the mountains but I still pay 1,500 a year for insurance alone. There's a way to get per-trip or temporary insurance but would be inconvenient in the least.

Good luck!

Nightshade

You DON'T HAVE TO carry any insurance other than comrehensive if you don't drive the car all the
time. All you have to do is be fully insured WHEN you drive it.

So if you know ahead of time when your trips will be simply call your agent to adjust your coverage
upwards while upon return another call will return to the lower coverage. I don't know about your
insurance company but this process is hassle free for me. I call , they send me a bill, I pay when
I get back, I call to reduce it back. Simple , direct, no hassle for me at 5>6 times a year basis for
my use of our Suburban.

dedhed

$1500/yr for one car, man you're getting the shaft. I insure 3 vehicles @250/500K liability coverages with one for comp/collision for $900/year, and I think that's high.

Bekologist

Yeah, and you live in Milwaukee! My insurance wouldn't be that high there either. Besides, it's a nice Unimog. Just kidding. I do have one point on my drivers license from failing to stop (while on a bike.)

What possesses a person to own three autombiles, and how do you get a half million worth of coverage for three vehicles for under a grand a year? Do you own Geico? Or does Wisconsin have no no fault?

lilHinault

$1500/year is pretty much "par for the course" for insurance these days, even keeping a beater car is an expensive proposition if you can do without it.

swwhite

Our insurance company, Allstate, gives a ten dollar a month premium reduction for keeping the annual miles on one of our two cars below 7,500. I manage to hit that target through commuting, and that ten dollars plus money not spent on fuel averages out to about 22 dollars a month over a calendar year. I consider that my "salary" for being a "professional" bicycle commuter.

By the way, for all of you over 55, don't forget to take the AARP 55-alive driver refresher course for a possible ten percent reduction of insurance premium.

And finally, don't forget the "funny money" that you "save" by using the car less and thus putting off into the future the eventual breakdown of something or other.