Originally Posted by
Roody
That's still almost $50 a month in "depreciation" to date, plus all the other expenses. Not a lot of money, but not chump change either. But obviously well worth it to you in your present circumstances.
(Depreciation isn't really the proper term, but it's what everybody uses.)
$50/month is a pretty small price to pay compared to what other modes of transport would cost, in terms of both time and money. Our weekly trips out to see friends would rack up the best part of $40/month in bus fares alone, not to mention that even without the time taken waiting for the bus and riding the bus we'd be looking at 20-25 minutes of walking each way, compared to more like 5-10 minutes in the car. When we meet at friends slightly further out we'd need to take the train and instead of paying $8-10 for the two of us we'd be looking at more like $15, plus a longer travel time, plus waiting for trains that run every 30 minutes (and I think they drop to every 60 minutes in the late evenings).
Based on visiting friends once a week we'd be dropping most of that $50/month in fares with a whole lot less convenience. If I didn't have to consider my wife I'd just take the bike but sometimes life isn't that simple.
Taking a taxi when we want to haul something specific, hiring a car for the times we go out of town and tolerating public transport more might save a little bit of money but frankly the savings would be small and not worth the loss of convenience.