Originally Posted by
Ekdog
I'm convinced that the amount of money one saves by going car-free or even car-light is huge. It's been such a long time since I had a car that I couldn't really say, but I do know I couldn't afford to buy and run a car even if I wanted to.
Have any of you calculated how much you're able to put aside by not driving?
I actually didn't splurge on cars even when I had one, but here's what I saved when I got rid of my last car, which I hardly ever used:
1. Insurance: $80-100/month ($1000/yr)
2. Fuel: $0-30/month (about $360/yr)
3. Maintenance: $70/month ($800/yr) (old car, and I didn't bother to do my own work)
4. Parking/license plates, etc.: about $200/yr
Total: about $2300/yr. It wasn't a huge amount, but not insignificant, and for a car I hardly ever used, it was money best spent on other things.
Before 2004, when I went car-free for the first time, my car expenses were significantly higher, though I did not realize it at the time. When you just pay for car-related expenses without thinking about it, because you think that's just the way it is, things look more like this:
Car payment: $175/month
Insurance (including collision, since the car's not yours yet): $200/month
Fuel: $200/month
Maintenance: $150/month
Tabs, parking, tickets, etc.: $100/month
Total yearly expenses, not including depreciation: about $7000.00
Without a car, even with a rather self-indulgent bike habit, my yearly local transportation costs are less than what they used to be for a month.