One Less Car
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The phrase “One less car” became true for us recently as we sold one of our 2 vehicles with no plans to replace it.
We’ve always had 2 cars but since I retired I’ve been talking about going down to 1 just to simplify our lives a little more. That’s been 6 years and I’ve never followed through. Leave it to Nova to take action. She recently sold her car which leaves us with our old truck that she now drives daily to work.
We eventually plan to also get rid of the truck as it’s getting a little long in the tooth. What we’ll replace it with is a dilemma. We really love our Tacoma and if it wasn’t for the poor gas mileage we’d probably just get another one. Planning for Nova’s retirement, gas mileage is of more importance as we’ll want to cut back on spending and we hope to travel more.
I’ve never really been one to get attached to a vehicle but I think I’ll have a hard time walking away from our “little red truck”. During it’s 16 years of service it’s taken us on some great adventures all over the U.S. 43 states to be exact and most of those several times. We’ve also driven it to Canada. We’ve really grown attached to it.
Having just the 1 vehicle shouldn’t be a big adjustment for me as I rarely drove anywhere during the week while Nova was at work. Nearly all my regular errands and trips I make have always been done by bike. One exception is the bulk of our grocery shopping which is done by car. I’d like to say I ride to the local store and load my custom grocery getter up with a weeks worth of groceries but I don’t. Our local store is only a mile away but I don’t really care for it. They don’t carry many of the things we use on a regular bases and that’s just one of the reasons. I do go there for a few things once or twice a week. The store we do shop at most is only 5 miles away but it’s all 40mph roads to get there. I do ride this route fairly frequently but don’t think I’d want to do it loaded down with groceries and I just can’t imagine fresh and frozen foods surviving the ride in the summer.
So we’ll see how it goes and how much of an inconvenience having just the 1 car is if at all. Maybe I’ll report back after more time has passed.
Hi Randy. We’ve gone from two cars to what I call 1.5. This means we have a car that works year-round while also owning a sports car – a convertible Miata (my husband’s toy) – which means it gets garaged for several months so it doesn’t get exposed to salted roads. Now that I work along a bus line, our car situation works out perfectly. Though my husband rarely rides to work he is very good at taking a commuter bus at least 3 days a week.
It will be interesting to see how you and Nova get by with One Less Car.
A 1.5 car family. I like that lol.
Public transport is something I wish was an option here. We live in a small town that butts right up to the big city (Wichita) but I think the nearest the Wichita bus comes to us is the grocery store I mention above, 5 miles away. If I ride there, I would just continue riding as that’s pretty near where I can catch Wichita’s bicycling infrastructure which can get me around the big city pretty easily. I have the luxury of time so even if an errand takes me all day it’s really not a problem. I do have the option of taking Nova to and from work so I can use the car/truck. Also I can ride in to the city which is where Nova works and catch a ride home with her which I just did this past Tuesday. Or vise-versa.
Once Nova retires, which could be next week or next year, or… she can’t decide, I can’t imagine the lack of a 2nd vehicle really ever being a problem. The lack of a truck might be a problem if we decide to replace the truck with a car.
Something else I’ve talked a lot about but taken no action is moving in to the big city and downsizing our home. I’m just too lazy to take on selling the house, moving etc… so unless Nova surprises me someday with “I sold the house!” we’ll probably just stay where we’re at. Living in the big city would make the places we frequent most more easily accessible by bike. I would miss having access to gravel roads to ride for pleasure being just a mile from home though.
As always Annie, thanks for reading and commenting.