Given up my car - saving at least £2000 a year

hsbcarter_2

I just wanted to share my moneysaving news. There's nothing in here that's rocket science but wanted to add to the burden of facts that show that giving up my car saves me at least £2000.

I have just purchased an annual bus pass for £656 (this includes an interest free loan from my employer and a 7.5% discount). The bus leaves 2 minutes walk from my house. I work 20 miles away from my place of work.

The bus drops me off 15 minutes walk away and it takes 1hr / 1hr10mins. My commute was 45-50mins.

So I am spending 1hr extra each day on travelling - the only negative thing!

Here are the financial savings:

£32 per week on petrol (based on a 45 work year) that is £1440 per year
£33 per month on insurance - £396
£29 per month car parking at my place of work - £348
MOT & Servicing - £200

So the costs of the car were: £2384 - if you add in wear and tear then I clear £2000 in savings per year.

The bus is one of those "executive" ones with leather seats. I have purchased a lovely ipod / radio and I'm ready to go.

It obviously means I have less time with the family (5hrs a week) and lack of flexibility but I feel somewhat liberated... and might even be able to catch up on some extra sleep on the commute!

Like I said, nothing here is rocket science, but wanted to share it with fellow moneysavers!

motorguy

How do you get about at the weekends / evenings?

Indout96

The bus drops me off 15 minutes walk away

That will be fun in the cold & rain + sitting in wet clothes when you get to work.

Regshoe

You missed off RFL (Tax), which could be another £100-200 and potentially depreciation of whatever vehicle you have (which obviously varies dramatically).

However there are potentially extra costs associated with not having a car, (e.g. weekly shopping etc) if you end up having to pay for taxis.

As Indout96 points our there can be some unpleasant aspects to taking public transport and walking.

If I were to take public transport I would be looking at 2-3 hours each way, instead of 35-45 mins, clearly 4.5 hrs+ a day extra would be too much for a £2k saving (for example), though I wonder what "value" you place on your time.

For ease of demonstration lets assume you could work as much overtime as you want, on demand and get paid at your usual rate:

5 hrs extra over 45 weeks = 225hrs

£2000/225 = £8.89 per hour

Arguably £8.89 isn't bad money to save for sitting and doing nothing, but if you made 2-3 times that per hour you might put a higher value on your time.

That said taking into account tax and NI that £8.89 becomes something more like £13+ for basic rate tax payers.

milliemonster

I live 27 miles from work, just looked at my local bus services, as I live rurally, I would have to change 4 times leading to a total journey time of 3 hrs for a route that normally takes 45 minutes.

The cost?, as I cross what are essentially two different counties for bus services, I would need a 4 weekly pass x 2 (for each of the different bus services) at a cost of £70, this equates to an annual cost of £1820 for me to get to work. As I have children, I would need additional money for their fares for if I wanted to use the bus service out of work, evenings, weekends etc, no idea how much that would cost.

My car costs are as follows:
£120 a month on fuel
£20 a month MOT/Servicing/Repairs
£15 a month car tax
£20 a month insurance

total annual costs: £2120 or thereabouts. Granted there is wear and tear aswell but for me there are no savings to be had for using public transport, along with the inconvenience of having to abide by infrequent bus times, standing about in all weathers, hauling bags of shopping home etc, its just not feasible for me

hsbcarter_2

Regshoe wrote: »

You missed off RFL (Tax), which could be another £100-200 and potentially depreciation of whatever vehicle you have (which obviously varies dramatically).

However there are potentially extra costs associated with not having a car, (e.g. weekly shopping etc) if you end up having to pay for taxis.

As Indout96 points our there can be some unpleasant aspects to taking public transport and walking.

If I were to take public transport I would be looking at 2-3 hours each way, instead of 35-45 mins, clearly 4.5 hrs+ a day extra would be too much for a £2k saving (for example), though I wonder what "value" you place on your time.

For ease of demonstration lets assume you could work as much overtime as you want, on demand and get paid at your usual rate:

5 hrs extra over 45 weeks = 225hrs

£2000/225 = £8.89 per hour

Arguably £8.89 isn't bad money to save for sitting and doing nothing, but if you made 2-3 times that per hour you might put a higher value on your time.

That said taking into account tax and NI that £8.89 becomes something more like £13+ for basic rate tax payers.

I get paid a salary, with no real prospect of "earning 8.89 an hour" for the time I am sat on the bus.

The £2k is real money I will save (not spend on travel to and from work) and whilst I lose 5 hours with my family, it probably means more money spent on holidays, clothes, toys etc.

As a family we do have another car, so at weekends and evenings we are able to be mobile.

nomoneytoday

When I crashed my car, I didn't bother to replace it to save some money.
I lasted 3 months before caving in

motorguy

hsbcarter wrote: »

I get paid a salary, with no real prospect of "earning 8.89 an hour" for the time I am sat on the bus.

The £2k is real money I will save (not spend on travel to and from work) and whilst I lose 5 hours with my family, it probably means more money spent on holidays, clothes, toys etc.

As a family we do have another car, so at weekends and evenings we are able to be mobile.

Sounds like a plan then.

The train station is 4 miles from me currently and a monthly train fare is £135 a month. My car uses £120 a month doing the same journey. Plus it'd take an extra 1.5 hrs per day.

It wouldnt work for me and TBH i like the flexibility of my own car.

What has worked for me though is that when my car was due a change i opted for the 'eco' variant of the car i wanted. I now get heading towards 70mpg on average, and nearly 90mpg on long runs - and thats in a VW Passat!