coping without a car semi rural living

MortgageMamma

Hi All

As you probably guessed from the title I live semi rurally and I'm about to give up my car as it costs too much money and I want to save a house deposit

I am very anxious about this. firstly because I am expecting a baby and have no family support in this area other than my partner. But common sense tells me I don't need the car. my kids school is 10 minutes on foot, I live in a little town where we have a butchers. a bakers, a grocers and cash machines and a co op store (tiny but has what you need day to day). My docs surgery is round the corner. My partner buses it to work and back and my eldest daughter buses it to her school and back.

Why am I so scared of giving up the car? I plan to get groceries delivered if i cant buy locally, and I can get a taxi or an ambulance to the hospital in November when my baby is due.

Am I being irrational? :eek:has anyone else successfully dumped their car and NOT regretted it?

MM

Mids_Costcutter

Others may not agree, but I haven't owned a car since the 90s and haven't regretted it. In my experience many motorists make longer journeys for leisure and shopping not because they need to but because they can: they tailor their life around the car. If you need to you can always hire a car or a van for a special trip / to shift some furniture. You'll be healthier without a car and have more time. What are bus services like where you live?

Ben84

There's lots of options you could consider. Some people manage without a car, but rent one for certain occasions. The occasional taxi doesn't hurt either when you're saving lots of money by not having a car.

Also, if you're planning to move it's a good opportunity to try and find a house in an area with good public transport. As I don't have a car, this is a big factor in why I picked the house I live in as it has two major bus routes within a couple of minutes walk. Suburban living without a car is fairly easy, but I know it's harder in some areas.

Some people say having a car gives them freedom, but I see it the other way around in my case. Not having one gives me financial freedom, and saves time and effort. You'd just get stuck in traffic around here and empty parking spaces are rare.

Luckycharm_2

Why don't you try not using your car for a month or so? You don't need to give it up totally just yet; see how you get on without it. You may discover all kinds of situations you need it for, or you might not miss it at all and be much happier and healthier without it.

I live in a rural area and the buses are practically non-existent. We recently got rid of one car as we had two which we just couldn't afford. I use the car for work as I carry a lot of equipment that would be unmanageable on a bus. OH is coping brilliantly and schedules in trips around when the car is free. Ideally we could get rid of this one too but until I have a job where all the equipment I need is provided this can't happen.

Good luck with whatever you decide. If you sell it and regret it, get another one!

paulwf

We're a mid thirties suburban couple and neither of us have ever had a car and we cope fine without it. I think you'll enjoy reconnecting with your local community, car users can get rather isolated from it as they do their shopping out of town or park at one specific store rather than walk into town and wander from place to place.

If you look at historical transport data it isn't that long ago that we got obsessed with cars. Some people think you can't possibly manage without one, but lets face it people have been having babies for a long time before cars came along and managed perfectly well.

Divorce Your Car! : Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile is a good well balanced read, you can get it cheaply second hand from time to time. https://www.transportdirect.info is an absolute must to bookmark, it is a very advanced public transport route planner and has helped us out on numerous occasions and found options when we assumed it would be impossible to use public transport. Far better than Traveline that for some reason gets all the publicity. Google Maps is starting to develop their public transport planner, and walkit.com can help planning routes in cities.

We tend to get all the heavy or bulky dried goods delivered (baked beans, pasta, loo roll etc) once every couple of months then it is easier to get day to day stuff. A bit of planning also helps, I do a rough plan in my head of the errands I need to run and a meal plan for the week so I can group things together when I go out...with our 24 hour shopping some people can't seem to plan for the next day ahead now! Getting a bike will really help, what can be a half hour walk can be 5 minutes by bike. I wouldn't want to manage without a bike as it means I can pop into several places around town faster than you could by car as you can park almost anywhere.

SailorSam

I'm in a suburban location, Tesco a mile away; Asda and Morrisons about 3miles, I've not worked for a few years now and i've wondered should i give the car up, last year i only did 360 miles.
I know financially i should give it up, buses; taxis; and the occasional car hire make more sense, but when you've always been use to them it's a big decision.

MortgageMamma

Thanks for all your comments people, I'm feeling slightly less anxious now. I already do a fair bit of walking and I've cut down the usage of my car lately and tried to shop local. although i have to admit i curse the monopoly that our local co oeprative store has on the community and their ridiculously extortionate prices. Yesterday I paid 95p for one red pepper!!

re the public transport - its not too bad from here actually. I don't work and won't be doing for a while as I have a little un on the way and I'm slowly doing up our house. The only real problem I will have is visiting my family regularly - they live in Manchester and we are in North East Lancashire right on the borders which is about 48 miles. The quickest journey I can plan involves three buses and nearly 4 hours each way, and for a family of five I think thats going to prove pretty expensive not to mention how tiring that journey will be. But as some have said I could perhaps rent a car once a month and make a full weekend of the visit...

The idea about storing bulky items is a good one. I have a garage and a cellar so I think I could stock up and put rice, pasta, cereals and things will a long shelf life. I also have an old chest freezer that I could fill up with bread so I don't get robbed by the co op all the time.

I'm feeling more confident about giving up the car now. I'll be saving the following

£170 in finance
£71 in insurance
£30 approx car tax
£25 a month servicing and MOT costs
£130 a month in petrol (its a dreadful car that I inherited from my partner - 8mpg automatic, rubbish for economy)

£426 a month towards a house deposit isn't such a bad thing is it!

SailorSam

MortgageMamma wrote: »

I also have an old chest freezer that I could fill up with bread so I don't get robbed by the co op all the time.
!

Better still than having to store a load of bread, just store the flour and make your own.
It's a lot cheaper and tastier.
Thank God for Pannies.

MortgageMamma

SailorSam wrote: »

Better still than having to store a load of bread, just store the flour and make your own.
It's a lot cheaper and tastier.
Thank God for Pannies.

I used to bake my own bread and I really miss it. I had a panasonic sd255 bread machine which was brilliant, made a really nice loaf and the house always smelt beautiful. I had to sell it when we were broke and my partner was made redunant

Do you bake your own by hand? I've often thought of trying but I really wouldnt have a clue...

flea72

MortgageMamma wrote: »

£170 in finance
£71 in insurance
£30 approx car tax
£25 a month servicing and MOT costs
£130 a month in petrol (its a dreadful car that I inherited from my partner - 8mpg automatic, rubbish for economy)

£426 a month towards a house deposit isn't such a bad thing is it!

few Qs as to your calcs

£170 a month on finance? are you just returning the car to the finance company and walking away? if not, how are you being able to reduce this payment?

car rental for a weekend, would be somewhere in the region of £150 plus fuel, and probably need to factor in transport costs to the car rental depot and back

overall i would say you are making a saving of £100 tops by getting rid of your car, and thats if you dont have any other transport costs, other than car hire once a month. once you factor in buses and taxis, the savings you are making deplete further

F

MortgageMamma

hi flea. the car is on HP in my mother in law and partners name jointly. Long story - but basically we are 2 years into a 3 year plan and the APR is 52%. The car is very uneconomical and actually worth LESS than what is STILL owed on the finance. Once MIL got some compensation through and no longer needed the car she dumped it on her son (my partner) who couldnt even drive. I know what you are all going to say and yes he is naive financially, or was before he met me

Basically the rules of the HP contract state if 50% of payments have been made, all payments are up to date and the vehicle is in good condition then we can cancel the contract voluntarily.

As for the hiring a car costs - none existent now as my friend has just agreed to lend me her people carrier once a month to visit family