Can't decide whether to ditch my family car and go without. Anyone done it?

TUS

Money's tight and I know I can make significant savings if we were not running a car. At the moment our circumstances are as follows:

• Family - 2 adults and 3 children (aged 8, 2, 1)
• Car - Citroen Xsara Picasso 1.8 Petrol
• My work - I work 12 hour shifts either 7am-7pm or 7pm-7am. Over the course of a month I work a day shift & a night shift on every day/night (so 14 shifts in total). My workplace is approx 6 road miles from home.
• Wife - stay at home mum.
• School - 1 mile walk from home

I am currently spending about £100-110 per month on petrol and £80 per month on insurance (just me). Insurance is the cheapest I can find, I regularly check. I suspect it is because I have points on my license due to drop off next year. Tax is costing £135 per 6 months. Car is MOTd until January next year.

So ... financially it makes sense. I can save:

Monthly

---

£110 petrol + £80 insurance
= £190

Annually

---

£270 tax + £50 MOT + servicing/repairs
= £320 + servicing/repairs

The costs of me using public transport for work are as follows:
£42 per month buses
£20 per month taxis (2 x sunday morning shifts when there are no buses)

Plus I would need to budget about £14 per month for Asda food delivery charges.

So that takes £76 from my £190 monthly savings, still leaving £114 savings. Minus any bus fares my wife may need during the month (I would estimate £20-30 maximum).

I could make further savings in the summer by cycling to/from work.

Financially it definitely makes sense. But we have got used to the convenience of having a car, ESPECIALLY with 3 young children. It would restrict what we could do with them and force us to plan trips out in more detail. But I do think it would be possible.

The only other worry for me is that when I do come to getting a car again, I will have lost my no claims bonus which is just about to hit 5 years :-(

So my question to you is ... have you done something like this? Specifically if you have young children. Did you regret it?

alanrowell

Have you asked your wife what she thinks of it? What does she do currently when you are at work and hence no car is available?

As to what to do - try doing without a car for a few weeks and see if you all like it before making any decisions. You should preferably do this in January / February so as to get the "full effect".

pitkin2020

Its a hard one for anyone to answer as no one else is in your exact position. Some maybe in a large town where everything is within easy reach of a bus and others maybe in the welsh valleys where nothing is within an hour.

Your car is a luxury item (even if it is a Citroen lol) and you could probably do without. Taking the bus is great if you have a reliable and regular service, if its going to get you to work late or make you arrive an hour early its a bit of an inconvenience especially when doing 12 hour shifts. For work you could also see if anyone lives close to you and car share, using the bus as a backup in case they go on holiday or off sick, you could save a fair bit paying a bit of petrol than just the bus fare.

What do you do for family time, do you usually do something locally or do you visit places further afield. If the latter add the cost of a hire car once a month I suspect you will still be saving.

If you are in doubt you could also trial it for a month before making the commitment, if you don't use the car for the month your still going to save £110 in petrol. You will have to be committed to do it though as the temptation of the car being there may sway you at times to just jump in it for convenience.

The other option is to change the car for something smaller and more economical with cheaper tax. A pugeot 206 1.4 hdi will cost you £45 a year road tax, low insurance and very good on fuel economy. It won't be the most spacious car with the family in it but will still be adequate and will probably half your current outgoings on the Citroen.

gonzo127

i agree with a trial run, just do one month were you will not use the car at all,

going on yrou finances you will still save the £110 in petrol which according to your calculations will cover all yoru expected public transport costs.

david39

I had been considering this myself.

I am retired and my wife will be retiring shortly, although she uses the car for commuting at the moment - the only practicable way of her reaching her work.

I believe that our (small) car costs us £35 per week to run, excluding depreciation.

We seldom do long trips, so most of our journeys can be done by local bus (free, with our bus passes) and I'm thinking that £35 per week would buy us a lot of short distance taxi fares for emergency travelling or journeys that are otherwise impractical.

Somehow, giving up the independence goes against the grain but Alan's idea of deliberately doing without the car for a few weeks to try it out before ditching it completely is sound advice - might give it a try.......

s_b

2 years no claim bonus used to stand for 2 years with no insurance taken out so i have no idea what it is now maybe ask your broker
as regards no car its for the simple things that it such a needed commodity,as said do a dummy run and then reconsider

david39

Reply to TUS

You haven't included in your calculations the cost of depreciation on the car - that will be several tens of £'s per month also.

TUS

I think I am going to try and commit to a trial run - maybe I will give the keys to a family member who lives a few miles away to avoid temptation. Or even park the the car there for a month.

My wife doesn't have a driving license, so when I am working she either stays locally with the kids, her sister picks her up in her 4x4 or she gets a bus. We live a few miles outside of Newcastle upon Tyne, so buses are pretty good and we can get around well on public transport.

We are both FOR the idea in theory, but just unsure of how much we'd miss the car. I think a trial run is the only answer really.

I do like the idea of running a smaller, more efficient car though. If there is something which could halve our outgoings, it could be a good compromise. I shall look into the costs of a Pug 206 and whether the sale of the Picasso could fund that.

TUS

david39 wrote: »

Reply to TUS

You haven't included in your calculations the cost of depreciation on the car - that will be several tens of £'s per month also.

This is true. We only paid £1100 for the car in January ... so I hope I wont have lost too much on it. Although its 10 years old it has very low mileage (50k) and is in superb condition. I think I could resell for a similar amount if I chose to sell in the next couple of months.

pitkin2020

TUS wrote: »

I do like the idea of running a smaller, more efficient car though. If there is something which could halve our outgoings, it could be a good compromise. I shall look into the costs of a Pug 206 and whether the sale of the Picasso could fund that.

Your picasso should cover most if not all the costs of a PUG 206. There are others out there I only recommended that as family member has one and only pays £45 a year road tax and fills up every 3 months lol. I have used the car myself and found it pretty efficient, just don't expect luxury it is a pug after all......

TUS

I used to drive an old but reliable Pug 205 pre-kids :-D Felt like driving a tin can in high winds.

At the end of the day the more I think about it the more I think I'd be better off without any vehicle. OK, so I could reduce my outgoings by changing car ... but it wouldn't be as noticeable as having over £100 extra each month. As I have debts, I could snowball those with that extra cash.