Last October, we became a one car family. You can read about that ordeal here, but at the end of the post I indicated that we would try to go with only one car until Thanksgiving. Well, that was last Thanksgiving, and here we are after this Thanksgiving, with still only one car!

We actually didn’t mean to do it, but we kept going a *little bit longer* without a car. When we made it to Thanksgiving, we said, “Well, we’ll just go until winter makes it  too difficult.” Then, after winter was going okay, we said, “Well, lets see how spring goes.” Summer was pretty tricky, because we signed Evie up for summer camp without realizing the bus schedule is drastically reduced in summer. But once we got through that, we figured, “Well, we’re good to go until Evie starts at her other school in the fall.” Then, Sara ended up switching her work schedule around a little, and it worked out for me to drop Evie off and pick her up on the way to and from work. So we STILL didn’t need a second car.

I should say that this is mostly due to Sara’s effort. When the bus wasn’t running, she had to walk, with both kids. When the bus was running, she had to get both kids on and off the bus, not to mention waiting in the cold, walking to and from the bus stop, etc. My life has been relatively unchanged, other than very occasionally working from home so Sara can use the car, and being responsible for the weekly grocery trip on Friday when I have the car.

I tried carpooling for a week or two. One day of the week I would pick up my co-worker on the way to work, and another day of the week I would take the train downtown and meet my co-worker, who would drive to and from work, dropping me off by the train station for my return trip. This did not last long. All the extra little things (walking to and from the train stations, waiting for the train, etc.) made the trip take SIGNIFICANTLY longer than just driving. Ultimately, Sara decided that having me get home at a decent hour was more important than having the car one day a week.

So now that we’ve made it for more than a year, there’s not really anything on the horizon that would cause us to get a second car. We’ve sort of fallen into a rhythm, and everything is working out. It’s not always the easiest thing in the world and requires some careful planning, but it’s well worth the money we’re saving by not having a car. Insurance is the most significant savings, but there’s a lot of other things, like license plates and city stickers, and the fact that if we had that car, we’d drive it. Rather than planning things out, for example taking the recycling when we’re going to the grocery store, we’d just go driving. Then we’d have gas, car maintenance, etc. Easily a couple of thousand bucks, to say nothing of the cost of the actual car.

So here we are. We’re still not opposed to having a second car, but so far it hasn’t really been needed. So I can’t imagine why we’d suddenly need one tomorrow. Until such time as we have a reason, we’ll just keep going as we are. I never would have thought it possible!