My husband and I did it for over a year. I would bike or ride the bus to work. It was great exercise and really saved on the gas and car insurance money. But when baby # 2 came along, the doctor said no more riding the bike to work when I hit about 5 or 6 months mark. I keep telling myself I'm going to start up again but I've been lazy as it would mean retraining those muscles and getting up earlier for work. But if gas and our car insurance keeps going up, I'm definitely going to do it again.
Since I WFH, I rarely drive my car. I think it would be pretty possible. My husband works w/ a woman whose husband is a professor at UF and she works at UF, they carpool and only have one car. They are from Europe and find it wild that Americans all have two cars, even when one parent does not work.
With four kids, we find that having two cars helps us get things done. If one has to be at soccer practice, and the other gets sick, we can divide and conquer. Seems to work for us.
I think if I worked from home or stayed at home I would be more optimistic about the idea, but my hubby and I work on different ends of the county. He takes the kids to day care, so no chance of him biking. And my work is a shot down Archer Road, he's vetoed biking for me because he doesn't think it's safe. I thought about taking the bus, but I'd have to do about three change overs to get there and home each morning and night.
Kind of sounds like I'm making a bunch of excuses, huh?
We are down to one car right now. Our other car is on it's last leg. I stay home so it's not that big of a deal..but it is hard being home all day, every day. The air conditioning broke in our van the one car that is running..haha..so, going places in the "heat box" as we like to call it, isn't all that fun anyway..LOL
I took my girls on the bus the other day to the park, just for fun. My 3 year old LOVED it. Of course she fell and scraped her knee as soon as we got to the park and we had to wait the half hour before it came back around before I could get her home and bandage her knee. But I would recommend giving it a try.
Below is an interesting Chicago Sun Times article about a family of 5 that has not had a second car since 2004. But what's even nicer is if you look to the left side of the article, you will notice a list of links to other articles having to do with ways other families are saving money.
I am staying home more and combining trips when I need to run earrands; actually planning the best way to hit all the places I have to by making a circle (of sorts) around town. I've started talking to friends about riding together to indoor soccer practice (etc) to get a feel for who might be interested, if that's the direction we wish to go. Eventually (if gas reaches $7 a gallon as predicted), we'll either car pool MORE or simply cut out some of the activities we do away from home. There's always the basketball hoop in the cul-de-sac, soccer in the back yard and family walks down NW 34th St! I guess we'll just adapt to our circumstances.
I do hope that something GOOD will come out of the high gas prices...like more families spending time together and learning to make fun. I have to wonder if that's exactly what people did during the Great Depression (other than folding aluminum foil, as my mother still does).
GainesvilleMoms.com moderator Stacy Fournier is a Gator and an aspiring journalist. But she does her most important work at home as a wife and mommy to a doll-playing, dress-up-loving daughter born March 2006. More about us and our editor
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GainesvilleMoms.com moderator Stacy Fournier is a Gator and an aspiring journalist. But she does her most important work at home as a wife and mommy to a doll-playing, dress-up-loving daughter born March 2006. More about us and our editor