If my husband had a car to drive to work and had taken my son to school, I would have saved three hours of my day. Yes, three hours.
We are a family of six with one car. This is the result of a decision we made a few months ago when our second car needed extensive and expensive repairs. For a while I thought it was great, as I explained in an article on Wise Bread and described my one-car experiment on The Centsible Life.
Long gone is the optimism and the “gee-isn’t-this-great!” feeling. Now I just want my life back.
So we are seriously talking about replacing the second car. We’ve discussed:
- what we will buy
- how we will pay for it
- paying off my car vs. saving for the new car
- buying a “beater”
- thinking up crazy alternatives (my son suggested Daddy could FLY to work!).
What we can’t change is that we need a car for my husband. He has a job that occasionally requires him to stay late or come in early. His income is our main source of income.
My car is the family car. We have four kids, so it had to be a minivan or a bulky SUV. We chose a minivan for fuel efficiency and safety.
I would discuss more about pros, cons, makes and models, beaters versus running your car into the ground, but I have to go make the house half decent so I can get up at 6:00 am to get everyone ready and out the door so my husband can be at work early.
What have your car buying experiences been like? Do you buy beaters or brand new and run it into the ground? Are you a fan of used cars, or do you think new cars are a better deal?
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