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Today our family marks the end of a three-year-long experiment. What started as an exercise in frugality and creative belt-tightening turned into a motivating challenge and, ultimately, a real sense of freedom.
As 2009 drew to a close and winter set in, we braced ourselves for the typically slow period in the cycle of our family-run business. We knew it was coming. We knew things would get lean. But that year our budget got so tight that we had to sell one of our cars. It wasn't an easy choice, but one we knew we could handle since we had been spending most of the hours of most days together as a family.
"We'll see if we can make it six months," we decided.
Not only did we get an influx of cash from the sale, we instantly started saving on fuel, insurance, and maintenance.
Having one car may seem like plenty – or even a luxury – to those who don’t own one. But for two adults living in the mass-transit-challenged suburbs of the Midwest, it can be trying and can lead to what my friend Kate calls “middle class drama.”
At the end of our six month trial, things were going well, and we were getting the hang of our new lifestyle, so we decided to shoot for another six months. After a full year with one car it was now the new norm for us and rarely an issue. Occasionally I had to rent a car for week-long tours when the girls couldn't join me.
Then about this time last year, we agreed that we were ready to get a new car. We scoured the web and the car lots and zeroed in on something we liked. When it came down to purchase time, Jeni said she was uneasy, and the thought of taking on another car payment made her sick to her stomach. Long ago I learned to trust her intuition, so we scrapped the idea and proceeded to squeeze out an additional year of savings.
Now that I've got a conventional job that requires me to be in the same place at the same time every day, and now that I’m getting wimpy about the prospect of riding my bike to the bus stop on frosty mornings, it's time.
Today we take possession of a second car. It’s not "new" by any stretch (a 2001 with more than 125K miles), but solid enough to get me to and from work.
So, here's some of what we learned in the past three years:
It feels really great to purge possessions.
It feels even better saving money while purging.
We can get by with a lot less stuff than we thought we could.
Having less stuff can be liberating.
Things don't create happiness.
And perhaps the greatest lesson – as pointed out by my wise and lovely bride – was this: Having one vehicle caused us to strengthen our creative problem solving skills. It pushed us, as a family, to negotiate and work through challenges. It helped us improve our communication and helped us all be more aware of each other's schedules and needs.
Once again, Jeni's intuition was spot on. And it seems her intuition to ask me out on our first date was right, too. Tomorrow we celebrate ten years of marriage.
There's been some interesting discussion about this on FB today. One comment: Is it still freeing if belt-tightening/purging is not optional? My response: It's a matter of perspective. We had little choice but to sell our car -- but at least we had that choice. We'd cut out everything else. And it opened us up to other possibilities. Now, if our situation cut into our ability to buy food all together (rather than cutting certain kinds of foods or "luxuries") that would not be so freeing.
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