1 car family

[lisa270988]

Hi
So my husband works full time and I'm a stay at home mum.
At the moment we have 2 cars but money is really tight and I'm thinking of selling my car and my husband and getting just 1 car between us. Both cars are old and not worth a huge amount probably get 3k if we sold both.
My husband isn't keen on the idea he works 1 hour drive away so uses his car everyday, me however hardly uses mine my little boy school is down the road so wouldn't need it for school run.
Money is very tight and just feel running 2 cars for little amount I use mine is silly. And my parents have said I can use there car if I need it they leave close to us.
What would others do is anyone else a 1 car family.

Do you have the money to buy a new car?

We managed with one car for years
its perfectly doable in your situation
why isn’t your DH keen?

We would have about 3k to get something new my husband is a mechanic so would find something that needed a little work doing and fix it up himself or we would just use my husband car he already got

I really don't no it makes perfect sense in my head. I'm not overly keen on driving anyway and don't drive far.

We have 1 car and it's fine. We do however live on an excellent bus route that goes directly into a major city with good onward transport options and we both work hybrid with flexibility on office days. It works fine so long as you have other transport options so you don't become isolated. We did live temporarily in the arse end of nowhere a few years ago (no busses, miles from the nearest train station) and did buy a cheap car for the time we were there then sold it when we moved.

We only have one car, got rid of the second when we realised that the cost of running it was more than the cost of getting taxis the few times we used both cars at once. However I should caveat that by saying neither of us regularly drive to work and we live in London where there is no shortage of public transport.

It sounds sensible, although I would beware of losing any confidence you have in driving by driving even less than you currently do.

It sounds like you'd have access to one in an emergency though which is the main thing.

I was going to say I'd find it really restrictive not having a car to use all day BUT, the fact you have already said you use it very little, and that, if and when you do need one, you can use your parents' car, makes it a no brainer.
By selling yours, even if you don't get much for it, you'll no longer be paying the tax or insurance nor for maintenance, and would not really miss it.

We have never considered a second car, usage just doesn’t warrant it. H drives to work, I take the train. Kids walk / bus to school. But I live in london with great transport links.

We’ve always been a one car family. When the children were small DH needed the car for work so from 6:30 to 19:30 every day I had no car (yes he had a two hour+ each way commmute). Their school was just a mile away and I was a SAHM so no issue there. Then he changed job to a train journey away and I could use the car if I wanted to. Now I use the car for work and he predominantly works from home (children grown up). Very occasionally having a second car would be useful but not enough to justify two lots of insurance.