will i be able to cope with one family car?

[lucia1987]

Hi...

Im currently on mat leave... We have two cars.

Im thinking of getting rid of mine, paying off the finance... This is so i dont have to return to work and to focus on bringing my daughter up until shes nursery age.

We will still have my husbands car.

Am i mad to get rid of my car? I have my mum to help me out... And i could walk and get the bus.

I just have the opportunity to bring my little girl up full time! But i need to get rid of my car to free up cash in the mean time.

Has anyone else gone from 2 cars to 1? How did you cope? Yey or ney? Views please xx

Depends on where you live I guess. With my first baby with lived in a large town and so we never used the car. With my second we are on the outskirts of a village so take it everywhere.

I'm sure it is possible. Most sahm didn't have a car when I grew up in the 1980s.

or you could just buy something for under £1000 to get you around if you find you need a car.

Well, there are several variables to consider here...

1. How much are your cars worth? How much is insurance? Can you downgrade one or both?
2. How essential is it for your partner to have the car everyday? I grew up in a one-car household, but it was my mum who had it most of the time... My dad lift-shared, or my mum dropped him at work before she dropped us at school. If your partner were to agree to a day or two per week of public transport, it might give you the flexibility to arrange appointments/supermarket/outings for those days.
3. How committed is your household to you taking the maximum maternity leave? Some people would make any number of changes to accommodate it, others relatively eager to get back to work. Only you know.

we went from 2 cars to 1. because we hardly used the second one.
we lived a few minutes walk from town.

when dcs where tiny dh worked shifts and could car share so if I ever needed the car it was always available. I worked part-time then.
when dcs started school I started working from home.

dcs now 12 and 14 and dh still lift shares once or twice a week anyway, so I have the car then. Could your dh do this?
Now although we've moved further out of town, we still have lots of amenities/friends/family nearby,we've still only got 1 car and I walk the 15 minutes walk into town if I need.

also regular buses go from the end of the road if needed, but 99% of the time I'd rather walk.
I've probably missed having my own car half a dozen times in all those years tbh.

Definitely get rid of the second car. They are so expensive! We run 2 cars so I know. We both need cars for our jobs (a lot of out of hours working) so no way can we get rid of one.
Do the buses do a monthly bus pass? We can get bus passes for our town or a pass to include towns within 40 miles.

We only have one but both of us now use public transport to get to work. I wouldn't have wanted to be without it while home with the children when they were small. Can your OH get to work without the car so you can use it?

We don't have a car at all.

As others have said, it all depends on where you live and what you want to do. Is there a car club where you live?

We live within walking distance of the town centre, so most of our activities are there. It's a bit limiting - we can't easily get to tumble tots at the church hall on the other side of town, for example - but it's better than owning a car! We use taxis and the car club when we need to get somewhere that isn't public transportable.

Like everyone else has said, it really depends on where you live. If you have friends who live a walk/short ride away, if amenities are close by and there are activities you can get to easily, you probably won't regret it much at all.

However, don't forget that outings with a new baby require a lot of 'stuff' and walking/using public transport can seem hard work if you're used to using a car. Which isn't to say it isn't do-able as loads of people with children cope without a car. Just don't underestimate the emotional wobble you might have at first when you feel your independence and convenience has been taken away.

Congratulations on your baby.

We don't have a car at all. Never had two cars in 25 years... But depending on where you live, you will have different solutions.

Start with: internet supermarket shopping; think about ways DH can get to work without the car on days when you definitely need it; think about how often your mum might let you use her car; think about cycling as well as the bus (but only if there is somewhere very safe).

There are lots of reasons for going back to work when the DC are little, but paying a car debt on a second car doesn't seem like a good one to me: I would go for it, and drop the second car.

Didn't have a car (DH did) till DS1 was 2yr old. We had/have good local bus service and remember DS1 enjoying riding on the bus and chatting to boring the tits off anyone

It was abit tricky getting groceries but obviously now they do home deliveries but I used to use DH's car and go after DS was in bed.

Do consider what it'll be like in winter/crap weather to walk and does your local bus service still manage to have regular service on.

But enjoy DD full time

Forgot to say the health benefits are fab and was trimmer/fitter then from all the walking and enjoyed looking at nebbing and pinching ideas peoples gardens as we walked past.