Try Car Sharing

by David
(Rockaway, NJ)

First, car sharing should be voluntary. Sitting in a metal box with someone that annoys you for an hour is just going to make your life, and theirs, miserable.

Second, sharing cars means sharing diaries. Sharing a car with someone means you share the timing of their working day. That is something to be clear about. Your time becomes so much more valued.

One of the first advantages is that you sleep better. It is genuinely stress relieving to be driven from home to work. Being driven to work by someone makes you feel good, positive and important. Driving someone makes you feel valued, in control and generous. Sitting in a box with someone, that you can talk to, improves your well being and makes you consider what you want out of working.

Your time starts to have more quality. Pairs of car sharers immediately halve their outgoings on transport costs.

That saving is financially significant. It also doubles the reliability of sharers in being able to get to work. That reliability reduces the risks around losing a car and increases the sense of employment security. By budgeting car share savings into reducing the highest interest credit debts, car sharing promotes a more effective use of existing incomes and reduces long term outgoings.

This is, again, a small step but it enhances your sense of worth and puts money into its place: working for you not running your life. The reductions in transportation costs are both obvious and immediate.

But the cost reduction is pointless if it is not usefully employed elsewhere. If you save from car sharing, then take the saving and apply it to debt reduction. Honestly and openly doing that with your car sharing partner also creates a stronger social network.

After car sharing for eighteen months I directly saved over £6,000 (about $10,000) but also enhanced my conversation skills, learned several useful things from an electrician, got rid of my credit card, extended the life of my car and consider living frugally a viable way to go.

My day to day living cost is now less than it used to be. The real regret is that my former car share partner has now moved to a well deserved, better, job.

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