I was chatting with my mom about ways to save money and/or make money and she thought I should do a post about the expenses associated with the varying methods to get to and from work to see if there was an opportunity to save there.
Due to the distance, I explored driving (what I currently do), transit, and biking (i excluded walking).
On face value, and cost alone - it would make sense to bike. That said, I could only bike for 3 or 4 months in the summer - and it would add an extra 4 hours to my day. Considering I'm trying to work OT and I'm bringing my horse to the city - I don't want to give up that much time.
So then we can look at transit and driving. Again - on the surface it would make the most sense to take transit. I would save about $86/month. That said, if I started taking transit to work - it doesn't mean that I would stop driving my car. I still need transportation for traveling to visit my family, for driving out to see my horse (soon), for buying groceries ect. I need that independence. In the chart above, I used $25/gas for driving to and from work - which I think is pretty accurate. In a month I probably spend about $50/month in total.
I think that if I were to take transit to work, and keep my car for the rest of my day-to-day stuff, it would look something like this:
In this chart I increased the amount of Gas to consider driving as well as my day-to-day driving around.To summarize, I think that if I took transit to work and kept my car. I would spend $104/month more then I do now.
In this chart, I kept gas at $25, assuming that I wouldn't be driving to work, but would everywhere else.
So - there you have it. I'll just keep on driving and continue to shun transit.
Well it's good you researched it!! :)
ReplyDeleteI wish I paid $50/month in gas. I spend $50/week!!!
Only because of the paper route, but still.
I actually meant biking to "entertainment", for fun and excercise: that sort of thing. How friendly to bike traffic is the neighborhood you live in. Maybe you could drive just a little less??
ReplyDeleteohhh well, I see.
ReplyDeleteI think Lindsay Link text looked into how bike friendly Calgary is.. and I think it's okay for things that are nearby - so Chinook Mall/Movie theater/bowling. However; not so much for any great distances.
Calgary doesn't have the special lanes for biking, and your not supposed to have bikes on the sidewalks. I'm not very confident about biking in traffic...
I did buy a used bike not too long ago ($50) because my $250 bike was stolen out of my back yard last summer! So Jordan and I really ought to start using them more often. The used one needs a tune up though before I can ride it as the chain is a little loose.
That said - if we arn't going to use them, perhaps I should sell mine in a yard sale. Lindsay was talking about wanting to do that (have a yard sale, not sell my bike)
@ Frugal - I spend about $50/month now, but when I start driving out to see Star (my horse) it will defn. go up! This is one reason why it may be more cost effective to find somewhere closer to home, even if it costs more.
ReplyDeleteI calculated the costs of transportation a while ago because I drive a round-trip 22 miles a day and there's not a convenient transit opportunity. Even though it does cost a lot in gas, I know a lot of people who own a car and end up paying a lot more in transit.
ReplyDelete