One-car family gets by just fine
'JUST SAY NO' | They find a carpool, walk or just stick close to home
If you think your family can't survive with just one car -- think again, says Downers Grove resident Sara Bieda.
Bieda, who has three daughters, ages 4, 5 and 8, said her family has been saving by skipping a second car since 2004.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
"I don't know any other family of five that only has one car, and people say to me 'Oh, we could never do that,' " she said. "You know, if you tried, maybe you could."
"You get rid of insurance, get rid of repairs, get rid of gas on a second car. That's been tremendous," she said.
Bieda, a stay-at-home mom, said she and her husband, Tony, an information technology manager who works in downtown Chicago, manage as a one-car family by keeping it simple.
"It is a problem sometimes when we need to be different places at the same time," she said. But over the past four years, they've had to rent a car only three or four times.
"We walk if we can walk," she said. "Even our 4-year-old can walk a mile or run a mile or ride her bike a mile. But for the most part, we have just figured out how to carpool. We just find a way, or we just don't do it. If you just say no to stuff, you'll find that you don't miss it, and you're actually probably more relaxed anyway because you're not running around like a crazy person."
The Biedas, who own a 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan, were a two-car family until they sold their 1999 Subaru Legacy Wagon in 2004.
"My husband prefers to walk or ride his bike to the train station," so the Subaru would often go unused, she said. "We felt it was wasteful."
When they bought the minivan, they chose the one with the best gas mileage.
Bieda said the family budget has taken a hit this year because of higher food and gas prices. "Everything has gone up," including the family summer pool membership, which jumped from $550 to $780.
So she has cut the family's budget. Last year, each child picked an activity, such as ballet or karate.
"We skipped that this year," she said. "Their activities are pretty much the pool or free stuff or home. We have been spending a lot more time in the backyard."
What are you doing to make ends meet? Write to psmith@suntimes.com.