Should You Become a One Car Household?

With the price of cars and auto loans constantly on the rise, becoming a one-car household has been looking more and more appealing to me. I shared before how my husband and I are planning to never get another car loan again and I still firmly stand behind that stance.

We still have our own cars and we plan to drive them into the ground before we switch to a one car household.

To be honest though, the decision to become a one car household did not come easy as I’ve always had my own car and still do. There are many factors to consider and address. If you’ve been considering downsizing to a one car household as well, I encourage you to be mindful of all the pros and cons.

Here are a few reasons why we decided the choice was best for us.

Spend Less on Insurance

It’s a crime not to have auto insurance in the U.S. Luckily, my husband and I haven’t even really needed to utilize our insurance benefits for the past few years but it still stings to send in our payments each month.

Right now, we’re spending around $1,428 annually for auto insurance. Granted, this is after I reduced my coverage but it’s still quite a bit of money. If we could cut that amount down significantly, I’d love to use the extra money elsewhere in our budget.

With just one car, I’m sure we could save exponentially in this particular area.

Spend Less on Maintenance

I don’t even want to get into how much money we spend on maintenance for our cars between getting oil changes, rotating our tires and fixing any other issues that come up. With just one car, my husband and I can split all these costs and again, spend less money overall.

My Flexible Work Schedule

My flexible work schedule is another reason why we know becoming a one car household will be best. Back when I used to work at an office every day, our idea of having only one car wouldn’t work because my husband also worked during similar hours and I depended on him to help with certain responsibilities.

Now that I work from home, I can earn money without having a car. It will be much easier to share a car with my husband because I can drop him off at work some days when I have errands and we already live close by lots of stores and local resources.

Simply put, getting by without having a car some days won’t be extremely difficult given my current work situation and our current location.

Some Potentials Cons We’ve Realized

This idea of becoming a one-car household is not completely unflawed as I realize that there are some cons to consider. First off, we will both probably be less mobile when we start sharing a car and as a result we’ll get less done in a typical day.

My husband and I often split up errands and that will be hard to do with one car. Plus, if one of us wants to go somewhere for the day or for a few hours, we’ll need to work around each other’s schedule.

Plus, when we share one car, I don’t think my husband will be able to drive for Uber or Lyft as much. Right now, that’s his primary side hustle and helps him earn thousands extra per year.

With one car, he wouldn’t be able to drive as much. Plus, I’m figuring sharing a car would put more wear and tear on that one vehicle since it wouldn’t get much of a break.

Ultimately, The Numbers Work Out

All in all, given all the pros and cons of this decision, we’re still confident that sharing a car in the future will be the best decision for us because the numbers work out. We will save a ton of money and probably won’t need to side hustle that much as a result.

My husband usually Ubers at night anyway which wouldn’t really disrupt my schedule so we still could do a few nights a week if he wanted to.

Becoming a one car family also coincides with my intention to live a frugal and simple lifestyle so I can meet other financial goals like investing in my retirement and prioritizing experiences more over things.

All things considered, we still have quite a bit of time before we actually act on our decision which is nice. Currently, both of our cars are paid off. I drive a 2010 and my husband drives a 2006.

Both cars still work pretty well and don’t have any major issues so I really hope we can continue to keep our cars for the next 3-4 years. That would give us enough time to save up to buy our shared car in cash along with enough time to adjust to the change.

Have you ever thought about becoming a one-car household? Why or why not?