So…
We’re a one car family. Have been for years. Totally happy that way – really – even when it was a little inconvenient.No car payments is a beautiful thing that has allowed us to make the budget one line shorter and let us worry about one less thing.
This week my darling husband has a week of training that’s not part of his normal Fri/Sat/Sun shift (known hereafter as the “weekend job” or “weekend shift” so it stays clear this is in addition to, not in place of, his business. I could also refer to the job as “health insurance” to get the point across but that just seems like overkill.)
Him training all week and not having any public transportation options to get to his location makes being a one-car family a special kind of how the heck am I going to get a baby and a kid to and from school nightmare.
He is supposed to, I think, work two days of overtime a week in addition to his three day work week after this training week is over. If the overtime is on the overnight shift – like the weekend gig – it won’t affect our one-car lifestyle at all. On the other hand, if it is a day or afternoon shift , well, there needs to be a solution.
Our solution for this week – that may or may not branch out to future weeks depending on how it goes – is to rent a car. We checked all the local places and Enterprise had the best deal by far. We signed up for the e-Plus thing which is great for people who want a special line at the airport and stuff like that, but for us it’s going to be a combination of the elusive “special e-mail offers” (whatever that means) and just being able to hand over the card instead of reciting name/address/etc. every time. I think it even keeps us in the system so we don’t have to show a utility bill every time we rent. The utility bill isn’t for everyone. It’s for the people who rent a car using a Debit Card – which is fine by me. As long as they allow me to live in my credit-free world and still score a vehicle I’m a happy woman and willing to make a little extra effort.
I wish I had already gone through a lot more classes. Especially the one that teaches me how to do a cost-benefit analysis. I’d love to put a couple days of car rental next to buying a used car next to getting a newer used car to see, overall, what made most financial sense. With the grand total for three days of the compact car being a nudge under $80 … it sort of seems like that might be a better option than actually owning another car
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