Leta
Lovin' The Homestead
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- May 19, 2011
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I'm not sure if this goes here, please move it if it belongs somewhere else.
I've been thinking a lot about the ridiculous amount of money that we spend on vehicles.
We are lucky enough to have a fairly good bus system where I live (U.P. of MI, north central region). It visits many far flung, podunk areas. The university here has contracted with the bus so that if you show a uni ID, you ride for free. Kids under 6 ride free, 6 and over cost eighty cents. They do door-to-door service, too, but that costs $5, more for multiple people and stops.
Biking is HUGE here. I swear, everyone who lives within the city limits and works at the college bikes to work. Our friend's brother works at the power plant and lives 18 miles away, he bikes to work and back, but he has showers at work that he can use.
I have met folks who ride their horses to work. Now, that's rare, even here. In one case it's a veterinarian, in another it was a lady who worked at a one-light town's general store that had a fenced pasture in the back, the other was a kid who worked at the feed store in a rural area. The rest have been farriers and trainers.
There are taxis in the biggest city here (population 20,000). They will pick you up and take you back to the city for $20 if you are within 15 miles. Round trip would be $40, but I was thinking if you had things well planned an only did this once a month, that would be WAY cheaper than car ownership.
We are still in town (two towns over and 15 miles from the biggest city) and my husband (who works at the college) is literally the first person there in the morning, so his shift is too early to ride the bus. But that will not be the case forever, as we are planning on him moving to a later shift, nine month position once we move out of town. We are thinking of looking for places that are on or very close to a bus route so that we are not so dependent on our cars. I want to go back to school to become a nurse, so being on a bus route would benefit me, too, but I have also been looking into work at home jobs- for my current skill set, or as an Ask A Nurse, for example.
We have also thought about trying to farm in or near the college and hospital, but the problem with that is that between the increased cost of real estate and the legal battles, whatever savings we'd realize by minimizing car use would be eaten up.
I do a good amount of online shopping, but I have been thinking that I would start ordering a lot more from sites like soap.com and alice.com if we were carfree. I'd probably sew more, too, and buy more used clothes from eBay rather than the thrift store.
I would love to hear other people's ideas and experiences with this.
I've been thinking a lot about the ridiculous amount of money that we spend on vehicles.
We are lucky enough to have a fairly good bus system where I live (U.P. of MI, north central region). It visits many far flung, podunk areas. The university here has contracted with the bus so that if you show a uni ID, you ride for free. Kids under 6 ride free, 6 and over cost eighty cents. They do door-to-door service, too, but that costs $5, more for multiple people and stops.
Biking is HUGE here. I swear, everyone who lives within the city limits and works at the college bikes to work. Our friend's brother works at the power plant and lives 18 miles away, he bikes to work and back, but he has showers at work that he can use.
I have met folks who ride their horses to work. Now, that's rare, even here. In one case it's a veterinarian, in another it was a lady who worked at a one-light town's general store that had a fenced pasture in the back, the other was a kid who worked at the feed store in a rural area. The rest have been farriers and trainers.
There are taxis in the biggest city here (population 20,000). They will pick you up and take you back to the city for $20 if you are within 15 miles. Round trip would be $40, but I was thinking if you had things well planned an only did this once a month, that would be WAY cheaper than car ownership.
We are still in town (two towns over and 15 miles from the biggest city) and my husband (who works at the college) is literally the first person there in the morning, so his shift is too early to ride the bus. But that will not be the case forever, as we are planning on him moving to a later shift, nine month position once we move out of town. We are thinking of looking for places that are on or very close to a bus route so that we are not so dependent on our cars. I want to go back to school to become a nurse, so being on a bus route would benefit me, too, but I have also been looking into work at home jobs- for my current skill set, or as an Ask A Nurse, for example.
We have also thought about trying to farm in or near the college and hospital, but the problem with that is that between the increased cost of real estate and the legal battles, whatever savings we'd realize by minimizing car use would be eaten up.
I do a good amount of online shopping, but I have been thinking that I would start ordering a lot more from sites like soap.com and alice.com if we were carfree. I'd probably sew more, too, and buy more used clothes from eBay rather than the thrift store.
I would love to hear other people's ideas and experiences with this.
