Posted By Laura in Other Stuff | 1 comment

Now that there’s a possibility of us getting a car in the near(ish) future, I’m flip-flopping. I definitely thing the benefits of being carless have outweighed the drawbacks. Possibly. Most of the time anyway.

On the plus side, there’s the exercise we’re all getting; the extra time that I spend with the boys, chatting about our day, spotting things on the canal – in fact, just to think we never would have seen the dozens and dozens of ducklings we’ve spent the last few weeks feeding is enough to convince me that we’re better off not having a car.

But then there’s the fact that we haven’t been able to really go anywhere. The upside of that is that we’ve spent less money and enjoyed our immediate area much more than I would have thought, but we haven’t been able to visit family or just take off for the day if we needed a break or the weather was particularly nice.

And then there have been the other little inconveniences: running out of food, having to do our “big shop” online and remember to pick up milk whenever we see it; the grandparents always having to collect and return the boys when they go to stay; not being able to go out for dinner since there are no good restaurants within walking distance (or even on a bus route).

The best thing has almost certainly been the saving money-wise. Cars are so ridiculously expensive to buy and run and now that we’ve started talking about buying a new one, the thought of how much it will add to our budget is enough to bring me out in hives. In fact, I do wonder if it would be better to stay carless as long as possible (there’s no way we could manage without one once David’s office moves next year). Couldn’t we just try to manage as locally as possible and hire a car whenever we need to go further afield? But then I think about how much better life was when we had the Skoda and I change my mind again.

Maybe I’ll toss a coin…

—
Keris Stainton

Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” – Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake

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