Day 10 with no power here, folks. With the Nor’easter on the way this evening, our house will be uninhabitable for sure. I have to admit that I am getting to the end of my rope, but it is merely a “heat” issue, not anything else. The good news: It’s my Birthday!
With the power outage came the gas shortage, and as I mentioned in previous posts, our cars were out of commission. One is completely dead (not a battery issue) and the other had no gas in it until yesterday. Therefore, the family heel-toed it everywhere we needed to go.
Now I know this will be preaching to the choir for all of my NYC friends, but I am here to state that I do not see any reason for my family to own 2 cars. I am going to spend the next 4 months putting my theory to the test, and if I am correct….BYE BYE car!
Four short years ago I had a triangle commute: NJ to Brooklyn (40 miles), Brooklyn to my College job in NJ (30 miles), and College back home (10 miles). 80 miles a day plus tolls added up to $250 in gas, $600 in tolls (!!!), and whatever amount in depreciation in my vehicle. I owned a very nice car, since I justified being in it so much in order to own it, so let’s tack on a $400 car payment to that.
I spent $1250/month in freaking transportation costs without counting vehicle depreciation!!
I admit, life has been way better since getting a job 1 mile away from my home. I still commute to 2 colleges, 3 days a week, but it is a whole different ball game now.
Many of you may be identifying with my old commute to some degree or another, but let me say this: I was an idiot for moving farther away from a job I had as opposed to closer. These are choices we make.
What could I have done with an extra $1250/month? Let’s see, I could have
1.) Taken on an extra $100,000 in mortgage to break even and live closer,
2.) Live half as far away and save $600-$700 a month,
3.) Uhhhhh…….Live right there in a cheap home and put $1250 to college funds for my kids and/or retirement!!
Anyway, the commute is gone (more or less) and I live rather close to work. If you check out the map below, try to picture my scene. The letters represent schools that I supervise in my district. School “H” is not pictured and can be found 1 mile south of school “D”. School “I”, also not pictured, is 1 mile north of school “G”. The distance between D and G is about 1.5 miles so you get an idea of scale. I live between D and G, and my office is at G. I spend 50% of my time at my office, and the rest of the time I need to spend at one of the other schools.
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