Lord, I was born a homebody
Trying to make a living and doing the best I can
And when it's time for saving
I hope you'll understand
Cus I was born a homebody.
Trying to make a living and doing the best I can
And when it's time for saving
I hope you'll understand
Cus I was born a homebody.
Welcome to the March Challenge, the next in a series of monthly challenges designed to get you thinking more about how easily your hard-earned money's spent.
The March Challenge seeks to raise awareness of how much you rely on your car or SUV every day. Sure, you've got to get to work and drop the kids off here or there, but have you ever stopped to think how much those little trips add up in terms of both wear and tear on the car and consumption of gas?
If you'd like to participate in the March Challenge, set your car's odometer to 0 today. Throughout the month, the challenge is to minimize the miles you put on your vehicle, whether by deferring trips until they can be consolidated with other errands or using alternative means of getting where you need to go.
Get creative by considering these options to driving:
* Consolidating driving trips
This is a big one. How many times have you sent your spouse out to the grocery store to pick up a single item? How many times do you run out to go somewhere during a single Saturday?
* Using public transportation
Not everyone has access to trains, subways or buses but for those who do, public transit is one of the most under-utilized, taxpayer-subsidized deals around.
* Carpooling with neighbors or family to run errands
If one of your neighbors is a senior citizen, think what a nice gesture it would be to suggest you hit the supermarket together and take turns driving. If you're willing to help her load groceries in the trunk, you'll earn your Good Samaritan star for sure.
* Walking or bicycling
If you're lucky enough to live near town, keep the car in the garage and get some exercise while you run errands. Although I live in a spread out, suburban town, I often walk to our public library, the movie theater, a Chinese restaurant and a supermarket, when I only need a few items.
If you have more than one vehicle in your household or more than one family member who uses one vehicle, you'll have to sort out how to address that in the challenge. If you use your second vehicle to do all the driving this month, you're not really following the spirit of the challenge.
On March 31, we'll all report our mileage. The winner is the person who has driven the fewest miles between March 1 and March 31.
To get the most from the Challenge, I encourage you to continue tracking your mileage for the month of April (by setting your odometer back to 0 on April 1) so you can see how many fewer miles you can drive when you set your mind to it versus how many miles you drive according to your typical driving patterns.
Deduct Your Commute Miles
I realize that the playing field will not be completely level starting out, because many of us have sometimes lengthy commutes to work that we can't do much about. So I'm going to ask you to subtract from your total miles driven in March the mileage spent driving to and from work. If you don't already know how long a round trip takes, check your mileage when you drive in to work tomorrow.
While nearly all of us have other reasons why we must drive somewhere on a given day or a given week, whether it's visiting family, ferrying kids to softball practice or simply heading out to buy the week's groceries, these are the trips where we can use our creativity and our organizational skills to consolidate and combine driving trips.
Becoming more aware of the miles we put on our vehicles can motivate us to consolidate and shorten our trips and save on energy costs. And who knows? Maybe some of the efforts you made during the Challenge to shave off a few miles here or there will become standard operating procedure in the months to come. While most of us can't expect to give up our cars entirely, small changes do add up. And that can only be a good thing for the budget!
Are you in?
March 1st, 2010 at 04:53 pm 1267462389
March 1st, 2010 at 05:07 pm 1267463258
March 1st, 2010 at 05:17 pm 1267463820
I even mapped out the usual places i go (school two night a week, sisters house, store etc.) to figure out approximatly what it should be.
March 1st, 2010 at 05:42 pm 1267465338
March 1st, 2010 at 06:10 pm 1267467056
March 1st, 2010 at 06:11 pm 1267467063
March 1st, 2010 at 06:20 pm 1267467649
March 1st, 2010 at 06:41 pm 1267468900
March 1st, 2010 at 08:35 pm 1267475709
March 1st, 2010 at 09:19 pm 1267478342
Not that he would mind if he was interested.
March 1st, 2010 at 09:42 pm 1267479778
March 1st, 2010 at 09:55 pm 1267480557
March 1st, 2010 at 10:51 pm 1267483885
March 2nd, 2010 at 01:06 am 1267492012
March 2nd, 2010 at 01:53 am 1267494789
March 2nd, 2010 at 03:16 am 1267499762
March 2nd, 2010 at 05:26 am 1267507614
Of course, this month sucks. Any other month, I might make the challenge to walk the kids to school more. (Then again, I probably go 0.2 miles out of the way - if that - to drop them off on my way to work?). Which means I could be super lazy and rack up all of 4 miles?
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:16 pm 1267532203
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:01 am 1267614110
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:35 am 1267616117
March 12th, 2010 at 05:33 pm 1268415193
Jerry