Life without a car

I know what you are all thinking..."they are insane!! They don't have cell phones or a car?!?" However, we've been thinking about selling the car for about a year now, simply because we thought we could live life without one. Getting rid of our cell phones was about saving us a little money over the summer, but since we haven't had them we honestly haven't really missed them. There are times when I'm at the store and it would be nice to ask Justin a question, but those times are really few and far between and not that big of a deal anyway. Our land-line is free and we can make long distant phone calls through google voice so we really aren't missing out on anything. The car was a more difficult decision though.

In Provo life without a car isn't too difficult. We live about 1 mile from work/school, which takes about 4 minutes to get to on the bike and about 10 minutes to get home, since its up hill. Our doctors office is at the BYU student health center, which is a 5 minute walk from our apartment, if that. The only hard part is grocery shopping, which is the reason we didn't sell the car sooner. The nearest grocery store to us is about 2 miles away. While that isn't that far, carrying loads of groceries that far can be quite taxing. The biggest draw back for us was the fact that without a car it would be really difficult to visit family members, since the public transportation system in Utah isn't really that great for commuting long distances.

However, as you all know we are moving to Florida in just over 1 month and the public transportation system there is wonderful! They have real time GPS, meaning I can get on their website and it will tell me exactly where the bus is at that very moment so when the bus gets close to the stop I want I can just walk down to it, no waiting around! Also, because Justin will be a UF student our whole family get free bus passes, and there is a bus stop literally right out our front door. Also, there is a grocery store right across the street, a 5 minute walk, and a Wal-Mart about 1.5 miles away, a 10 minute bus ride. We obviously won't be visiting much family in Florida, since we have none down there, so getting rid of the car in Florida made perfect sense for us. The hardest part will be getting to church, since it is a little further away and the buses don't run as frequently on Sundays, but its only a 30 minute walk and even shorter on bikes (I'll just have to make sure and wear shorts under my skirt!). We can take the bus if its raining or something, but it will take a little longer than usual, I can't remember exactly how long, but I want to say 30-40 minutes, but again I'm not sure.

So although you all may think we are straight crazy, we really have thought this through. Things may not be as convenient, but they are definitely doable. We actually already sold our car! We put it up on KSL on Tuesday at 9pm and by Wednesday at 4pm the guy had driven off with our beloved Camry. We were sad to see the Camry go, it was such a great car and we really liked it, but its also exciting to start our new adventure. Plus, it feels really great to be putting an extra $400 a month into our savings account!