There’s a narrative people like to spin about car storage spots being necessary for local businesses to thrive.
As someone who doesn’t own a car, it annoys me every time I come across this argument. What not owning a car does is free up so much money to not throw down the car ownership drain. I could elaborate in this article on the other costs associated with owning a car (fuel, maintenance, etc.), but the comparable cost for car insurance is $0 if you just don’t drive, which makes the math easy. Plus, the money is undeniably leaving the community with the paltry exception of the few local people who work in car insurance sales, and the money is never coming back.
On average, it looks like people in my age bracket are spending somewhere around $1,000 yearly on insurance alone, and that’s if you don’t have any accidents. $83 monthly. $21 weekly. That’s enough to have a little discretionary spending every week. Here are some things to do to keep the money in the community every week instead of going to insurance giants (and as a bonus, you don’t have to trek out to the suburbs to do any of these! Everything is walk, bike, or busable).
Fuel up with burrito from a taco truck and relax with a beer and some sports on the TV at a local brewery. Enjoy some music with a couple tickets to a show at a tiny venue, watch a play at a different tiny venue, or get a real cinema experience at a small movie theater (when it is a good idea to do those things again for you). Bring home a small piece of art from an art fair. Get crafting supplies locally instead of from amazon.
Clean your body with a couple of fancy soap bars from a vendor at the farmers market. Buy a meal for someone hungry. Pick up the tab at a restaurant or take-out place for a friend’s meal. Pay for a bread subscription for delicious bread made by a couple of local bakers. Get a pie from the pie place that’s so good you have to enter a lottery to be able to buy one.
Or have a week of car insurance. Up to you.
Shop local: shop carfree.
