Tiara wrote with the following money hack:
This is aimed at people who generally drive or take public transport to work/university/etc, but who could easily cycle or walk the same distance. Each time you cycle/walk instead of driving/using public transport to your destination, pay yourself the equivalent fare. If it costs you $2 for a bus to the city, for example, and you’ve decided to walk there instead, keep the $2 in a savings box. If the trip would have cost you about $5 worth of petrol, and you’ve opted to cycle, pay yourself that $5. Do this for about a month.
By the end of the month, you will have saved a substantial amount of money. (You should also be seeing some improvements in your health as you gain extra exercise!)
This is a variation on a tip I’ve shared a couple of times before, but I still think it’s effective: replace something that costs money with something less expensive, and then bank the difference. Thanks, Tiara, for sharing this. If you have a great tip, send it to ![[tips *at8.} moneyhacks .%dot! org]](http://www.moneyhacks.org/images/tips.jpg){kind=small}
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Ooh! Good idea! Now if only they would make helmets that wouldn’t make you look like a dork.
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@Snarla
You shouldn’t need a helmet to walk. If so, then maybe its just safer on the bus.
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Snarla-
Try a Bell Metro:
http://tinyurl.com/3m8d7
-Norman
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Heck, every time you take public transportation, you should be paying yourself the difference between the bus ticket and gas/parking.
Love the site, keep it up!
-Rachel
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This is how I started my first emergency fund! Each time I did wash at my parents’ house, I threw $5 in a jar (two loads, wash & dry). I soon began dropping any found money, spare change, tax returns, and allowance remnants in there, including a quarter each time I started a new game on my Playstation. Over 8 years it turned into $5,000!
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Of course, this only works in a large city with good public transport, and someplace to actually ride your bike on the road. In Harrisburg, PA you are asking to be killed if you ride your bike to work.
Also, if the distance is close enough to walk, then paying yourself the difference in cost between walking & driving will amount to nearly nothing:
Gas– $2.75 / gallon
Car gets– 24 mpg (terrible, I know)
Cost to drive 1 mile– ~12 cents
So I would save 24 cents each (working) day if I drove to work, which works out to be about 60 dollars a year. I guess it’s something, but then again, walking a mile takes about 15-20 minutes, and driving a mile takes about 2. That is a healthy trade-off, to me. But I’m very very lazy.
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Ryan, shouldn’t you add 3-8 cents per mile for maintenance costs?
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This is an okay idea, but I was doing the math and it doesn’t add up for me. I know it costs me around 10 cents per mile in gas to drive my Saturn around town. In order to save just $5 in one day, I would have to bike 25 miles to work and 25 back.
It’s the hidden savings that should really matter. My car is getting old, so maintenance is getting expensive; it might be worth it to bike to work to save maintenance costs from wear/tear. Further, it might save me money in the long run by making me healthier and needing to pay less in medical fees.
If you took this to an extreme, you could save a lot of money. Sell your car, cancel your car insurance, and bike everywhere. Invest your car money and your gas/insurance savings, and you’ll be saving/earning hundreds every month.
I would have a hard time doing this though, because my girlfriend lives 17 miles away. It’s only 6.5 miles to work though, I could swing that. If I owned a bike.
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Not feasible for me.
Living in Manhattan is a blessing because of the usually decent public transportation. But living 200 blocks from work means walking is out of the question and there is no safe bike route. A $76 month subway card (which I pay with pretax dollars so it is more around 50%) is very convenient.
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Of course not only do you get the benefit of saving the cash, but you get some health benefits too, which we all know could end up saving you big time on medical bills in the future!
Hi Martin, I also live in Manhattan so may I suggest you try putting away any money you might spend on cabs whilst out on the town and force yourself take the subway in those situations? (if you are ever in those situations where you might take a cab) Additionally maybe you want to make some sort of deal with yourself that you will walk anywhere less than two subway stops away and put away a symbolic $2. I know the metrocard is unlimited after the payment, but its just an idea.
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If you have a fuel efficient car ( and depending on the mileage and where you live, parking situation,etc) it often costs less to drive than take public transportation ( and many have no such option anyway) and is probably less costly than walking.
And in many cases it wouldn’t save all that much or be practical to walk. Of course it did say people ” who could easily cycle or walk the same distance.”
My last job was 8 miles each way and cost me about $1-1.50 per day in fuel. Walkng 16 miles would have really cost me a lot more than that, probably 4-5 hours of sleep and other costs. I could have cycled and only lost an hour of sleep and put myself in a little more danger. That was when I lived really close. When I moved to the next closest town it was 30 miles- costing maybe $6- but I cant even fathom the cost to bike or walk 60 miles a day.
I guess this mostly applies to people who live really close to work and I guess to an extent- urban areas.
It also usually costs more to live close to work ( again depending on where you live and where you work). That’s why a lot of suburbanites will commute an hour or 2 ( or more) to work.
I like to look at other costs- like time in lost sleep, time with loved ones,etc. I make sure to get my exercise in other ways. I have had jobs where I worked 7 days a week at 5am and would be completely exhausted by the time I got home. Adding any additional time or stress to save a buck would have been meaningless.
If I lived a couple blocks from work ( or maybe even a mile or so. In the “old days” I walked a mile each way to school and my first job)- Sure I would walk. Would be a no-brainer. Cycling would get a little more distance but would depend more on street safety,etc.
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Cycling is my choice for recreation and by riding to and from work each day I save a lot of money. It’s not so much that I save on the daily fuel costs but the fact that with me cycling, we can be a one car family.
We save by not paying for another car, repairs, insurance, registration, parts etc.
I spent $70 yesterday on a few bits and pieces for my bike. What I bought will last for months, maybe years. With a car I’d be paying around that much each week on fuel and then more on all the rest.
Every couple of months I treat myself, as I did yesterday, by purchasing biking stuff. My cycling to work pays for my recreation and a whole lot more.
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I walk about 2 miles to work every day in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, I have to cut back on that during the summer, or else I will arrive at work soaked in sweat (I generally have to wear a jacket and tie, and I don’t really have anywhere to change at the office).
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Don’t rule out motorcycling. You can reduce fuel cost to much less than 20%, depending on the motorcycle choice, and not lose time. In fact, often you will save time in busy traffic where filtering laws allow you to pass traffic at the lights.
Danger levels are higher than driving but no more than cycling. (probably less due to lower relative speeds with traffic compared to cycling)
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You also save time (and maybe money) for physical exercise! By cycling you use the “dead” time which you use for commuting also for something valuable.
Of course, moving your flat near to work is probably much better for your wallet and your schedule than just switching the means of transportation, but sometimes you cannot choose.
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I do this, I moved closer to work and gave up my bus pass and invested the money. I didn’t measure how well I’ve done, but I now know that I prefer walking to work to any other form of commuting.
I also second the suggestion to give up the car if practical. It has the additional benefit of stopping me buying lots of things at the shops as I have to carry them home.
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I have cultivated the habit of taking public transportation to work.
Well — it all started out of necessity since I didn’t have a drivers’ license until I was 24. Still, I’ve had a car since then, and at various times I’ve used it exclusively. However when I started getting serious about paying off debt I realized that I was spending a small fortune on my downtown commute. Between gas and parking averaging $10/day I was shelling out some bucks.
I am fortunate to live in a metro area with excellent public transportation, and I live only a little over a mile from my nearest trainstop. I can walk, drive or take a bus from my complex to the train stop, which drops me off a block from work.
I usually last 3-5 weeks on a tank of gas now since I drive so little. I’m also saving money since I need maintenance less frequently and I took steps to reduce my car insurance.
I buy a bus pass for $54/month, or ~$1.80 a day. The best part is that my employer has a program where you can withhold the cost of your bus pass from your pre-tax income and get reimbursed for it, so I get a little tax deduction!
Public transportation is a great benefit to anybody lucky enough to live near it.
db
http://www.debtblitzkrieg.com
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P.S. — Oh, and the bonus? My public library is located on the same block as my train stop, so it’s helped me cultivate the library vs. buying books as well.
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This is something that’s just hit me: normally I cycle to uni, but I sprained my ankle and have had to catch the bus. Not only does it take me up to an hour instead of 15 minutes, but I always need cash on me to buy a ticket (as it’s temporary, it’s not worth getting a pass) and it’s costing me about $15/week just in tickets, and means that I spend more time around the shopping centre the bus goes from, and am more reluctant to come home in a long break period to get lunch so I’ve been buying lunch. I can’t wait till I can ride again!
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My employer pays for my bus pass so I use it for trips where riding my bike my not be feasible or safe such as in bad weather.
Also there is a bill before congress which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters. The legislation would provide a tax benefit to employers who offer cash reimbursements to an employee who commutes by bicycle, while helping defray the costs of commuting for the bicyclist.
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Haa Haa…. I live in a large city and HAVE a subway card, yet lately I have been DRIVING into work and parking in a parking garage. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I just got SICK of public transportation. Plus, driving to work got me there in half the time. The only downside to this is I was paying $20.00 a day to park! This week, I have been forcing myself to take public transportation again and keeping the $20.00 in a cookie jar. It’s adding up fast!
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