So to follow up the smart car, I have to admit something now, DH and I have completely stopped looking at cars.  We made a very conscious decision that even as our finances are getting better in someways, rising gas prices make bigger cars undesirable. 

We considered selling both our cars this summer and we would have about $8k from the sales. And we’d have another $3-5k saved to puchase a very decent cars for $12k.  Bigger sedan, probably we’d buy a subaru impreza or outback station wagon.

Anyway last night I mentioned how we had been considering selling our two cars for one nicer, newer, bigger car.  And DH said ”I don’t think it’s a good idea.”  Sure we’d save on insurance, but how much of that would be eaten up in gas costs?  AWD is not great for miles per gallon, but we still love snowboarding and on our dead end street it’d be fantastic.  So if we were buying a newer car we’d get the AWD we want. 

So we talked a bit more and while gas prices aren’t hurting us, we spend $120/month now and it will be $150/month from just increase in prices, it’s not horrible.  We fill one of our cars weekly or every 10 days.  But the truth is now it’s not the price of the vehicles holding us back, it’s the mileage.

We’d go from 30+ mpg to maybe 20 mpg.  This might increase our consumption to $200/month or more.  Plus AWD is more expensive to repair than either of our vehicles.  And we while we do carpool with each other and our roommate, we don’t need a larger car.

So this “recession” we’re in has forced us to reconsider moving up in car.  Instead we have decided it’s not worth it.  Maybe we’ll reconsider once we have kids, but for now, we’re sacrificing to live as cheap as possible.  By the way if you had told us 5 years ago we’d be making 6 figures and not buying a bigger car because of gas prices we would have laughed. 

Instead I wonder how people making less money manage to afford nicer cars that have horrible gas mileage?  If it were me, I might start crying at the pump.  At nearly $40 to fill our super tiny tanks DH nearly cried.  I can’t imagine us having a tank which cost $80-100.

 I imagine this summer’s rising prices will be crushing people’s budget.  I believe DH got a raise less than the increased cost of gas and utilities.  I’ll write later about how much our natural gas went up!  Just got the news in the MAIL today.