I’ve got a relatively big choice to make in the next few months. I’m going to have to make my mind up whether or not to keep or sell my beloved Ford Focus; with the intention of being car-less from then on…

Now this might not seem like such a big choice to some but for me it’s like giving up something similar to a limb (bit dramatic I know) but I love my car, I love driving in general and I love the freedom having a car gives me. The reason I’m considering giving up this obsession of mine – which it clearly seems that it is – is that fuelling, maintaining and  all of the taxes/insurances that come along with a car are starting to make a dent in any spare money I seem to generate, in fact it’s completely wiping it out!

Luckily I have a bit of time to make the final decision as I need the car for the next few weeks with a couple of holidays and events coming up so really I’m looking to get all of my thoughts down on this idea and maybe get some other opinions to help with the final decision so feel free to comment if you like.

I guess the best place to start is to make a list of the positives and negatives, so here goes. Positives:

• Reduce my costs majorly: no more petrol, services, MOTs, insurance and new tyres etc
• More ability to have a drink after work or on evenings out where I’d normally drive
• Would give me the opportunity to possibly get a motorbike – at the moment the lack of money is holding me back
• Using public transport would generally mean more walking I guess which would be good for me to have a bit more  exercise

Negatives:

• lose the freedom to go anywhere whenever I want,
• shopping could be harder,
• the driving in general (think I could happily drive for a living),
• the car itself is pretty great, it’s the first car I’ve really been proud of so would be a shame to give it up
• would have to trudge about on public bloody transport

That shows it to be a relatively even I guess although the weighting of the positives could be considered a bit higher than the negatives despite how much they meant to me…

The alternatives aren’t actually all that bad either I guess, public transport is bad and I hate relying on it but I guess I would have time to do things – can’t exactly read a book going down the M40 at 70Mph. It might also give me the chance to learn to ride at last which I’ve been wanting to do for ages and keep getting reminded of thanks to a couple of my friends.

So there’s my dilemma, do I stick with the car and struggle for the next year or so with money or do I get shot of it and look at doing things a bit differently for a while? Help!