need commuting advice

[CelticTiger]

I'm relying on you clever people to critique my thinking.

Currently I drive 45 miles a day to and from work. (moving my job closer to home would involve a paycut and moving my life closer to work would involve moving costs which make the status quo the only option for now. To work closer to home I'd have to take a 9-23% pay cut to keep a 42.5 hour working week and my shift patterns could change. Currently Monday-Friday 9am-5.30pm. The next best offer in cash terms would mean working 45 hours with in effect no breks or 47.5-50 hours (legal loop holes) with breaks for nearly the same money but my shift pattern would mean being flexible over seven days and working anything from 7am to 11pm but I could work over four days.

I start work at 9am. The latest I can set off is 8.15am, depending on traffic I can be there in 25 min (mostly 70mph motorway). A relative works 4 miles from their house and crosses the city and has to leave for work at 8am to guarantee getting there on time (so I can't grumble in front of them). On my way home I can get back anytime between 6.15pm Mon-Tue-Wed and by Thursday-Friday due to crashes and volume of traffic 7pm (I finish 5.30pm).

Now for some mathematics

45 x 5 x 47 = 10575 miles per work year travelled. (i work 47 weeks a year).
My car does between 47-51mpg. So i will use 49 as the average.
10575/49 = 216 gallons of petrol consumed a year
x4.544= 980 litres of fuel per year (i'm from the UK so I have converted to litres from uk gallons
x £1.269 = cost of a litre of petrol = £1244 spent on fuel per year
to complicate matters due to petrol station rewards of £40 a year. so £1204

Obviously there are running costs and wear and tear to the car. I'm still trying to work that bit out apparently running costs are 29p per mile from official Hyundai figures but £3066 seems a lot for a year motoring. My gut instinct tells me £500-£1000 in mechanical wear and tear, £1244 in fuel and the rest depreciation? I'm not sure but there are costs.

The other immediate option I have is commuting via bus and train.
This means setting off at either 7.06am or 7.21am to arrive in work at 8.29am or 8.53am (I'd arrive early on Thursday and Friday and dependent on area or regional manager visits and workload).
On the way home, there's two routes and it also depends if I got out on time but i'd arrive home at either at 7.17pm or 7.28pm even if i was delayed by 30min.

The cost of this
Daily ticket c. £9 = c. 2k per yeaar
Weekly £27 = £1269 but public holidays would ruin it so up to £1404
Monthly £104 x52 = £1248 because i spread my holidays out
Quarterly £308 = 1232 a year
Yearly £1074.
To complicate matters I can buy the pass on a 0% credit card for 18 months. My mortgage is at 3.69% and I could then transfer the balance to a credit card for a 0.8% fee. so i'd temporarily overpay the mortgage whilst making minimum payments on the card. I reckon it would save me at least £40 but I need to find a slow stooz calculator (as some people call it) to get an accurate figure. My car insurance would be £40 cheaper if I stopped driving.

so lets say £994

so 1204 for the car minus 994 for public transport = £210 difference or £2100 over 10 years. (but wear and tear could increase the difference to £710 or 7.1k - (I always seem to need breaks and tyres and guaranteed to need oil)

For the record I have a 11 week old son and a 3 year old daughter and i'd feel guilty missing them but my wife reckons that my recent hospitalisation due to brain inflammation will be the death of me and is caused by stress. lol and commuting is part of that. The consultant didn't have the faintest idea why it happened but did all the scans and gave me the relevant treatment so I can't complain. 100% for treatment but not a clear diagnosis yet. Also, I love my wife and I didn't marry her to see less of her.....

Personally I feel I can adapt to the commute as it would give me more time to daydream/read/watch dvds/write/rest and I would arrive home calmer. I could see us selling the car if my commute was successful. I've had a few job offers recently that have tempted me but workload would increase and i'd have to work 11am-11pm which could be as bad as now. Everyday is groundhog day anyway haha.

I've told my wife to make the decision based on her heart and intuition (yeah I really said that haha) because to save a potential £700 is nothing if the misery costs more (retail therapy anyone? "Oh! I've saved so much now i can buy more!"

Until I'm back at the consultants (I was blind in one eye when they made their last assessment but i'm back to normal now but due to cock up they didn't do anything about my driving license and I'm more than legal to drive (had a private eye test)) in a few weeks I'm buying the weekly ticket (I have a holiday which makes the monthly one useless plus when I was in hospital I missed a few holiday days and I have to retake them as sick pay overrides holiday pay). So it's a 5 week trial.

To complicate matters I was asked to apply for my recently burnt out boss' job. Not much more pay less than 5% (i got paid 29% more than him_ , company car (save 1.2k and £500 insurance and £25 road tax) and tons more stress. 7-7 everyday and one in four weekends on top and could be away from home for a week around 4-5 times a year. I'm saying no, it seems to be the quickest way out of the company don't think any of my direct managers has lasted 2 years and his manager seems to get sacked or resign every 11 months, they never make it to the yearly meetings once introduced.

Cliff notes
- Arrrghhh!!!!! Everyday is groundhog day. What should I do with my life ERErs?? Can't move jobs because it is too easy and pays too much and can't move house yet due to the market without making a loss of a years saved pay.

- My gut instinct is co-ordinate my holidays to maximise monthly tickets and stick it out as long as i can but I promised to keep an open mind for five weeks (because what if I relapse etc)

Any thoughts, If you need any clarification please ask me questions. I want to get this right so don't be afraid to get nasty. I need reality. Whatever I do it's a matter of hanging in there.

your thoughts please

[saving-10-years]

I don't know how feasible this is in your context but my commute is 45 miles each way but when I broke my wrist and could not drive for a while I found someone within my department who commuted along the same route and we started sharing. Well better than that, she drove past my house so I paid towards her petrol costs and she drove. It added no distance to her commute at all. More recently I have found another person who also drives past my house so between these two I do not need to drive very often. Iam more than happy to share fuel costs.

Side benefit in working within the same organisation is that you get to disect the day's events with someone without it boring your spouse when you get home.

In the UK there are several car sharing sites which can put you into contact with lift sharees, but a notice at work might help? Its certainly worked well for me. Saved a lot of money and made the journey go faster.

[CelticTiger]

thanks saving-10-years I forgot to mention i've been on a few car sharing websites for about a year now and no bites

[henrik]

Obviously there are running costs and wear and tear to the car. I'm still trying to work that bit out

I've tracked my vehicle costs over 4 years with 2 different cars (not at the same time!) and my experience says fuels tends to be roughly half of the total expenses. The rest means basic liability insurance, minimum scheduled maintenance and whatever unexpected repairs come up. My yearly mileage, fuel cost and car fuel efficiency are quite similar to yours.

can't move house yet due to the market without making a loss of a years saved pay.

If you wait for the price to go up where you are now, won't it have gone up the same where you want to move?

[rube]

Respect your health and family. Try and compare the different options and go from there. Maybe even change now and then if you feel to. The savings-additional costs are way too low imho to base your decision on.
And remember that work can change suddenly, where you are now or a new opportunity may arise. So nothing will be 'forever'

[saving-10-years]

@celtictiger You might find more luck, depending on the size of your employer, in doing a spot of intranet advertising and asking about people who might be happy to lift share sometimes. I only started lift sharing because I injured myself and could not drive. My driving colleague and I always assumed that as we could not manage to lift share every day and might need to let each other down sometimes that it would not be worthwhile. Once we'd tried it we liked it and continue.

I am fortunate in being able to adjust hours. I am sure that neither of my current driving colleagues would have given lifts to someone they did not know. They also did not take the initiative, I did. Because I have a car that I can use when not sharing it's not all or nothing. But it helps with costs and with stress. (Somehow having someone in the car with you when its a 2 hour tailback makes it less of a painful experience).

BTW we are all three introverts.

[chenda]

I don't think the difference in cost is large enough to justify public transport if its just going to create a much earlier start and finish, leaving you perhaps more tired and stressed and robbing you of even more time. Does your employer offer any flexi time options ? Getting there a bit later might help you avoid the worst of the traffic (it's amazing how during school holidays my commute is cut almost in half)

[Ego]

I have a friend who had a similar problem, a long unpredictable commute and lots of stress. He changed his morning routine by skipping the AM shower at home and leaving earlier to drive directly to the gym near work. The time shift allows him to miss the worst of the traffic. He gets exercise which helps with the stress and he says he showers quickly at the gym rather than a slow, leisurely shower at home. I think he eats breakfast at his desk.

[SimpleLife]

What kind of work do you do, and can you arrange for work from home options? If not full time, at least part time? Also, your commute isn't really that bad IMO. If there are no workable options for you, I would keep the good paying job that's easy and grind out the commute before I'd ever consider changing to a potentially lower paying/harder job.

[Runer]

I calculate that, using averages, bus times would be 2.88 hrs a day and car times 1.75 hrs a day.

So, roughly 14.4 versus 8.75 hrs at the margin for extra money of about 200/47=4.26 a week?

So I make that as about an extra 75p per hour of life, if the extra commute time has no other benefits. I qualify this, because I once upped my commute time by half an hour because it was on the tube and I started at the end of line, guaranteed a seat and I enjoyed the extra reading time. The bus option might suit you more due to the exercise of a walk and some time to sit and think/read.

[JamesR]

I would not underestimate cost of car.

(1244 * 2) cost of car - 994 public transport = 1494 / 47 = 31.79

31.79 / 5.6 extra hours travel = £5.6/hr .. if it helps reduce stress a bit, and saves money, perhaps that's worth it.

Or like the others said, be more proactive about finding a carsharing arrangement? (Advertise more in company or craigslist or other sources)

[slimicy]

Is there an opportunity to do both, via a Park-n-Ride type bus stop? I know my uncle, who does a suburb to downtown metropolis hour commute each day, swears by driving 15 minutes to a free Park-n-Ride, then doing the annoying trafficky leg of the commute on the bus. Not sure it would save money, but he swears by it for reducing aggravation on the drive in, and allowing him time to relax on the ride home rather than getting annoyed by traffic.