What do you need a car for? If it's just to go shopping, consider paying for delivery services instead of being the delivery service. If it's to get to a day jo

What do you need a car for? If it's just to go shopping, consider paying for delivery services instead of being the delivery service. If it's to get to a day job, compare car ownership to mass transit or bike committing. All of these cases can be estimated fairly easily (IRS allows deducting ~$0.50/mile, which is a good first estimate for total cost of ownership per mile). Unless a car is a certain model, it's a liability instead of an asset, so it should be treated like any other expense. If you only use the car for local trips and commuting and taking the bus/biking is doable (perhaps less convenient), then buying a cheap car, keeping a few weeks of food on hand, and taking the bus to work whenever the car breaks down is likely way cheaper than buying a newer, more reliable car. I used to have two cars (married with kids, so one car for each parent), and then decided to start biking to work to improve my health. I noticed that I can bike most days, and the insurance alone was enough to convince me to deal with the occasional inconveniences (e.g. when it snows, I bike to the bus stop). The problem is that most people don't actually do the math and just assume that owning a car is better, when it's not most of the time.