So how much money have you saved this year?

[Nigeyy]

I have to be honest, I was working out how much money I've saved commuting into work (now keep in mind, I'm not complaining about cyclo-commuting and the advantages it gives me healthwise, just that I thought I'd save more money, that's all):

commuting miles this year: ~1000
average cost per gallon: $3.50 (yeah, I know)
average mpg my car gets: 35 (unusual for an American car, that's about 42mpg English gallons, so it's not bad and it's an automatic petrol)

total money saved = (1000/35)*$3.50 = $100

Granted, I've save putting 1,000 miles on the car, less wear and tear, etc, but still, I was secretly hoping I'd have saved at least twice as much!

So what's the most someone has saved -assuming you have the option of using a car?

 

[BentMikey]

That is far far less than your car really costs you per mile.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

We've gotten rid of our second car so thats about 500 quid saved in one fell swoop (VED and insurance).

The saving on petrol is 60 miles a week commuting which is mostly stop/start etc. so I'd guess pretty crap mpg. If we say 30mpg then it's 2 gallons a week which is (been a while since I last bought petrol) about 10 quid a week thus about 460 quid a year (approx 46 weeks working each year after holidays x 10 quid a week).

The car is reasonably new so MOT costs shouldn't be a biggie, but if we say another 100 quid a year for that then it all adds up to about 1k a year saving by my rough calculations.

Of course this doesn't take into account what needs to be saved to purchase the next car when the current one dies.. but that probably gets spent on bike stuff now.

 

[potnoodle]

My train ticket was £1500 a year. Now its zero

 

[upsidedown]

£20 a week diesel, so about £700- -£800.
Got rid of 2nd car, £20 a month insurance, £180 a year tax, ~£100 MOT.

So reckon between £1200 - £1400 this year so far.

Bike was £180, tyres etc another £40 - £50, lights £160.

About £1000 up so far by my estimation, that's most of next year's holiday !

 

[4F]

£ 40 a week diesel £ 1800.00
Insurance / tax £ 400.00
Tyres / repairs etc £ 350.00

 

[janm399]

I think I'm in the red. Granted, I've saved money on fuel for my 10km commute. But consider this:
* bike bits easily 200,
* new winter clothes 150,
* food 200
So, all in all, I think commuting by bike doesn't mean I'm better off. Still, I would not drive even if it were free. The freedom and exercise I get on the bike is worth any price.

 

[fossyant]

Changing jobs from one that was 60 mile round commute, to one that can be biked to...

Saved minimum of £50 per week in fuel - say 48 weeks - £2400 on fuel alone as I still have the car, but it doesn't move much, wife still uses hers.

Spent about £1k - £1.5k on bike bits - note no new bikes in here - generally new clothing, parts (for 3 bikes) tyres/headsets/chains, 3 new sets of wheels - all bikes, lights, stuff and more stuff.

Only the commuter will need the regular bits now as the other two are now 100% - all wear parts have been replaced over the last year.

Probably a bit better off, but new job was lower paid anyway, but it was worth it for the quality of life I now have - lots and lots of cycling, lots of holidays, and not working stupid hours under loads of pressure.

 

[ianrauk]

Saving a train fair of £98 a month, started full commute in April.. so a nice amount.
However some new innertubes, couple of new (better) tyres (thanks to Lewisham roads), few other biking bit's and pieces. And a CycleChat jersey knocks off about 100 squid.
So in 6 months a saving of about £500... Happy with that.

 

[SW19cam]

I used to walk to work (free) but then I bought a bike (£600 spent in 10 months). Worth every pound though...

That isn't the full story; I'm planning on moving further away from work (I think I must be the only person who wants a longer commute...)...

 

[magnatom]

Absolutely no idea. Probably quite a lot. I got the bike when our first child was born. We would have needed a second car otherwise. So instead we have just the one (admittedly big) car, instead of two.

All the savings have probably gone on cameras though.....

 

[Wolf04]

See my sig.

 

[Bodhbh]

Saw the light 3-4 years back and got rid of the car, so savings are mainly versus public transport (and I walk alot so they could be higher):

Bus fair: £45/month
Train fair: £20/month (bike to pick up Northbound trains home instead of into London)
Exercise: £80/month (swimming pool and travel there)
Free Time: approx 30hours a month saved in transit

Started around Easter so call it 6months and looking at...£984 saved.

That would just about pay for my first bike. Still way in the red from getting a tourer and shizzle for that (racks, panniers, etc), but that is saving money at a rate of knots too on weekend trips and cheap hols. Probably in the red timewise also with tinkering and hanging about here...

 

[Rhythm Thief]

If I manage to get a job a bit closer to home (currently I work 75 miles away ...), I'll be saving around £80 a week on diesel. Unfortunately, because of my band commitments I'll have to keep my van, but I worked out today that just losing my diesel spend will allow me to take a job at about £4 000 less than I'm earning at the moment and still break even.

 

[justAl]

I've cycled about 1400 miles this year (roughly half of my yearly total), so that's got to be around £250 - £300 in fuel.