• chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    I pay about $450 a month for my mini cargo van and another $80-ish for insurance. I also drive about 3,000 miles a month (my commute is long and I spend most weekends out of town helping my parents), so I average about 350 dollars a month in gas. Let’s call it another 100 a month on average for maintenance (I do my own oil, the tires are pretty cheap, but there will be occasional large expenses).

    So that comes out to pretty close to a thousand dollars a month total. That’s a lot of money.

    But by living in the middle of the country far from work, I can rent a trailer home that costs about $1500/month less than a tiny apartment close enough to work to walk or bike, and I have the freedom of owning a car and being able to go anywhere and haul anything I need.

    So yeah, it’s expensive, but it would be even more expensive NOT to have it.

    • joonazan
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      23 days ago

      The US sounds extremely expensive. In the EU 1500$ a month will pay for a very nice apartment close to work.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        I work for a tiny city that’s basically a private enclave for the ultra-rich in the middle of a major city.

        Literally every household is millionaires or better, and we have a lot of citizens whose names you’d know.

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Here in the USA my mortgage on a modestly sized house is half that cost. Owning a home in the EU sounds much more expensive to me.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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      23 days ago

      If it works for you, great, but are you sure you declared your vehicle use on your insurance correctly? Seems like you may have said it’s not a commuter vehicle

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        I have an impeccable driving record and only have liability abs gap on my car since it has so many miles it’s basically worthless as far as the insurance company is concerned. If it were to be totaled they’d give me like 500 bucks if I carried full coverage.