Price Per Mile?

Recently, I decided to make a list of goals that is more extensive than just "be happy, get married and have six-pack abs". It contains goals both short and long-term, but realistic and laughable, and goals reasonable with little effort and some that will be harder than they sound.

On that list, I made a goal to make a realistic effort to reduce my "petrol dependancy" and I feel that I have done a decent job at it. I have been averaging anywhere from 20-30 miles a week on my bicycle, most of it being distance that I would otherwise traverse in my truck and that right there does add up.

Even with that feat, I still have to drive across town for class twice weekly, which adds up to over 45 miles in one day... yeah.

I absolutely love my truck, and load it up frequent enough to make me think it is worth it. That is, until I run the numbers.

Hypothetically, if I were to drive solely to my class in Henderson (roughly 22 360 miles in a single month. At 18.3 mpg(I've calculated every tank since I bought it, I know my fuel economy) that would come out to 19.67... gallons in a month, and with current prices of 3.24 (as of today, at my normal station) would come up to $63.74, adding on to that of course is my insurance. My insurance (which is the painful part, IMHO) is $240.10 a month, putting the total to roughly $303.84.

That means that every mile I drive, on average, costs 84.4¢ and moreover, every day I drive to class, I spend $37.94. Obviously I do drive more than that throughout the week, and that scales down the price per mile as I increase usage. Even with that in consideration, I am overlooking registration (alot) and maintenance costs (not much so far), so it is fair to assume that my rough cost is around that.

When I told a coworker that I intend on selling my brand new (9 month old) truck, they were rather surprised, until I explained this dynamic. Sadly, I know that I will have to buy another vehicle to replace this one, but I am looking into something that gets decent fuel economy (28+mpg), and more importantly, older (drastically lower registration and insurance cost, which still offsets potential maintenance costs due to age).

I recently had to drop one class just because I have felt overloaded, but now I feel guilty keeping this other class half way to Arizona. If I kept my truck, I would actually spend more money going to class for the rest of this semester than I would if I just dropped the class and retook it online in the summer.

This, of course, puts me in an awkward position. Should I eat the cost for now, until I find a replacement car? Should I drop the class and retake it either online or closer to home?

I feel that ultimately my decision in will be the correct one. I know I will feel like a quitter, but this entry will serve as a reminder as to why I got rid of my Tacoma and about difference that I am trying to make.

There is also the added bonus of stress relief. I truly enjoy driving, and used to frequently go for cruises all over the place, but Las Vegas has grown beyond its roadway's capacity and made traffic here worse than any Southern California traffic I've been in. Combined with a mildly traumatic accident several years back, driving here has become quite literally nerve wracking.