How much driving do you have to do?

1953 Views 30 Replies 31 Participants Last post by HoustonDave, Mar 3, 2011

imagine

Discussion Starter · Mar 2, 2011

How much and where do you have to drive?

I have to drive to
Buddy's school 3 miles one way 5 days a week.
Walgreen's 3 miles once only every once in a while at most once a week

I would like to drive to
Aldi's 3 miles one way
Walmart 3 miles one way but near Buddy's school.
Goodwill 2 miles on way other side of town
Little Miss's school 1/4 of a mile on her late 5:30 days twice a week

I could walk to church, post office, bank, movie rental box, restraunts, Hubby's work, a grocery store, music store, Salvation Army, Little Miss school

Hubby says if gas reaches over the over $5 all eating out will have to be walking distance.

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Kitten20

· #2 · Mar 2, 2011

Work (5 days/wk): 10 miles roundtrip
DF's school (not too often these days): about 12 miles roundtrip

Grandparents live 1/2 mile away, so that's not really even worth mentioning. We go there once or twice a week.

Wal-Mart grocery store is about a mile away. This is a weekly trip.

Gas is purchased on the way to/from work usually, so that's not an issue.

That's it for an ordinary week! I hate shopping, so I do whatever I can online. We're homebodies.

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jas

· #3 · Mar 2, 2011

Everything I have to do is within 3 miles of home. The farthest being walmart which is short of three miles.

DD's school is about 1 1/2 miles one way. She drives herself 3-4 days a week as I have nowhere I need to go and when I do go it is only on fridays usually to get gas, grocery shop and the bank.

The main grocery store I use is less that 3/4 of a mile from my house. The bank, a Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, KFC and a few other places to eat and a liquor store are all in the same plaza also a few clothes stores. At the same intersection are two more banks and more places to eat and a dollar store. On the way to Walmart is Aldi's and Save a lot everything I need is really not far at all. Even the mall which I avoid and other higher end places are all within 10 miles.

I try to only go out 1-2 times a week once during the week and once on the weekend.

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madhen

· #4 · Mar 2, 2011

I commute 45 miles to work every day (and 45 back obviously).

I try to do my shopping and errands on the way to/from work. Because I live out in a rural area, everything is far away from me. The grocery store is about 20 mins drive, the vet is about 40 mins (and not on my commute path), etc.

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savvy_sniper

· #5 · Mar 2, 2011

Hubby commutes 4 days a week - 40 miles round trip and car pools as much as possible when he drives the truck. He rides his motorcycle when the weather allows.

I work from home for myself. The mailman picks up my USPS packages. The bank, grocery store, FedEx, WalMart and most anything else I need is within a 5 mile radius.

About twice a month hubby and I go to the salvage store, take the recycling to his mother's, and visit with his mother. That is less than 20 miles round trip.

Our driving options are:

Motorcycle(s) if possible, then hubby's truck and lastly my truck. His truck has a smaller engine and gets better gas mileage than mine.

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Spirit Deer

· #6 · Mar 2, 2011

Interesting thread.

My husband drives seven miles one way, five days a week for work. We both go into town for errands, usually once a week. Sometimes there are doctor appointments and vet runs to be made, but not that often. We go out of town for stock-up shopping 3-4 times per year which means a drive of 70-110 miles one way. If we're doing a major project, like our kitchen remodel, we'll make a lot of extra trips, of course. We made 3 or 4 back to back trips to Lowe's (70 mile drive) to get all our kitchen cabinets home, for example.

We don't fly, so all our vacations require driving. We drove over 9,000 miles last year for vacation travel, but that was an unusual year. Usually it's probably around half that. But spending a week in Yellowstone was soooooo worth it! We drove about 1,000 miles just in YS and Grand Teton and it was worth every mile and every penny for the gas.

I walk to work which is a fifty-foot commute to my office in another building, so that saves gas.

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writtenonmybody

· #7 · Mar 2, 2011

I really don't have to do any driving. Seriously. We live in an area where everything is super close. Matter fact, my husband does drive but I usually don't.

I work about three blocks from my home. We have a mall four blocks from our home. Movie theater etc. the other direction about three blocks is walgreens, a grocery store, etc.

The only thing not near me, is the library. We have to drive to the library.

Rough huh?

I think I should ask for a bike for my birthday this year! It would be a perfect gift.

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monkeywrangler71

· #8 · Mar 2, 2011

We only have one car, so I have to drive everyone wherever they have to go.

- We drive the kids to the school bus stop and back, but that is only about 3 doors down so doesn't really use much gas - could easily walk but it isn't safe.
- I drive my husband to work and drop my oldest at her bus stop on the way, not sure how far it is but it takes about 20 minutes - then I have to drive back home, another 20 minutes.
- If I have things to pick up I will take the route that goes by the shopping area on the way back from dropping off dh, I think the distance is about the same. I'm not always ready for this in the morning though, and may take a separate trip out later in the day - about 10 minutes each way.
- In the afternoon I drive to my oldest's bus stop and back - about 7 minutes each way.
- In the evening I pick up my husband - 20 minutes each way
- One evening a week I take my oldest to her volunteer work, which is right by where I pick up dh, so I drop her off at the same time, but then go back in later to pick her up - 20 minutes each way.

So, minimum 1:34 in the car each day (2:14 on Wednesdays) just driving other people around - more if I actually want to go someplace myself.

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frugal is fun

· #9 · Mar 2, 2011

This is too funny, I just calculated my regular mileage yesterday. I do 53 miles per day 3 days a week and I would guess about 48 miles two days a week. Thats just back and forth to work and picking up my son.

One day a week I try to cluster my errands and run out during my lunch hour as I can get gas, hit the bank, petstore, Walmart, package store and a number of other misc stores in one trip.

Not sure what I do on weekends other than driving my son to my Ex's which is 10 miles each way.

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TheresaRHPS

· #10 · Mar 2, 2011

I drive to and from work 5 days a week...its 50 miles round-trip. If gas prices get too much higher, one of my supervisors lives about 10 miles from me, on the way to work--I'll start carpooling with her from her house if I need to.

All errands are done on the drive home from work: grocery store, bank (stays open late on Fridays), etc.

About once a month, I head in the opposite direction about 40 miles one trip for investigations/meetings. I usually try to carpool as much as possible on these.

My son has check-ups about every three months. We have to drive about 20 miles one way for his doctor appointments.

Other than that, I just don't get out much, lol. My post office is within walking distance from my house, as is a pharmacy, Dollar General and convenience store. I think my spring goal is going to be to cut down the driving even less!

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Momto5RN

· #11 · Mar 2, 2011

my kids schools are within 2 miles
my work is about 7 miles each way but i only go into the office 1-2 x a week
I do home care i try to stay within 5 miles of my home when i work . right now i have a neighbor 3 houses away as a pt so thats cool lol

dds dance is less than 2 miles and cheer right now is at the school as is play .

most grocery stores are within 3-4miles- a walmart is about a mile as is a staples pet store and several small clothing stores .

mall is about 10 miles away .

dh drives about 70+ miles round trip plus a 4$ toll each day .
and he often travels to NY and northern NJ .

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Hamada

· #12 · Mar 2, 2011

Do not have a car. However there are days that I commute via bus and train to class. In total it is around 5 hours of travel time.

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Sophia

· #13 · Mar 2, 2011

I don't have to drive a ton. I go once a week to do the grocery shopping , I've got 3 different places that I can go each is about 15 to 20 miles one way. 1 time a mth I go to Rome Ga about 40 miles one way. Ds drives to college 5 days a week and that is about 80 to 85 miles round trip per day. Most weeks Dh only has to go into the office once that is about 40 miles round trip. this week he has had to go to a different location that is 1 1/2 hours away (3 times this week) that is over 100 miles 1 way. We go to bible study on Wed night and that is about 6 to 7 miles one way. and 2 times on Sunday for services. I try not to have to go a lot with gas prices the way they are. Sometimes we do have extra runs to make. TC

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low-1

· #14 · Mar 2, 2011

Our town is maybe 2 km from end to end, and we live as far away from the center (where grocery store, rec center, hardware, post office, etc is located) as you can get. My wife will sometimes drive to pick up groceries, especially in the winter. For pretty much everything else, we walk or bike.

For work, I'm 5 minutes out of town at one of the plants, and the company provides vehicles and fuel. It's a corporate town through and through, just about every other driveway has a work truck or van in it. The farthest daily commute is between 40 minutes and an hour to Limestone.

I likely do much more "driving" with the snowmobile or quad, as there are no roads up here other than the one into town. To get out fishing or hunting, or out to the cabin (about 20 km away), you have to use some sort of off road vehicle.

As far as vehicle driving goes, we're 300 km from the nearest center (Thompson), 1200 km from the city, and 1300km from the area where we grew up back home. We make the trip down a few times a year, maybe 4 on average. With our road, a 4 wheel drive truck isn't really a luxury, the road is only barely classified as all-weather, and being surfaced with crushed granite (no shale up here), it's hard, very hard on regular passenger tires. Plus a lot of things either are too expensive or just not available in town, so some supplies have to be hauled back from a distance.

I've finally got enough posts to post links, so here's where I live. Scroll out and look around, we're not at the edge of the earth, but we can see it from here.

gillam - Google Maps

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bumplett

· #15 · Mar 2, 2011

20 miles from kids school, so that's 80 miles per day during the school year 5 days/week.

all other trips to the grocery store/Sam's/etc are done between school & home.

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Nellonello

· #16 · Mar 2, 2011

School 2x/wk = 20
Soccer 2x/wk = 20
Soccer games 1x/wk = 20-100
Swimming 2x/wk = 20
Gym 2x/wk = 20

So 100-150 miles per week.

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OOwl

· #17 · Mar 2, 2011

Everything in Texas is s-p-r-e-a-d out, especially when not in the major cities.

Blessedly, I only drive five miles to work, but I go home for lunch, so 20 miles a day, five days a week.

I run errands on Monday nights (me night) so add another 20 miles or so.

I grocery shop on Friday afternoons, extra 10 miles.
Weekends sometimes we go out places (mostly to parks or nature trails with the dogs), but often we just stay home.
Total: 140 to 160 miles a week. My huge SUV (no car payment and it hauls dog crates so no plans to replace) gets 26 mpg.

My husband drives further and works a LOT of OT, so he uses more gas that I, but his truck gets slightly better gas mileage.

Very interesting thread.

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Ceashels

· #18 · Mar 2, 2011

My clients are anywhere from 3 mins from my home to 40 mins. So each day is a little different.

What it does allow me is to shop at different stores that are on my way when I need things that I need to get that are a better price or not available at my usual haunts.

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Jeanna

· #19 · Mar 2, 2011

I drive very little. Actually the thing that I drive the most for is church. We changed churches about 8 months ago from one that was probably 1 1/2 miles away to one that is about 12 miles away. Other than that what driving I do is within a 3-4 mile radius of my house. My dd does drive 17 miles one way twice a week to go to college.

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beks37

· #20 · Mar 2, 2011

I had never figured how much driving I do per week.

14 miles to work one way 5x week = 140 miles/week
I'd probably say between grocery store, parent's house and other miscellaneous errands I'd drive another 60 miles/week, sometimes more.

I might have to keep track and cut down on trips if gas gets too much higher!

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