4 Tips to Becoming a One-Car Family

We didn’t have an option to bring a car with us to our new OCONUS location, unless of course we wanted to pay to ship it and have it brought up to Japanese emissions standards and drivability requirements on our own dime. So, no option, really. We’re becoming a one-car family…

I visited Japan before, and based on that travel trip, I was sure we’d be fine without a car. There’d be plenty of easy access public transportation, and we could walk or bike.

Except, I was wrong.

As it turns out, Okinawa is set up differently than Tokyo, where I’d visited. The majority of folks in Okinawa have and need cars to get around.

Our big plans of not purchasing a car while stationed in Japan went out the window pretty much the night we arrived on the island.

However, at present, we’ve decided to purchase only one car and share it. Yes, we’ve become a one-car family, and we’re working on figuring out how to make that work for us.

What follows is the best advice I can offer you in regards to becoming a one-car family.

(One special note: Currently, we’re a two-person family. Just me and my husband, and I realize that may make this process easier to some extent.)

1. Communicate

When you’re down to one car, you might find yourself saying things that didn’t need addressing before.

For example: “By the way, I think I messed up your radio presets. I don’t really know what I did or how to fix it.”

In all seriousness, there’s a bit of communicating that needs to occur in regards to sharing your vehicle. It’s kind of important to know who needs the car and when.

By default right now, generally, my husband needs the car most in order to go to work and PT. I haven’t found a job here yet, so my needs for the car are pretty basic—going to the grocery store, taking our cats to the vet, or getting myself to any medical appointments that arise.

These regular day-to-day type of reasons to use the car are not dominating our conversations. It’s still important for me to know if there’s a certain time of day, or day of the week for that matter, that isn’t so great for making an appointment or for my husband to let me know if he can get home to drop me the car at lunchtime or not. We’re doing alright keeping each other in the loop. Mostly.

2. Plan

You’ll want a plan if you’re making things work with only one car. Some plans are easier than others, of course. It’s super easy to plan to go to the grocery store, because it doesn’t have to happen at any specific time, other than during store hours. It isn’t so easy to plan appointments, because as you may know, schedules change in the military.

There was a time I had to drive my husband to PT at 0500 so I could keep the car in order to make an appointment at 1045. Convenient? Not so much. Well planned out? Not really. But in all fairness, PT was special that week and ran pretty much all morning, and I had no way of knowing that when I made the appointment.

Planning is also a big part of why we’ve chosen to only purchase one car at this time. You see, since we couldn’t bring a car with us to Japan, we can’t bring this newly purchased one back to the states either. This means we’re anticipating needing to purchase two cars when we return stateside in three-ish years, because, let’s face it, it’s going to be harder to get around in America with only one car than it is in Okinawa. We kind of need to save up so we can get two when we need them. I’m sure it’s still possible to make it work as a one-car family in America, but probably not our first choice.

Either way, these steps to purchasing a car the financially savvy way will come in handy when our big two-car purchase needs to happen.

3. Learn

As mentioned above, I anticipate it being harder to get around with one car in America than here in Oki. My reasoning? Unless we wind up living in a big city, America isn’t the easiest place to find public transportation and doesn’t always have the safest or even well-designated walking areas.

There are enough options here for me on the days that I don’t have our car that I can still get around. I might need time to learn about doing so, but I can do it.

I’ve already learned basics about riding the city buses and how to find taxis that can go on and off base. I’ve learned how to walk to some great places near me—and which items to always carry with me while walking, such as a raincoat in case of storms and water and sunscreen in case of heat and humidity. In case? Ha. Both are likely at any given time.

4. Adapt

It’s working for us here, for now. I know this might only be for now, especially depending on if and when I decide to look for work. There are a small, limited number of places that I could walk to in order to work, and even so, trying to walk to work during the rainy season doesn’t seem that appealing, in my mind. There’s always, of course, the option to adapt to being less dependent on work outside of our home, too.

I guess we’ll figure out how to adapt our one-car plan when needed, just like we quickly adapted our no-car plan. This is the military after all. Plans? There are no plans in the military lifestyle.