If you’re a child of the 90s, you’ll get that reference. If not, well, Google Salt-N-Pepa.

Female rappers aside, today I’m talking about Lent. Specifically, what I’m giving up for Lent. Last year I gave up stress. I quit my job and said no to a lot of things. That was a pretty good Lent. This year I’m giving up a car.

See, since I quit my job, I just don’t drive as much as I used to. I certainly don’t commute, which was a huge source of stress. Can you imagine sitting in traffic for 3 to 4 hours every. single. day. Yeah, I can’t any more either. And Doug takes the train to work now. The bottom line is that most of the time, there are two cars sitting in the parking lot downstairs not being driven.

And there is nearly always one car sitting in the parking lot downstairs. This has led to a discussion between Doug and I about whether we really need more than one car. Sure, there are times when having one car might be a pain. On Saturdays, I often join a little crafting group I’m a part of at Wegmans while Doug goes and smokes cigars with the boys. That’s an activity that will require adjustment. And our mechanic is a few towns over so getting car repairs done could be a bit of a headache.

That said, we get our cars repaired perhaps once a quarter. I think we can comfortably halve that if we cut out a car. And if we alternate Saturday activities, he can take the car one week and I can take the car the other week. Finally, if those are the only two things we can think of that require us to have two cars, no wonder both of them are sitting undriven most of the time.

So this is an audition. We’re taking 40 days to audition having only one car. If it goes well, I suspect that we will sell both and purchase one car. It will likely be slightly newer and slightly larger. Slightly newer because if we’re buying a car, we want it to last a while. And slightly larger because my little businesses (both vintage and dog treat) could use slightly more space when I’m driving all my junk to shows. It’s only been a week, but so far, so good.

What are you doing for Lent? Have you bought or sold a car recently? Are you a one car family?