I am a Zipper.

I am now officially a Zipcar driver!

I signed up yesterday and went on my first outing. My friend Casey had Matt and I over for dinner and Wii with her and her husband, Alvin. (Fun!) They live just outside DC so we decided to zip on over there.

So for you non-city dwellers who are wondering what in the heck we have done by selling both our cars, here is the quick run down...

- We don't drive much other than an occasional shopping trip out of town or to visit friends or relatives who do not live in the city....this is usually once or twice a month. We pretty much take public transportation everywhere.

- Owning a car (or multiple cars) is expensive! Just parking at home is $200 month and then you have to pay to park wherever you go. Plus the car payment, insurance, gas, etc. etc...It adds up for two people to have cars here it would be to over $1500/mo. Do the math on this one ($1500/mo divided by 2 trips/mo = yea, that is about $750 per trip). Not a good use of our $$- hey, we are saving to buy a house!!

- So in comes the Zipcar - they are parked all over town. There are probably 10-15 within walking distance of our apartment and they are at almost all the metro stops. When you want to use once you just reserve it online, find the car, and drive off.

- It's almost that simple. I had to pay $75 to get signed up but they gave me a $50 credit so really it was only $25. Cars cost between $7-$14/hr on average to use. This includes insurance and gas.

- The downsides...You have to know exactly how long you are going to use them because there are big penalties for turning them in late. That adds a little stress to the trip. You have to turn the car back in where you picked it up so it is not good for one-way trips (i.e. getting to the airport). If we are going out of town for a longer tip we will probably be better off just getting a regular rental car (zip cars are limited to 180 mi per day).

Net, we are going to give this a whirl for the next few months and see how it works out. I'll keep you updated.

MDL

p.s. Still going strong with P90X....but I am pooped!