Kate July 26, 2018

Previously, we have discussed how car ownership in Singapore is astronomically high. Even though there are individuals who justify the cost of owning a car here, the general consensus is that it is still a pricey item to maintain. And I totally respect those individuals who have a car for various reasons. And I don’t deny the convenience of having one. Especially for a family with two young kids.

Dave and I do not own a car. But my dad does. And sometimes, we will borrow the car from him to use over the weekend, especially so when he is out of town.

Last month, my dad went away on a vacation to China for about 10 days.

As such, Dave and I used the car over a weekend.

And because we had the car, we were pretty excited and thought it would be a good opportunity to bring the kids out somewhere.

And we were out for the most part.

Including a drive to a newly opened cafe that we had wanted to visit for a while. And before we realized, we had a cafe-hopping weekend.

And that was an expensive weekend.

Firstly, the parking charges.

Then next, all the other peripheral costs of eating out, and yes plus the coffee.

And then the petrol etc.

We spent more than we did compared to our regular weekends.

Which got us thinking, does having a car equate to higher expenditure (even if we remove the cost of owning a car)?

You see, because the cost of owning a car in Singapore is so freaking expensive, most would like to utilise it as often as possible.

And that might mean driving around more, heading out more.

Dining out more.

And in our humid weather, more often than not, we end up in the malls, or somewhere with air conditioning.

And inadvertently, spending more.

0 thoughts on “Of cars and cuppa”

  1. Oh, for our family it’s the opposite! Having the car allows us to go to more inaccessible but cheaper places. For example, with the car, we can go to sungei buloh or the animal farm, gardens by the bay east or other free/cheap outdoor places not near an mrt station. And with the car, we can pack home made food for a picnic and bring our own water and drinks and extra toys. So yes, there’s the extra cost for petrol, but because of the car and the convenience of not having to carry all the barang barang by hand with a baby on the train, we actually will spend less than if we didn’t have a car and have to just go to accessible malls for food and entertainment (indoor playgrounds are so expensive!)

    So yah, just thought you might like to know the other side of the story! Having a car might not be that bad after all 🙂

    1. Yes that’s true! It allows you to go explore the more inaccessible yet “exotic” locations. I guess for us we ended up indoors because it was a wet weekend but certainly agree that there are also cheaper options as well!

      1. Oh yes, wet weekends are always harder to plan! Some suggestions for the next time you have the car are the more inaccessible museums like the old ford factory or the Air Force museum! Also the artsy indoor play area at goodman arts centre.

        Anyway, thanks for writing this blog. I really enjoy reading it!