Roger Frugalmen

Roger has two job opportunities to choose from:

He will earn $18.00 an hour for his family
driving 31.4 miles one way to a quality printing job up north.

Or, he can work at an entry level lower paying job that is near his home for $11.55 an hour.

I Ask you?

What should Rogers choice be?

the answer is obvious, Right?

Lets Examine the FACTS.

Always remember:
“what looks good is not always good for you.”

Lets figure his actual driving cost.
since he is a Frugalman, he wants to be precise, he empties his gas tank and pours in exactly one gallon of gas for a test,

Roger finds that his vehicle is getting 17 miles per gallon.

THE FACTS: work only!

Roger gets 17 miles to the gallon. x 62.8 miles a day @4.00 a gallon = 14.78

Vehicle depreciation – 62.8 miles a day. @ .35 cents per mile vehicle depreciation value = 21.98

tolls – $1.90×2=3.80 1 way or 7.60 a day

Insurance $4 a day

TOTAL = $48.36 a day

Roger has to pay $48.36 a day? to go to work. or….

if divided by his 8 hour work day = -($6.45 per hour)

literally ($6.45) is the actual hourly loss for the “privilege” of driving to and from work everyday.

Thats each hour of his work day!

…or Here is an even more interesting way to look at it.

the first 2.69 hours of each day is the cost of wasting three to four hours of his own time for the “privilege” of destroying his own car.

(3 to 4 hours is the wasted drive time to and from his employment.)

Now understand that this cost analysis does not include the following:

It does not include:

Tickets, parking fees and traffic light fines,
car wash, food eaten and beverages consumed at a cost while driving?
hours extra a day of drive time? This is huge!

It does not include the wasting of time 3 to 4 hours a day in traffic.

Roger could be spending that time with his family or he could utilize this time as over time?

Overtime is usually time and a half according to law.

Could it get any worse then this?

lets do some numbers:

21.00 – 6.45 = $14.55
20.00 – 6.45 = $13.55
19.00 – 6.45 = $12.55
18.00 – 6.45 = $11.55

11.55 x 40 = $462.00 + 20 hours OT = $346.50 = 808.50 or 13.47an hour

= to $20.00 an hour northern rate.

The US Department of Transportation reports that on average a typical passenger car is on the road for about 12 years or 128,500 miles.

which comes to 10,708 per year.

now if Roger is driving up north everyday at 31.4 miles one way then his car will last approx. 8.5 years according to these government statistics.
thats (3.5 years less) value lost!

If Roger takes the job up north he not only loses ($48.36) a day or ($6.45) an hour, but he also loses 3.5 years of car value ….this is huge!

Now Lets examine Rogers low paying start out IT Job.
lets analyse this scenario:

Roger drives to work 4.25 miles one way… to his lower paying but wonderfully fun low stress IT Job, doing what he loves to do. Computer Technology!

gas – 17 miles to the gallon. x 8.5 miles a day @4.00 a gallon = $2.00
auto depreciation – 8.5 miles a day. @ .35 cents per mile depreciation = $3.00
tolls – 0
Insurance $1 a day
TOTAL = $6
divided by 12 hours (Roger chose to work the wasted hours as overtime) = -$.50 an hour

remember:
11.55 x 40 = $462.00 + 20 hours OT = $346.50 = 808.50 or 13.47an hour

13.47 – .50 = 12.97 right?? wrong! heres why. Lets do more math!

don’t forget the car value of 37,478miles x .35 = $13,117.30 = $15.62 extra a day

divided by 8 hours a day = $1.95 extra saved value + 12.97 = $14.92

grand total of $14.92

for the next 3 years,
grand total of $14.92 hr

chart:

north near home
job job

22.00 – 6.45 = $15.55
21.37 – 6.45 = $14.92 – Rogers value
21.00 – 6.45 = $14.55
20.00 – 6.45 = $13.55
19.00 – 6.45 = $12.55
18.00 – 6.45 = $11.55

Working near home Comparison Value is equal to $21.37 northern pay.

leave comments…

and then throw in 5 cents per mile for everything else. for those who actually own the vehicle, it is easier to just forget about depreciation, and there is no interest from financing

The difficulty is determining depreciation, as well as the varying costs of repairs depending upon your specific car.

Car purchase price: $6000
Miles per year: 14,000
Est. miles left in car at time of purchase: 70,000 (130k start > 200k)
So car will last me: 5 years

Now we just write out the annual numbers

Car acquisition: $6000/5 = $1200
Fuel: 14,000 miles /24.5 mpg = 571 gal * $3.00/gal = $1714
Insurance: $300/6 months = $600
Registration: $150
Maintenance: $1000
———-
Total: $4,664
Per Month: $389
Per Mile: $0.33

I’m half way through my five years, and everything is right on track. And that’s even with a recent $1700 bill from a shattered idler pulley which resulted in a seized timing belt which bent 9 valves!

Curious to see how this would look for a new car.