Hello Reader,
First of all thank you for taking a moment to check out this blog!
About 2 months ago I decided that I am sick of being overweight (at my peak I was 265 lbs at 5'10"). I am in my early 40's and I am a father to 4 wonderful adult children and married to a wonderful woman for over 10 years. I have been a diesel mechanic for 20+ years and I currently work on transit buses.
Why in the world would I decide now to start riding a bicycle to work? Well, about a year ago I decided to be more financially responsible and pay down the debt I have accumulated from the last few years of making financial decisions based on emotions. In Dave Ramsey terms "Stupid with zeros on the end of it" or Mister Money Moustache "Sucking at Money".
So I've been on the path to trimming down expenses, the most glaring was a gnawing desire to buy lunch nearly everyday at work, and blowing hundreds of dollars in a weekend on eating out (and usually it was fast food, bleh.) So just packing a lunch for work most of the time, and planning a weekend menu cooking from home put about $1000 a month back into our budget! I don't even miss the food that I was buying, because cooking and prepping my lunch has became an adventure.
Also listening to the FI community (including Mr. Money Moustache (MMM), ChooseFI, Radical Personal Finance, The Frugalwoods, etc.) I started trimming other expenses as well which brings me to MMM. When he talked about riding a bicycle to work my first reaction was, "I live 16 miles from work! That would be fine if I lived in a town with no hills and the commute was less than 5 miles, also does he know that it gets wet here in the Seattle area?"
After emotionally calming down, I realized that with my wife telecommuting 2 days a week and carpooling 2 of the other days a week in addition to me commuting by bicycle and transit I could lower my total commuting fuel bill to about $10 a week.
Looking for a bicycle through craigslist, offer up, etc. I found a Giant Yukon 19.5" frame with road bike tires already installed. In a future post I will go into more details into cost of getting it started.
I spent the last few weeks preparing for commuting into work. I have gone the last 2 weeks without having to use my car for work at all, it's a small accomplishment but I am encouraged to keep pressing on.
Until next time, keep the rubber side down,
The Diesel Cyclist
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