I’ll admit I’ve got a bit of a hard time explaining this and not sounding like an idiot. I purchased a 10 year old bike trailer for $150 so that I could pick up groceries by bike, thereby saving myself a whole $1 in gas money.
I picked up a Bob Yak for $150. Since it is in good shape and retails for $350 new, this seemed a pretty good value to me. Cynthia wasn’t so sure.
We loaded our cooler (the same one we take our produce deliveries in), strapped it down with bungee cords, and rode 4.5km to the further of the two local independent grocery stores we like to shop at (yes, the further is all of 4.5km, the closer one is a mere 2km away). We rode for ten minutes instead of driving for 5, and saved next to nothing in gas. But I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
Nothing but the best
The purpose of doing groceries by bicycle isn’t to save gas money or wear and tear on the car; the purpose is to shift our mentality away from using the car for every single little thing. Even though I ride my bike a lot, my habit is to always take the car for every trip, no matter how small. It’s important to me to change away from that attitude.
The unexpected bonus was just how awesome a ride the vast majority of the trip to the grocery store is. Most of the trip is on a crushed gravel path running along a small creek, under the shade of green trees. I say majority-of-the-trip because we still need to ride down one major road that almost saw me taken out by an inattentive minivan driver. Thankfully a pedestrian overpass is being built that will eliminate that particular stretch from our grocery run. While Cynthia may not agree that it was a wise financial move, she at least agrees that groceries-by-bicycle is an excellent way to spend a sunny Saturday morning.
The idea for this was planted over at Mr Money Mustache, in the post MMM Challenge: Try Getting Your Groceries with a Bike Trailer