The Cheap School Run

Ahhh, the school run. Thankfully, Carrot-Girl's school doesn't seem to be populated by parents using the school run as a fashion parade. Even if I had bags of money, I don't think I could compete, as the idea of having anything more sophisticated than jeans and a sweatshirt on first thing in the morning on a non-office day is just something I can't contemplate!

Carrot-Girl's school is just over a mile from us, but a test-walk undertaken by her and her grandparents was not a huge success, since they had to ring me after walking for 40 minutes to say they couldn't find the school. Turns out they just hadn't walked far enough, and on the basis of that experience, I decided that walking for 40+ minutes with a dawdling girl who wants to look at everything on the way was not going to result in a calm start to the school day.

So, then I tried it on my bike and RESULT! 11 minutes!

The only downside is that it's all up hill on the way to school and since Carrot-Girl is not only getting heavier, but expects a conversation whilst sitting in comfort, that's quite hard work.

My bike came from Lidl, and cost around £90.00, the bike seat came from a charity shop for £2.00 and Carrot-Girl's helmet was a present.

I estimate that petrol would be at least £1.00 - £2.00 per day, plus the wear on the car caused by starting the engine cold twice a day for really short journeys.

Even using my lowest guess, that's £200.00 per year saved on petrol, plus (hopefully!) some health benefits thrown in.

Do you cycle? Share your cycling-savings with me!