Commuting to work, how much is too much?

[tacotac]

I drive an hour & a half to work, but I hate highways & lotsa cars, so I take a rural route. It's not a desolate road or anything, but there are waaaaaay less cars on it & sometimes I am the only one on the road for long distances. It is nice. It also has lotsa nice scenery & farmland, some rustic towns, where if you took the highway, well, what do you get to look at but industrial, cars, and that's about it for the most part.

 

I get the 55 mph speed limits, but then you have the smaller towns you go through which sometimes drops down to 25-35 mph which sucks, but it is for short distances. If someone gets annoying...just pass them. But for what bugs me is the snowy weather, but hopefully not much more, we will see. Even with the bad weather, I'll get home 1 hour 45 min - 2 hrs, not too much worse.

 

I had to get a new car when I started this job. My last one was 14 years old & starting to have problems & had over 150,000 miles. No way I could drive that back & forth to work. Less gas mileage, so that was the big factor in a new car. I got one that wasn't an expensive car & also get 34 mpg. I bought it with 40 miles on it the end of Oct. last year. It now has over 8500 miles on it already. I hope to move closer the end of this year.

[sidehop]

I've done 45 minutes one way. It was too much for many reasons. Now it's about 20 minutes average.

[chan2951]

Thank you for this information

Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.

[pinkelephant]

I commuted 1 hour daily each way for part of my undergrad and found it relaxing when I get to drive to the bus station rather than busing and then walking to the bus station. I moved here since it's my last year, but I will commute again next year when I enter grad school. I'm investing in a car this time though, so I will not have to deal with the cold!

[catfeeder]

If the job offers important experience, consider estimating your commute costs in gas, tolls, parking, wear on your car (there are likely updated formulas for this all over the web) then place a dollar value on your time and multiply it with your driving time. Then add those two totals together and weigh that figure against renting a room in a boarding house or tiny studio during the week (do some research through a rental agency).

 

I did this for some important projects that had a start and finish of a few months to a year. I used my mileage expense instead to rent a room with bath, and I paid the landlord extra to do my laundry over the weekends. During the week I stacked most of my work hours on Mondays through Thursdays, then I used my judgment on Fridays. Some Friday's I'd book it to my 'real' home early for the weekend.

[askltk]

Living in the UK - I lived 21 miles from my job, which I commuted in 30mins. I have since moved to London, and have turned that into a 1hr commute (completed it for the first time this morning) - driving. I have perks of paying no fuel and have a firm car, so financially the burden is minimal. It's just time. Being single and social, my priorities are myself (not having a family, kids etc), so the benefits out way the negatives.

 

Everyone is different. Some people can cope with an hour e/w, some can't. At the moment a good job is hard to find so you make the commitment where you can.