Think back to the 1950s. We may be talking about your parents, but it’s more likely we’re looking at your grandparents. How many cars did they have? Go ahead and ask if you don’t know; I’ll wait.

Odds are very good that they had just one. And depending on where they lived, it’s entirely possible that they didn’t have an automobile at all. I asked my grandparents — and, if you count my step-father’s parents, I have three sets. Not a single one of the three had more than the one family car.

Behind our homes, our cars are our biggest expenses. Beyond the ever-growing cost of gas, we have to pay insurance, maintenance, parking and other assorted costs of owning a vehicle. Most households have doubled up on this expense and, if there’s a teenager in the house, may have even tripled it. I’m not suggesting that we should do away with all cars, of course. These days, it’s impossible to navigate most of the U.S. without one.

But ‘one’ might be the key. It’s certainly cheaper to gas up just one vehicle, rather than two. If you’re looking to cut costs, that second gas guzzler out in the driveway could be the easiest way to do so.

I’m sure you have plenty of reasons that you need it: maybe both members of your household work outside the home. Perhaps you’re worried about being able to take care of emergencies. But I’d like to suggest an experiment.

The One-Car, One Week Experiment

For just one week, try out this whole one car idea. Set aside the keys to that second car and see what happens. Even if you decide, at the end of the week, that you can’t possibly live with only one car, you’ve saved on a week’s worth of gas.

You may have to think harder about your transportation. Keep these ideas in mind:

• Plan errands for when you have the car.
• Ask friends for rides if you’ll be going to the same place.
• Explore the local public transportation options (bus, train, subway, etc.).
• Pull out your bike or your walking shoes.
• Check for shopping and entertainment options closer to your home.
• Carpool to work.
• Drop your partner off (and remember to come back).
• Ask to telecommute to work.
• Plan your week out.
• Pack along lunches and other things you won’t be able to run home for.
• Check private transportation companies: carpooling organizations, taxis, etc.
• Make some fun at home.

My husband and I became a one-car household over a year ago. We have yet to have a single issue that we couldn’t easily work around. Admittedly, there are some places where transportation is a little more difficult than the town we live in. Running a one-car household may not be for everyone. But, if you can go down to one car, it’s a smart money decision.

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The rising cost of gasoline is starting to hit home for even those people driving hybrids. Everybody’s starting to explore options like walking or biking, especially if they want to cut down on carbon emissions. But it can be hard to figure out just what stores, restaurants and other venues are within walking distance of your home, especially if you don’t live smack-dab in the middle of a big city. I spent a few months living in what amounted to the center of a metropolis once, and that really spoiled me for walking in the suburbs: the grocery market was no longer two buildings over and there wasn’t a library around the corner.

WalkScore is working on making it easier to find a walkable neighborhood. The site uses Google Maps to measure the walking distance to a variety of offerings and assign a score to your address. My address scores a 57, for instance. A 57 isn’t great — the most walkable neighborhoods score 90 to 100 — but it’s not too bad. WalkScore was even able to tell me the locations of the grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, movie theaters, schools, parks, libraries, bookstores, fitness centers, drug stores, hardware stores and clothing and music stores in my area. While the method that WalkScore uses to compute their scores is top secret and patent-pending, it looks like their system deems anything under two miles away from your address as walkable.

There are some problems with WalkScore at the moment — and to the company’s credit, they identify the problems on their website and have promised to work on them. The score assigned to a given address doesn’t take into account how easy it is to be a pedestrian in a neighborhood: Are there steep hills? Busy streets? Sidewalks?

However, WalkScore is in the middle of rolling out a great tool for househunters. They’re slowly putting together scores for neighborhoods as a whole. They’ve already posted information on 77 neighborhoods in Seattle and WalkScore has started work on other neighborhoods around the U.S. As you are narrowing down neighborhoods in a search for a new house, it’s worth talking a look at the WalkScore and checking the amenities outside of the house. If you’re in the process of selling a house or renting an apartment, knowing what’s in the area can also come in handy for convincing prospective buyers or renters.

Even if you aren’t househunting, however, knowing your home’s WalkScore is still useful. As I looked at mine, I found several different stores within walking distance that I didn’t even know existed. And, if I’m going to be buying something, I might as well save gas money. I’ve also been inspired to just walk around the neighborhood a little more than I have in the past. It’s free entertainment, as well exercise without the expense of a gym membership. By walking, I manage to save money in all sorts of different ways.

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