Page 433 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

$8,876 each year per car, based upon 15,000 miles of annual driving,
according to AAA. In these days of Uber and Zipcar, it’s worth

considering whether you could save money by trimming a car (or two)

from your garage.

We flew (a lot) less.

I took my first airline flight at 16. My daughter was flying at the age of 9
five months. One reason for the difference is that flying is way, way

cheaper now than it was in the seventies. U.S. airlines weren’t

deregulated until 1978, which kept prices artificially high. Guess what,

though: we still took vacations—car trips and train trips, mostly. You

have to weigh the costs and travel time, of course, but taking one
fewer plane trip a year can save you hundreds of dollars, or thousands

if you’re transporting a family.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little journey to the past, and along the 10

way gotten a few ideas for making living in the present a little cheaper.
And just think: it won’t be long until you’ll be able to reminisce to the

latest batch of youngsters about how we got along just fine without

self-driving cars and thought-controlled video games.

Thinking about the Essay

1. Why do you think the author compares the budgets of the
1970s with today’s budgets, rather than simply advising her

readers to budget for items as if it were the 1970s? In other

words, why does she show us in such detail how our usage of

various items has changed?