I wouldn’t normally think of joining a car club, but I’ve recently come across one that suits me perfectly - the Junky Car Club. After reading what this club is about, I couldn’t not sign up.

According to their website:

“Junky Car Club members are learning to live with less so we can give more. We’re a bunch of happy drivers who are politely rebelling against consumerism by driving junky cars. We encourage our members to use their dough to support social justice causes instead of making fat car payments. We believe in environmental stewardship and hanging onto things a little longer. Junky Car Club members sponsor kids living in poverty through Compassion International.”

I love the thinking behind this - it seems so logical - but I related to it mainly because it describes what I’ve already been doing. I’m still driving the same car I bought nearly 22 years ago, and have been sponsoring children through Compassion Australia for much of that time.

While I’ve kept the same old car to save money in general, not specifically to sponsor children, the money I’ve saved by not upgrading to new cars has made the child sponsorship possible … and much more. I’ve not spent a cent on car purchases or repayments since I finished paying off mine in 1989. This has meant more money to spend on things like travel, paying off the mortgage earlier, and feeding and educating children in Ethiopia … all more worthy causes than banks, car manufacturers and car salesmen.

Speaking of sly vultures, most car salesmen will tell you that running an older car is uneconomical, but that isn’t always true. In my case it has proven cheaper to run in its old age than when it was young (I wrote about it here). My car does have some quirks and small defects, but nothing that can’t be lived with, or patched with duct tape. It ain’t fancy, but it’s got character!

Nothing lasts forever, even with duct tape, so eventually my beloved vehicle will wear out and need replacing. When that happens, I’ll hope to look after a new car well so that it also will last a long time, and become another old car. You see, I plan to be a Junky Car Club member for a long time.

Last October when Western Australia switched over to daylight saving, I refused to change my clocks, having decided to continue operating on standard time (see my blog post: In A Time Zone Of My Own). Now that daylight saving has ended for this summer, I can look back and review how practical it is to live in your own personal time zone. In a nutshell - it worked for me, but wouldn’t be practical for everyone.

I quickly became accustomed to adjusting the times in my head. For example, a 9:00am class began at 8:00am as far as I was concerned, and from my perspective the TV programs I watch began an hour early (mostly an advantage). The only time I got caught out was when I turned up at a shop 20 minutes before I thought it would close, to find it had closed 40 minutes earlier. Oh well, I was bound to forget at least once!

Most of the time, however, I was able to live by non-daylight-saving time without any problem. In fact, I became so used to it I still occasionally find myself looking at a clock and mentally noting what the time is for “normal people” - even though daylight saving has ended.

Whether this is feasible for others depends on how much one’s life interfaces with the outside world according to a schedule. For someone who lives by the clock, with many appointments, operating on a time different to everyone around you could be very confusing - and more trouble than it’s worth. But for those whose lifestyle is less regulated by the clock, living in your own individual time zone can indeed work smoothly, as I have discovered. If daylight saving becomes a regular occurrence in Western Australia, so will my boycotting of it.