Here's how to lower inflation costs of your daily commute

Cynthia Najjar starts her day at 5 a.m., working from the desk in her bedroom. The bonds trader has been rather busy lately, taking phone calls from investors early every morning.

“I've been doing it for 25 years, working the East Coast hour, so my body automatically gets up at 4:35,” Najjar said between calls.

After a few hours of working from home, Najjar is ready to commute to her office in downtown San Diego. She stopped driving her car to work less well over a year ago. She now relies on a person she calls her "personal driver" to get there.

He showed up on time, just like he does every morning. On an MTS bus.

“I get on the bus and relax, play a few games and catch up on emails,” said Najjar, indicating she’s glad not to deal with the stress of driving in heavy traffic from Chula Vista to her office.

On top of that, Najjar said, she’s also very happy to save quite a bit of money with this lifestyle change.

She said she ran the numbers and figured her savings are about $400 a month in gas and parking alone. Tha's almost $5,000 a year. However, she's saving more than that.

“I’m not putting miles on my car, and I’m not going to have to do so much maintenance on my car, so it’s a win-win,” Najjar said.

Financial advisor Ronnie Hood of Chula Vista also ran the numbers. He and his wife, Monse, recently went from driving two cars to just one.

“I said, ‘Whichever car you want to keep, that’s the one we’re going to keep,’ ” recalled Hood.

It was a move that not only put money in their pockets with the sale of the car but also saved them thousands by not paying insurance, car registration and other auto expenses.

“If you have two cars on your insurance policy, you get a discount, but it was still more than what I pay now,” he said with a smile.

Hood added that the savings also went up by working from home and consolidating their shopping needs to fewer trips. They’re driving so much less, he said, his insurance company started asking questions.

“My insurance company wrote me a couple of months ago asking to get the odometer miles to make sure that I was not falsifying my numbers," Hood said. "So I took a picture and I sent it to them, and they said they’re going to lower my insurance rates."

Najjar's and Hood’s strategies may not be for everybody, but everyone should at least take a look at them just in case a plan to save money on commuting pops up.

Other options to consider include carpooling; SANDAG’S Vanpool program, which can drastically cut your commuting time and costs; and, of course, shopping around for better insurance rates, especially if you’ve had the same policy for several years.