I've been pretty much car free for last 5 years... and extremely car light for 7 years before that. Observations:
-- although I didn't have to adjust workplace or housing, I was lucky to live on a good bus route and also lucky to be within 5 miles of work and 1 miles of food supplies
-- my material (ie, stuff) expectations lightened up considerably... I didn't get to the cinema much and didn't go to many concerts... however, I still got to some.
-- I found a few friends who were sympathetic to my lack of car...
-- perhaps unfortunately, I relied a little too heavily on services like Amazon.
Eventually, being car free doesn't feel like privation... in some ways I tire of talking about it. I just do what I do.