The original poster is from Las Vegas. Their weather is a lot like where I'm at. In fact, possibly drier, but, yeah, it would make a difference if the car was constantly buried to the hilt in snow.
My sister-in-law used to live in Kansas City and would get at least 2 major blizzards a winter. They always kept their car in the garage and he would drive their truck whenever he had to go in to work.
If having enough money at the end of the month is a major problem, then it's easier to fix a problem as it arrises and not have $10 left at the end of every month.