Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 2

Savvy_sewing

The car is a people carrier, gas guzzler. I lost my job through ill health 6 months ago. But my family keep expecting me to drive them here there and everywhere! The problem is I am at home all day, so i feel mean if I say no. Its just that now I am realising that I cannot do this anymore.
Not sure I can keep the car on the road at all.!!!!
Not good as I just moved to a village with no shops.
I also have been left with massive bills from the family all living with me before, and NPower have now sent me a payment card or two which will take me until 2012 to clear the bills. Bit of a tough one, as the bills were supposed to have been divided between all of us. ! Now they have moved out I am not getting any help.

Sorry rant over.:mad::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Mooloo wrote: »

Due to the huge amount of driving I am doing, my gas guzzling car is breaking the bank. I really cant see how I can manage to live frugally when the car eats £60 of petrol in a week.!!
I am in EEK mode at the moment.

Blimey. My van is close to 3 ton when fully laden and I don't spend that much. You must be doing some big mileage there.

whitewing

Mooloo,

Hard as it is you HAVE to say 'no' to family. Put £30 into the car and make that do for 7 days. Tell your family that you are out of budget.

People who don't drive have no idea how expensive it is to run a car.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Mooloo wrote: »

The car is a people carrier, gas guzzler. I lost my job through ill health 6 months ago. But my family keep expecting me to drive them here there and everywhere! The problem is I am at home all day, so i feel mean if I say no. Its just that now I am realising that I cannot do this anymore.
Not sure I can keep the car on the road at all.!!!!
Not good as I just moved to a village with no shops.
I also have been left with massive bills from the family all living with me before, and NPower have now sent me a payment card or two which will take me until 2012 to clear the bills. Bit of a tough one, as the bills were supposed to have been divided between all of us. ! Now they have moved out I am not getting any help.

Sorry rant over.:mad::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Those people carriers can be MAJOR gas guzzlers. i used to have one some years ago. It was the 1991 (H reg) version of the Mitsubishi Spacewagon. It had a 1.8 engine but it was petrol and it was an automatic - both things that can increase fuel costs. If I only had one passenger, I used to make them rough it in the diesel Escort van which did double the mileage per gallon.

cw18

Mooloo wrote: »

The car is a people carrier, gas guzzler. I lost my job through ill health 6 months ago. But my family keep expecting me to drive them here there and everywhere! The problem is I am at home all day, so i feel mean if I say no. Its just that now I am realising that I cannot do this anymore.
Not sure I can keep the car on the road at all.!!!!
Not good as I just moved to a village with no shops.

My DD kept phoning for lifts here there and everywhere, and elder DS expected them when home on leave (before he had his own car, and when he's flown home instead of driving since he has).

I've put my foot down pretty firmly now, and they know that if they ask for one lift they're going to have to wait a considerable time for another (unless I can combine it with an errand I need to run myself) - so they have to decide whether or not it's important enough to ask me. The other option is that (if I'm free) they pay for the petrol plus a bit for wear and tear -- and they quickly came to realise that the cost of fuel is my round trip from home, not just their A to B.

Savvy_sewing

My people carried is a Volkeswagon Sharon, Carat. Its got a V6 engine, 3.5!!! It adveraged 24 miles to the GALLON!!. It was fine when I was taking all 6 of us out here and there, but now mostly its me going backwards and forewards to the family. I try to do one trip a fortnight the 30odd miles to see my BF for the weekend.!
I fear now I will have to get rid of the car, as it all adds up. Need to find out if there are any buses/ village type buses that come here. I know I can get a bus from the big towns to oxford and Northampton, but thats 7 or 8 miles away, and I am unable to walk/ride a bike due to my ill health.!! Alas.
Meanwhile I think that tomorow I will be telling them all the bad news that I am unable to drive them.
(in an ideal world I would get a smaller car, but of course I dont have the money to do that, and no income thats going to get anywhere near saving for a while!). Ah well. Least if I do have to let the car go, I have the internet and I can get food delivered to the village!!.

queen_of_string

Mooloo, I bet that you could get a couple of taxis and a bus pass for less than the car is costing you. I am seriouslly considering that as an option here. I know a travel pass
pass where I live is £51 per month for one that works all the time and in all areas, buses and trains.

Savvy_sewing

queen_of_string wrote: »

Mooloo, I bet that you could get a couple of taxis and a bus pass for less than the car is costing you. I am seriouslly considering that as an option here. I know a travel pass
pass where I live is £51 per month for one that works all the time and in all areas, buses and trains.

I will definitely look into the other options as driving that big car is taking its toll on my body as well as my pocket!!
:eek:

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Been desperately trying to post a picture of the cottage my blog but not able to due to restricted internet at mo. Broadband is starting on Monday so will def do it next week.
Hope to start painting walls of lounge/dining area soon then can get new carpets put in.
Upstairs now, only place to get internet and the views across the fields to the rear are lovely. About to turn dark.
Bails-will look up your route on my map - when I finally find it.

By the way did I mention we went out for a lovely walk last night and saw a cluster of Bee Orchids..first time I've ever seen them..just beautiful and perfect for the Wildflower calendar.

sft

Skint_Lynne

Hi Gang,

Not much to report, did not spend anything today, got a free lunch due to work and mum made my dinner. I'm knackered, I did not get in until 8ish.

I've started getting my garden back into shape, I cut the grass yesterday and generally tidied up. The big job is to tackle my now very overgrown veg patch and get it back into shape. I want to dig it over a couple of times once I have chopped all the weeds away and treated it with weedkiller. This is one of my 101 tasks, I'm going to start it properly on the 1st July.

I think I'm at no. 65 just now, but I've thought of a couple of other things I would like to do tonight, so I'll jot them down before I forget.

Speak later. xx