My Debt-Free-Wannabe Diary

DontDoDebtKids

Oh yes, and because I had to take car in at last minute they didn't have a courtesy car so I hired one from Hertz - £37 for two days.

So really £627 plus hire car petrol to fix my car :mad:

DontDoDebtKids

A week and two days to go...

chevalier

cars are a pain (typed very quietly so my old lady laguna doesn't hear)!
well done on nearly being debt free
chev

DontDoDebtKids

Hi all,

In light of all this messing around with cars, I thought I'd do some analysis!

Car Costs To Date (ignoring fuel economy)

OK, so I bought the car in August 2005 for £1,900.00 after some hard negotiating as it had a few problems (and some more problems I didn't spot, but never mind).

Since then I've spent a total of £3,820.80 on tax, MOTs, insurance and servicing.

Total cost over two years is therefore: £5,720.80

Having had a quick look on Autotrader, I reckon I might be able to get a maximum of £1,750 for the car. Equally, I should be able to get £1,000 minimum and a guaranteed £610 from one of those online "we buy any car" websites.

So, taking the most optimistic valuation, the car has cost me roughly £165.45 a month to date. Taking the minimum private sale valuation, the car has cost me £196.70 a month to date.

Now, as I have fixed everything that was wrong with it and it won't need a service before next year, won't need an MOT until mid-2008 and doesn't need insurance until Jan next year, it should go until January without costing any more money apart from for petrol and parking.

So, again taking the most optimistic valuation, the car should have cost me roughly £136.32 a month by January. Taking the minimum private sale valuation, the car should have cost me £162.78 a month by January.

Note my car averages 33mpg according to my spreadsheet I have been keeping for the past three months - I reckoned my trip computer was being optimistic!

The alternative - leasing a car from work

I've looked up the cost of a Ford Focus 1.6 Zetec Diesel with all the toys I want in a car (air con, remote central locking, alloys, electric windows, CD player) and it would cost me £208.57 a month for three years including all servicing, MOT, tax and insurance costs.
The Focus is down as doing 58.9mpg - :money: WOW!

Taking petrol/diesel into account

What I haven't taken into account is that the leased Ford would do 78% better fuel economy than my car. Given that diesel and petrol costs seem to be the same at the moment, and that I am budgeted to spend £1,600 on petrol this year (going by my present numbers), I would only expect to spend £896 a year on diesel doing the same mileage.

Factoring this in, I would have spent £133.33 every month on petrol, so the car should have cost me roughly £269.66 a month by January taking the maximum private sale valuation. Taking the minimum private sale valuation, the car should have cost me £296.11 a month by January.

A leased Focus would instead cost £74.70 a month in diesel, added to £208.57 is £283.27 a month.

Conclusion

So, at the moment I have cheaper motoring costs than leasing a car as long as it runs until January with no extra maintenence costs and assuming a fairly optimistic valuation of £1750 still in January.

More likely, it is costing me about the same as leasing a diesel Focus (allowing for a valuation between £1000 and £1750 for the car). Equally, I am not entirely sure of the mileage figures for the Focus, so I might research actual running costs on the web.

DontDoDebtKids

Morning all,

A week and a day to go....

DontDoDebtKids

A week to go!

DontDoDebtKids

OK, I've sorted my mobile phone now!

I've decided to move to 3 mobile. I've got a PAC from T-Mobile and I have ordered Nokia E61 for free from 3 on a £15 a month contract for 18 months.

Then, apparently, I should phone them up and say that I swapped it for a Nokia E65 and that I want to add X-Series Silver at £5 a month and that will give me all the internet and email I could ever want. This I can do when I get my number ported.

I got £15.50 from Quidco and I'll be able to sell my old phone for anything from £35 to £110.

Sorted.

DontDoDebtKids

OK, I was quite worried that 3 would be rubbish as I've known a few people that were on it when it started and also one or two since and they've all complained about it.

They are now wrong - it's fantastic (well, as fantastic as a phone company can be)!

I'm getting a really good deal - £20 a month - and got a free phone, memory card and bluetooth headset. It's all gone extremely smoothly so far. The reception is better than T-Mobile. The services (internet, MSN Messenger, instant email, Skype, etc.) that you get on the phone are excellent.

I'm pleased I moved.

My £15.50 tracked from 3 through Quidco straight away. I can sell my old handset on ebay for a bit more money back. I will probably sell the free bluetooth headset too.

DontDoDebtKids

Oh, yes. The important thing:

4 days to go...

DontDoDebtKids

Amex payment of £114 went out today:

Debt Totals:

£4,027.68 Amex (4.9%)
£5,380.11 M&S (3.9%)
£390.96 Morgan Stanley (0.0%)

Total: £9,798.75