How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

bertiebots

Forgot to mention last night in my rantings that my car is a fabia estate 1.4 automatic and it is very thirsty. I am not sure how much longer I can afford to run the car but also cannot afford to replace it . Car ownership can be such a pain as you have to maintain them to keep them worth anything , but by doing so cant afford to change if your unhappy with what you have. I know zero about cars and before buying this one had 2 complete disasters so am also very scared of the whole car buying process...I think people see me coming and think hmmm what can we get away with. Why cant people just be honest?

Beccah I really feel for your poor dad and hope you manage to sort things out .

Anyhow ..the kids got to school in a taxi, the car is in the garage and the carpet fitters are still here (they were late!) so hope they are done in the next 10 mins or the estate agent and I will be stepping over them.

Lovely weather though so its not all bad wonder how long its going to last!

jackieglasgow

Talking of cars I got mine service yesterday for almost £200, it is a Citroen C5 2l diesel. It's very energy efficient with very low emissions. I love my car, but it was becoming more and more uneconomic to run. What a difference the service has made, I only drove it for about forty minutes yesterday, but it is running much better, and although there is another job to do on it on Monday, which will cost £80, I am quite happy to stick with it for as long as it is working. It costs about £75 now to fill the tank though

Butterfly_Brain

Welsh camper sorry to hear of your sad news.(((((((Hugs)))))))

kezlou

welsh camper ((hugs))

Well i haven't looked into the budget yet, to be honest were just seeing how it goes.

But we've had gorgeous sunny weather all week, then today woke up to fog but now the suns finally here and starting to poke through the clouds.:D:D:D

Went and did some volunteering yesterday, basically i sat around showing people how to use laptops and computer programs. Made one clients day by finding a picture of his old house in st hildas. He had tears in his eyes telling me all about it.

Still no luck on the jobs front, OH has applied for every job under the sun and nothing so far. But were waiting till after April now to go self employed as that when personal allowances go up. If we did now, the tax would be a nightmare.

This week we had problems again with the car of doom, thought the ball bearings were going, left it till the next day and lo and behold the back box bit of the exhaust falls off:mad::mad::mad::mad:. Had a closer look and the centre pipe appears to have completely corroded so that will need changing too. We ahve a peurgeot 1.9 diesel TD estate. Basically it fits most of OH's tools in the boot, rubbish on sort but great on long journeys. ITs a beast though and cost about £70 to fill the engine and its need more! Unfortunately if we get rid of the car, it hampers OH's chance of getting another job. So its a necessary evil. ALso how insurance is going up from £64 to £74 starting form April, but the company is the cheapest we've found, so its looks like were staying with them anyway.

Luckily OH's tax back came through so were using that to pay for the car. Just waiting for it to clear so we can book it in. Been quoted £210 (inc vat/labour and 2yr guarantee) for the full exhaust inc the cat as we think it may it need changing too. Garage hasn't looked at it yet, but the probs we had with our old car, grumpy citroen, we now know a bit about them.

What a nightmare, anyways its friday, sun's shining, got some bread rising and i'm off to sow some seeds, have a cuppa and battle on with the housework.

GreyQueen

Kezlou, in an earlier incarnation I worked in the motor trade and have seen mechanics in a variety of garages abuse Citroens brought in by the public because they hate working on them so much. Recall one guy, who was as mild as mild can be, striding under a Citroen on the hoist hitting it at random with a wrench and effing at it. Made me think, that if I ever buy a car again, it won't be Citroen.

Had an idle second earlier and divided the number of households registered with us for Council Tax by the number of households on housing and council tax benefit. ONE IN FOUR. That's a lot of poverty in what looks like a relatively nice little provincial city.

Sun's shining, break's over, must go!

maryb

We still need a big car for long journeys etc which we replaced recently and this one will see us out. At the same time we decided to get a second little car for the "S" journeys - station, school, shopping - which the DDs can also drive when they get their licences. We got a Toyota Aygo as it's no tax in the first year and £20 after that and the lowest insurance group and it seemed to have the highest mpg for an automatic (I only drive automatic). However we don't get anything like what they quote for the urban cycle. Toyota's figures are 53.3 urban and 83.1 extra urban. The mileage we get seems to be around 34-35 mpg on average. The only time we got up to 37mpg was when we had, in fact, used it for one fairly long run. No doubt the little S journeys are a killer for fuel economy especially when you live in a very hilly area like we do.

We actually get better mpg in the big car on long journeys. It's got an MPG display in the car and OH amuses himself by trying to get the average MPG up to 40 over the course of the journey. It's made him a lot less lead booted when he drives. Of course, we wouldn't get anything like that if we used the big car for the short local journeys

mardatha

We always had big comfy cars, big Volvo and a Ford Scorpio and this time we wanted to go for a Vaux Omega...but the road tax is too much. I hate wee cars SO much !

Larumbelle

We have a 2003 2.0l diesel Mondeo estate. OH needs a big car for work. Fuel consumption is about 35mpg urban. That's okay, not brilliant, but we use it as little as possible. On a long motorway drive to France we got it up to 55mpg and were well chuffed . I have no idea how much it costs to fill her up, because OH doesn't ever do that - he says it costs even more if you have to pay to lug a full tank around! Besides, it's better for budgeting - we just put in a tenner's worth and when it's gone it's gone.

I know what people mean about Volvo parts - they're horrific! We were really lucky when we had ours, OH's brother is a Volvo mechanic so always maintained it for us But it was still a nightmare at times - our intercooler pipe developed a hole while we were on holiday and we got told it would cost £400 for a new one :eek: OH's brother could save us £40 with his staff discount but that was it. So we patched it up with rags and silicon for as long as possible until we managed to get one in good nick from a scrapyard. It took ages because it was rare to get the model in a diesel.
At least if anything goes wrong with the Mondeo there are loads of them about for spare parts :rotfl: OH has actually gone to the scrapyard today for wheel bolts. We bought a set of brand new alloys with brand new tyres on for £100. The owner didn't want alloys on his car so just removed the whole set as was. That was cheap for the tyres alone.

I am still in lots of pain. Got the doc's this afternoon, I wish I'd got a prepayment cert before all this started, prescriptions are costing me a fortune. Don't reckon they're going to let me go back to work for a little while either. I'm fed up and bored, sick of OH having to run around after me, my house is a tip, and I'm just feeling a little bit sorry for myself today. Somebody slap me, please!

On the plus side, I have finished the front and back of my jumper, and one of the sleeves. I've started the second sleeve, and have the cowl neck still to do. I think I'll have finished by the end of the week

sandraroffey

reading on hear that people are saying the budget gave 1p off a litre of petrol. i thought it was 1p off the DUTY.

a financial bod on the tv next morning said that for every £30 you put in the tank, you will save just 27p.

with a windfall like that, just dont let it change your life!!!!!

and they kept the reduction of the winter fuel payment quiet as well.

meanmarie

I drive a 2002 Renault Clio 1.2l and would have something even smaller if I could manage....next time I buy... tax is €286pa and insurance about €350...road tax would be cheaper on same new car but am trying to see how long we can keep ours going....only outlay has been servicing, brakes and tyres in the almost 100k miles we have done since we bought it new. Like Renaults, have had one type or another for the last 37 years.

Marie