SF's road to mortgage freedom!

slowlyfading

AlexLK wrote: »

With that budget and the requirement it is to be a family car and not a classic I'd be looking at the following: Land Rover Discovery TD5, BMW 3 / 5 Series diesel saloon or touring (if you want something very economical on fuel, go for a 320d), Jaguar XJ6 (X350). All will be very comfortable, though the BMW more on the sporting side of comfortable and the LR the most "agricultural" and all will provide many years of motoring if properly maintained.

This is where we differ immensely as these are cars that make me go :eek::eek::eek: for the insurance and petrol consumption alone!

slowlyfading

greent - thanks for your input. A relatively small hatchback will do us just fine; we're not looking for a huge car, so far from it. I'll have a look at vauxhall - lots of people seem to recommend them!

atypicalblonde - thanks for your suggestions I'll have a look at the city mini now, as I've not heard of that. And I'm more than happy to get presents of nappies, as I've heard we'll go through quite a few...

slowlyfading

I've had a lovely, lazy day today currently watching a film in my pjs on the sofa and having a snuggle with one of our cats. Doesn't get much better than that

I have had a look at our various points cards, to see where we stand. I'm going to save them until just before the baby/during maternity leave to spend them. We have, so far:

• £40 morrisons vouchers
• £9.95 on Boots card
• £3.29 on nectar card
• 280 on costa points plus a £4 to spend
• 1,004 swagbucks - saving these for an amazon voucher

So not doing too badly! We're saving the morrions vouchers so that we can use them for a shop when we're on a reduced salary. Hoping to perhaps have about £100 in vouchers by the time baby arrives.



Not much else to report really

AlexLK

slowlyfading wrote: »

This is where we differ immensely as these are cars that make me go :eek::eek::eek: for the insurance and petrol consumption alone!

Not sure what you're used to paying in insurance but the LR will be about £200-250 from your local farmer's union office. The BMWs / Jaguar will be between £250-300 per year from a broker.

As for petrol consumption, the Landy is diesel and will do about 28mpg, the BMWs depend on the engine chosen but a 320d would do around 45-50mpg and the Jaguar would depend on whether it was a petrol or diesel model. The petrol would be around 25mpg and the diesel around 35mpg. Personally, I think it's worth transporting your family in comfort.

AlexLK

slowlyfading wrote: »

I've had a lovely, lazy day today currently watching a film in my pjs on the sofa and having a snuggle with one of our cats. Doesn't get much better than that

I have had a look at our various points cards, to see where we stand. I'm going to save them until just before the baby/during maternity leave to spend them. We have, so far:

• £40 morrisons vouchers
• £9.95 on Boots card
• £3.29 on nectar card
• 280 on costa points plus a £4 to spend
• 1,004 swagbucks - saving these for an amazon voucher

So not doing too badly! We're saving the morrions vouchers so that we can use them for a shop when we're on a reduced salary. Hoping to perhaps have about £100 in vouchers by the time baby arrives.



Not much else to report really

Your plan for the vouchers is an excellent idea. It can be quite difficult to live on a reduced income, though your first three months of maternity leave shouldn't be too bad? If you choose to take the rest, that's probably when it'll be the hardest. By the time my son was born, my wife and I had already been living on just her income for a while due to my personal problems, well we hadn't because I got into debt and my parents paid quite a few bills but it was still difficult.

We both took six months off from work / business activities when our son was born. My wife went back to work after six months for 3 1/2 days per week as I wasn't in the right state of mind to cope. Whilst there's probably not issues like that going on, you should consider whether both you and your husband are going to be working full time hours or not once the baby has arrived.

CathT

We have just changed our main car from a megane to a peugeot 207 sport. We are past the pram stage but the boot is pretty big. Big enough for us without being too big or expensive.

slowlyfading

CathT - I'll have a look at one of those in a minute, thanks for the suggestion

Well, we've done nothing today - exactly how I like Saturdays to be actually - I tell a lie - we went round to DH's parents where we had tea and cake this afternoon. Had a lovely slice of orange cake homemade as well! Nothing beats it really

Another NSD today, as we really haven't done a lot. We seem to have a lot of things planned in April so I don't know if I'll manage to meet my target (already?!) so we shall see. If I do, it'll be incredibly tight! But, things like seeing old friends and celebrating birthdays doesn't seem like a bad reason for not meeting the target.

22 weeks now and it seems like time is passing more slowly - I know I shouldn't wish the time away as we'll never have lazy weekends in the same way every again, but I just want to meet this little one already we've been away this week and bought a noah's ark print for the nursery, which is nice and bright. Should look good!

Oh, I forgot to include this in yesterday's list, but we've got £22 in our little £2 coin pot too every little helps, right? It'll all be saved and used during maternity leave, so the more organised I can be, the better

Nothing much else to report; happy Saturday everyone

ljaneyr

Hi SF

It sounds like you've had a relaxing and productive week

I love the way all the small savings and targets can add together to a more significant amount - it really is worth it

Janey x

QB_Wolf

We've had a CMax as our family car for the last few years, would recommend them.

slowlyfading

ljaneyr wrote: »

It sounds like you've had a relaxing and productive week

I love the way all the small savings and targets can add together to a more significant amount - it really is worth it

Little and often really does add up

QB_Wolf wrote: »

We've had a CMax as our family car for the last few years, would recommend them.

Will add that to the list to look at - thanks for the suggestion!