The Ultimate Incentive part 10. The only thing holding you back is you.

starnac

Dinah if you don't mind me coming in on travelling costs too. We live in a rural village and DH works in "the big city". Just before I had DS circumstances forced us to manage on only one car (DH wrote his off). When we weighed it all up it didn't make financial sense to replace the 2nd car. DH bought a push bike and on non-rainy days he cycles all the way to work (about 12-15miles I think) and on rainy days he cycles to the nearest town to the train station. Even buying a monthly train ticket we save over £110 a month from running his car.

May be worth looking into monthly passes for NIM?

Dinah93

We looked into a train season ticket when he started, as he used to do train or bike to his old work (about 18 miles each way), but its £457.40 a month to the new work, and takes 2hrs 49mins each way. This makes it 20p more a day than even his uneconomical car (obviously it'll be cheaper after insurance/tax), plus it takes an hour and a half longer (to get him 2 miles away from where he needs to be). He also has to change trains 3 times, I can't imagine it's going to be all that reliable given they're usually a few mins delayed and one of the changeovers is a 2min gap, and even leaving the house at 5:45 he wouldn't get to his actual office until after about 9:25am if all the trains are on time. The bike isn't an option for the new work as its 42 miles each way. To be honest I really can't see any option but a more economical car. None of his colleagues live anywhere near this far up to car share either, most of them live in the town itself, or in Leeds to the south.

We did discuss giving up my car, but it doesn't seem practical right now. For example this week Grace is at Hospital A 5 times. To get there we'd need to change bus in another town, it would take 1hr 24mins each way. She's also been at hospital B once, which necessitates a train, then a walk across the town centre to the bus depot, then a bus out to the hospital. Again this will take about an hour 45mins each way. I've also had an acupuncture appointment, which I couldn't get to by bus easily, its an 10 min drive along a dual carriageway, but it would be 2 bus changes again and take about 40 mins. Plus the GP which would have been the easiest of the lot in a way as its either a 8 min bus ride and a 15 mins walk, or a straight hours walk. Next week we're at Hospital C which is way up in Newcastle, two trains and a 40 min walk, so at least 2 hours and a half. But its all a huge amount of time out of your day when realistically we spend about £70-£90 on fuel for my car a month, I actually doubt we'd save anything on travel costs, it would only be freeing up the £3000 or so the car is worth.

Cinny91

Absolutely love that place Ruby You'll have a gorgeous wedding!!

How much would you get for selling both of your cars? I'm just trying to put myself in your shoes to think of a solution.. I'd probably sell both cars. Buy you a little granny mobile for getting Grace to the hospital. You can get them for around £500, like my Fredster. They run well, are cheap to maintain and they're reliable. Sure manual windows are a bother when you need to do the passenger one but short term pain, long term gain n'all. Then I'd use what was left to get NIM something with good MPG. Like a 206 1.4 diesel, I've heard they've got good MPG and as far as I'm aware they're fairly cheap. It just seems like atm whatever you get NIM will just be run into the ground with mileage, so if you get something on finance you won't just be paying over the odds but it just won't be worth what you're paying in the long run. Idk, I just feel like there's always more than one option and a car on finance just seems like a step backwards from what you're working towards. Plus this way whatever is left over you could use to pay down debt or put into an emergency pot.

Dinah93

NIMs is only worth about £500, if that, but he is dead set against having Grace and I in the older car, says he wants the most important things in his life to be safe (he has his romantic moments). I've offered to sell mine in the last week, but it's just a flat no. I do think I could get something not much older or the same age thats still safe, but it won't be a £500 car, it'll be about £2000 I'd think. Basically what we're probably looking at is putting in an extra £500 to get him a diesel. Although his dad is coming over soon, I think he's going to try to see if his dad wants to pitch in on buying him a car, since he got NIMs brother one at 18, but not NIM, so he has a chance of being owed a used car There's no chance on earth we'd get finance, we can easily rustle up £500-£1000 extra and just not pay as much off the debt that month. I feel like we have a lot more options now we're serious about debt clearance again, as money is really flowing once more.

Dinah93

It's a really wierd concept to me, to sell a car while it still works. In my family we always tend to buy a 3 year old car, and keep it for 8-12 years until its seriously near dead or actually dead before we sell it. Just wait, his car will end up going back to my dad or brother or something.

Dinah93

Don't know what to do, I sold a book on Amazon a couple of days ago, have emailed the buyer but no response. Their address has come through with @#~'s etc in it, it's near impossible to read, I can't send it without a real address, but they haven't replied to me. Email amazon next I guess.

Cinny91

We play pass the parcel with our cars too, when I sold Greg I got Freddie off my Mum who'd got it from a very dear family friend who no longer wanted it. I have moments of looking at cars with something extremely luxurious like ooh, a heater and think I could upgrade but I'll probably be with Fred until one of us dies. Probably me because I'm pretty confident he will survive an end of the world showdown.

What cars is it you have? I have it in my head NIM has your old alfa and you have a snazzy red car.. no idea where I've got this idea from if I'm wrong

That's the beauty of getting yourself back into the swing of things, when you know where your money is going there always seems to be more of it And you start counting to payday in a better way!

Dinah93

Lol no mine is silver. NIM has my old Alfa aye, it's a 52 plate Alfa Romeo 147. I have a 56 Kia Sportage. We got it after I got stuck in the snow on the moors twice in one week with my old job, but now I don't work there I don't need the 4x4. Although the 4x4 can be turned off, which I always have it set to off unless its snowy or icy as its cheaper to run it in 2 wheel drive. We considered swapping but mine is a bit less economical, and his has a horrendously heavy gearbox which I really struggle with.

Cinny91

Oh okay I'm not crazy, that's the car I was picturing but I have no idea why I thought it was red

Really trying to think over what to do, it's such a hard thing when it's an essential cost and there really is no altering it. Although I did see a man haggle petrol prices on extreme cheapskates before he filled up, maybe NIM could try that?! :rotfl: Might seem that putting money to one side for a new car in February might be the only trick to do if NIM's Dad can't help out.

Dinah93

£11.87 of items traded in on Zapper, just need to drop the box off at a collect+ shop in the next few days.

Now to find some bigger boxes for the Ziffit and Music Magpie trade ins.