Sashybo - Back Again

Bluegreen143

The thing is Sashy, if you hold onto it another 2-3 years it might need some money put into maintaining it. But the interest and depreciation you’ll pay with replacing it may ultimately cost you more. People often talk about older cars becoming money pits without properly comparing how expensive it is to actually replace them. 

If you have a year left on the finance and have just done work on it I’d personally keep it at least until the finance is gone. Ideally you want to work towards having enough of a break after the finance to save up for another car outright but that probably won’t happen this time… a good aim for the future though. 

I do feel your pain as we’ve had a bad time of it with cars in recent years too! 

Bluegreen143

PS, cake looks amazing, well done!

sashybo

Beanie, I’m just very suspicious of the council seeing the ULEZ/LEZ zones as a way of making money! I don’t think it will be imminent but within the next few years.

MF, cars are a money nightmare & I wish we didn’t need 2 as it costs us so much. The way our shifts work it just wouldn’t be practical to only have 1 car though.

Bluegreen, I know what you mean with it probably working out more expensive to replace but I also don’t want to keep throwing money at a car I know I need to replace. 🫤 The cam belt alone will be £600 odd. I was hoping to keep it until the loan is paid off but I’m worried about doing that now.

There’s no way on earth we will be able to save enough to buy without a loan. We are still mostly sticking to our budget, have stayed out of the overdraft and paid off 2 debts last year. We know our mortgage repayments are going to go up as our fixed rate ends in April so that’s another thing to worry about. Plus just the price of everything seems to be ridiculous.

It just seems to be one thing after another and ok it probably doesn’t help that I don’t want a worse car! It needs to be similar in size/make etc although newer for potential ULEZ purposes. 

In good money news we did pay an extra £100 off the car loan and an extra £75 off the lower CC with our most recent pay. We have also started putting £50 per pay into a savings account for DD’s 5th birthday party in October so she can have a full class soft play party like DS did. Also put £200 into the car account towards DH’s service & MOT in a few weeks.

The 0% BT on the lower CC ends in September so I’m hoping to get it paid off by then, although the main focus is on the car loan right now. Next car loan payment is in 10 days or so and will take the loan under £1k.

jwil

It's also worth remembering that if they were to introduce an ULEZ scheme there would be plenty of warning (probably years) and there might well be a scrappage scheme which would help.  

enthusiasticsaver

I feel your pain as I changed my car at the end of last year due to my old one not being ULEZ compliant and both my mum, brother, sister and daughter living in different cities with ULEZ. My closest city still doesn’t have it but no doubt soon. I would hold off until you know whether ULEZ is coming in your area especially as you have just paid out to get it through the mot. I would focus on paying off the existing car loan and getting your mortgage on to a new deal first. 

sashybo

Thanks guys, I think that ULEZ is a few years off here but pretty sure it will happen as we live in a big town. I have paid £20 survey money off the car loan today, once the next payment comes out the balance will be around £900. DH is going to get my car valued and that will give us a better idea of how big a loan we'd need for the kind of car we're looking at to replace it. It's not urgent to replace it but DH has a bee in his bonnet about it now, so we'll see how it goes. I don't need a big car but I want a decent one.

I wanted to get out for a run this morning but my ankle has been playing up a bit so I didn't want to do any damage. I'm going to try and get out tomorrow after the school run, I want to try another 5k and see if I can improve my time a bit. Still jeffing rather than running continuously but I'm happy with that for now.

Got a good amount of housework done yesterday - changed bed sheets, washed and dried them, did another couple of washes and got them hung up, got some put away. did the big cat litter clean and hoovered upstairs as well as the couches. Had to take DS to his swimming lesson as DH working late shift. DS was freezing in the pool again, we're trying to persuade him to swim without his swim top as think that's making it worse but he is very particular and hates change. When I suggested it he screamed noooooo at me and was having a meltdown. I got DH to speak to him about it this morning and he was a lot calmer with him, so fingers crossed he will try it next week. 

School have asked me to come into see them about getting DS extra support, meeting is set for next month. I think it will be to do with his reading as he's still struggling with it and guessing words. 

sashybo

Ended up having to take DD to the Drs as she was complaining about stinging pee and yes she had a urine infection. Got some antibiotics and she is much better and no longer waking up screaming. Luckily she was well enough to go to nursery as no temp or sickness, just stingy pee.

I managed another 5k yesterday morning and went down to one of the local parks, it was a bit icy so I had to be careful not to slip but it was sunny and a lovely morning actually. My time was a bit slower at 38 mins due to slowing down for the icy patches! I really enjoyed it and wasn't exhausted after it due to the jeffing, I even managed to run up quite a steep hill both ways. Probably won't get out again until Saturday or Sunday morning now as working lates Fri/Sat. Will aim for some strength training and yoga instead for the next couple of days.

Today has been fairly lazy and have mostly just done washings plus cleaned the bathrooms. DH cleaned the floors downstairs and sorted out breakfast and lunch. Will try and get some yoga done after picking the kids up from school.

sashybo

DD was fine until Saturday night and again woke up screaming about stinging pee. 😩 I was at work so my mum had to deal with her and get her calmed down but she was lying on the couch when I got home from work after 11pm. She went back up to bed quite happily after a cuddle and some paracetamol.

The Dr told us to only give DD her antiobiotic for 3 days so we still had most of the bottle left and just made the decision to give her some more. My mum said it could also be thrush, the Dr didn't physically examine her and the symptoms can be similar so I'll have to keep an eye on her.

Housework has been minimal since last week as I've been working and DH has started a training course at work so is Mon-Fri for a couple of weeks. Had to drop the kids off at my sister's one day then my mum's the next at the start of this week as I was working and DH at work. He then had to collect them on the way home, had a few fights getting the high back booster seats out of the car over the last couple of days. 😩 

I did another 5k jeffing on Sunday and it was around 36 mins but felt like a rotten run and I just felt really tired. I think it was because I was running in the afternoon, I much prefer to go out in the morning. We had taken the kids to the park in the morning and DD managed to fall flat on her face in the mud twice! Had to whack her jacket straight into the washing when we got home as she was filthy and she's torn another pair of leggings. She falls over so much and trashes her trousers, I just noticed the other day that she's scraped all the patent off the front of her boots as well 😢 probably from falling over again!

Managed to pay another £20 survey money off the car loan, will continue to pay anything I get through off it for now.

jwil

Well done on the car overpayment!

Hope DD is better soon.

sashybo

I'm still alive, just haven't been updating. 😂 I have only been getting out for a run about once a week for the last few weeks, so need to try and get back to at least twice a week. My last two runs have been in the rain and I've been totally soaked through, I don't really mind running in the rain luckily!

I still haven't managed to get my bedroom painted, time just keeps getting away from me but I know I need to make a plan and just do it. We saw some friends this weekend and realised it must be near enough a year since we last saw them, their girls were very good playing with DD and DS hung out with his dad and friend more.

DH & I also went out for lunch at the weekend as my mum watched the kids but yet again I got carried away and mixed my drinks. 🤢 I was so ill yesterday and only really feeling better now (after forcing myself out for another 5k run this morning). The drink mixing only happens when I go out with DH! I don't know how many times I've asked him to help me not to mix my drinks but he doesn't bother and seems to think I can drink as much as him. 🤷‍♀️ I'll just need to not listen to him and not have gin after beer then cocktails after that! What was I thinking, no wonder I was struggling yesterday.

DH cleaned my car inside and out and has taken pictures so hopefully we will get a good idea of what price we can expect from it. We're looking at taking another loan out for a new car and using the money from the old car to pay off other debts. The outgoings will remain pretty much the same apart from the car tax which will be £180 p/a rather than £20! Then we can concentrate on overpaying the higher interest loan.

Our fixed mortgage deal is finishing soon and it's looking like a £200 p/m increase in that payment, we're looking to fix for 2 years and hoping that rates will have dropped a bit by the next re-mortgage. Not ideal but luckily can be absorbed by DH's pay rise. Yet again we do need to try and get a grip on our food spend as it's higher than it should be really.